by William Brittain-Catlin
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Product Description
An unknown realm to many investors, offshore finance allows giant corporations--such as Wal-Mart, British Petroleum, and Citigroup--to legally keep huge profits out of sight of regulators and the public. William Brittain-Catlin tells the story of how tax havens in the Caribbean and elsewhere have become central to global finance today. He takes us through the secret networks of Enron and Parmalat, behind international trade disputes, and into organized crime and terror. This book gives disquieting evidence that, as a result of offshore practices, the key value of capitalism and civilization alike--freedom--is being put in grave danger.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 WOW, 2008-08-24
My criteria for a book is simple. I want an interesting subject, I want good writing, and I dont want any wacko-eruptions where the author forgets to take his meds and strange things spill out.
That said, this book is a pretty good primer about how major corporations avoid paying taxes while getting the full benefits and protection of the American government.
I mean, if the current warlord of Lower Slobovia confiscates EXXON's oil wells there, will the Cayman Marines invade Lower Slobovia to get the oil back? Not likely. American Marines will. Marines paid for by middle-class taxpayers like you. The rich dont pay taxes, either; nor do they join the Marines. They go to Washington and make laws that enrich themselves and the multinational corporations who pay no taxes.
Excellent book on the subject!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 interesting but pretentious, 2008-06-18
There's interesting information here, about the role offshore tax havens play in our global economy; much of it is quite revealing, as we learn about the Cayman islands, and what corporations do in order to avoid paying taxes. The author gets pretentious, though (and nearly unreadable) when trying to put a philosophical spin on things... there is a long chapter on that which is simply indigestible, and the interpretations are so forced as to be laughable. If you can overlook that, though (just skip those parts) you'll get some interesting tidbits of information about the way corporations operate.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting but ultimately uninformed, 2007-11-05
This book would be a good intro to the world of offshore banking and tax-driven structuring, but for the fact that the author is both misinformed and grinding an axe. For instance, he seems to be deliberately conflating actual tax evasion and money laundering with structured finance, probably to make the book more sensational. It's a shame, because it's a world that most people don't understand and that merits a clear and fair explanation, and because there are very real ethical abuses that it faciliates that get lost in the sky-is-falling nonsense of this book.
If you are the kind of person who spends all your time railing about "The Corporations" and how we need to stop them, and doesn't understand the business section of the newspaper, then this book is a very small step in a rightish direction. If you're not, then don't bother, because it's a book for dumb people.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Some Good Information, but Too Long and Divergent, 2005-12-26
Brittain-Catlin begins by observing that the Cayman Islands are the 5th largest banking center in the world, with over $700 billion in assets.
These assets, however, are largely not physically held on the island - simply notations in accounting books for the purposes of reducing or eliminating taxes. Corporations taking advantage of this include GM, ExxonMobil, Ford, IBM, Wal-Mart, G.E. (reduced its 27% '99 tax rate to 16% in '03), Citigroup (saved $778 million in '03 taxes), Apple, Enron, Halliburton, Tyco, Global Crossing, Long Term Capital Management, Global Crossing, and Enron.
"Transfer-pricing" manipulation is the main tax-avoidance mechanism afforded by offshoring. This involves corporations maximizing overseas production profits in a non-taxable offshore subsidiary.
Unfortunately, Brittain-Catlin seeming dwells forever on his basic facts, and even spends considerable time exploring the philosophy of Kant. (I tried reading Kant long ago - Brittain-Catlin's version was no more interesting.)
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 A flawed gem, 2005-10-03
Offshore is a solid attempt to explain the fact that modern capitalism has become dependant upon the offshore, largely unregulated, international financial system. The cost of making tax-rate shopping a profit center in a corporation's strategic plan when revenues land back 'onshore' is paid by all of us. Essentially multi-nationals are competing to see who can pay the least tax. In the end, this behavior is to an economy what eating your seed corn is to farming. Brittain-Catlin is sounding an alarm hoping public policy makers and the public will heed.
The author's prose is sometimes purple and his discursions into tangental topics is somewhat distracting, but on the whole, the book is worth reading for the very approachable manner in which it explains the history of offshore banking and how it ties into subjects such as BCCI, terrorism finance, drug money laundering, the 'private' bail out of the hedge fund LTCM, the capital flight that hammered Indonesia and other developing nations, and the collapse or corruption of companies such as Eron, Tyco, and Global Crossing.
After reading this book, the business news achormen chattering about the 'mood' of international capital will begin to make some sense to you.
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