Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World - Tapa blanda

* Dirty money, tax havens and the offshore system describe the ugliest and most secretive chapter in the history of global economic affairs.

* Tax havens have declared war on honest, law-abiding people around the world.

* Wealthy individuals hold over ten trillion dollars offshore.

* Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor.

* Britain and the United States are the world's two most important tax havens.

* Tax havens now lie at the very heart of the global economy. Over half of world trade, and most international lending, is processed through them.

* Tax havens have been instrumental in nearly every major economic event, in every big financial scandal, and in every financial crisis since the 1970s, including the latest global economic crisis. Treasure Islands will show how this happens and reveal what the economics text books will not tell you.

Dirty money, tax havens and the offshore system describe the ugliest and most secretive chapter in the history of global economic affairs. The World Bank has reported that the flow of dirty money across borders, out of developing countries and into rich ones, is up to ten times the amount of foreign aid that flows the other way.

Most people regard tax havens as being relevant only to celebrities, crooks and spivs, and mistakenly believe that the main offshore problems are money laundering and terrorist financing. These are only small parts of the whole picture. The offshore system has been (discreetly) responsible for the greatest ever shift of wealth from poor to rich. It also undermines our democracies by offering the wealthiest members of society escape routes from tax, financial regulation and other normal democratic controls.

The anti-globalisation movement tapped into an uneasiness, felt by millions, that something was rotten in the world economy. Treasure Islands brilliantly articulates the problem in a completely new way, and exposes the deep corruption that impacts on our daily lives.