The Hidden World of the global .01%

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World 2024

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian

“The hidden globe is a kind of transfiguration of this map, an accretion of cracks and concessions, suspensions and abstractions, carve-outs and free zones, and other places without nationality in the conventional sense, stretching from the ocean floor to outer space. The hidden globe is a mercenary world order in which the power to make and shape law is bought, sold, hacked, reshaped, deterritorialized, reterritorialized, transplanted, and reimagined. It is state power catapulted beyond a state’s borders. It is also a state’s selective abdication of certain powers within its remit: enclaves filled not by lawlessness but by different, weirder laws.” Atossa Abrahamian

I used to love geography. At one time, I memorized all 50 states and all 195 nations and could mostly point them out on a map. That world of colors, capitals, and borders seems so neat and orderly, and in a relatively peaceful world, made a lot of sense. But things have changed as I've grown older.

States are now feuding with each other, taking on a blue or red hue depending on how they vote, and becoming more of an identity than a geographical construct. Nations are even more complicated. When I was born, international travel wasn't that common, there was no internet, and long distance phone calls were prohibitively expensive.

All that has changed over the past 50 years, and the world is a more interconnected web than I could ever imagine. National identities don't mean as much in a world where money and commerce rule, and 90% of the world's population is fodder for capital growth. Today you can go online and converse with almost anyone, even if they speak a different language. You can do business with anyone, and hire people around the planet through such things as Amazon Mechanical Terk or Upwork. But if you want to build a nation around shared goals- forget about it. There's something more powerful than nations now- money.

Cryptocurrency has evolved into a shadowy global currency, many corporations are now considered multi-nationals, and millions of people are being displaced from their home countries by war, climate change, or drug gangs. The fragile equilibrium of the past century's nation-states seems to be falling apart, with only the billionaires safe from the consequences. How did this happen?

Atossa Abrahamian has written an eye-opening book, The Hidden Globe, about the hidden workings of countries large and small that are meant to hide assets, avoid regulations, and profit a select few while the rest of us carry on unaware.

She writes about where much of it all started, in Switzerland, and the city of Geneva, where she lived. While the rest of Europe got rich on exploiting colonialism, the Swiss perfected the art of banking- specifically secretive banking. Most of the money stored in Swiss banks belongs to people from other countries. While the Swiss were turning away Jewish refugees in World War II, they were laundering Nazi spoils of war and enabling munitions purchases. The most famous dictators and murders in the world- Amin, Marcos, Assad, Gaddafi, Bin Laden and more have been linked to Swiss bank accounts. So has the mafia and organized crime.

Because of its secrecy and lax laws, Switzerland became a haven for the world's wealthy. That distinction has now inspired other safe havens like Singapore, Dubai, Mauritius, and Luxembourg. Ireland and the Cayman Island have become a haven for multinational corporations because of low taxes, and the collection of income tax by any nation has become a game of whack a mole as companies shift nations to avoid taxes.

Most of us are blissfully unaware of where things come from and how they end up in our shopping carts. With a full-on tariff war going on as I write this, the state of international trade is very much up in the air. Here are a few things I learned from this book:

• Freeports, or free economic zones are all over the world in most major cities. These are special twilight zone warehouses and buildings where companies and individuals can park imported merchandise without paying any tariffs, duties, or taxes. As long as imported goods sit in these zones, they don't exist on paper. Only when they leave the zones can they be taxed or tariffed. But if they sit for years and then are exported again, it's like they never existed in the country at all.

• Export Processing Zones, or EPZ's go one step further. To encourage development, these specially designated zones promote exports by providing incentives like tax breaks, streamlined procedures, and sometimes even relaxed labor regulations. (In other words, companies in these zones can ignore environmental regulations and exploit workers, remaining immune from standards that affect others in the country in their country.) These zones can also be used to change countries on products that are being exported to obtain more favorable tariffs.

• Wealthy libertarians are trying to build ZEDEs (Zone for Employment and Economic Development) where they can create their own utopias that are immune from local laws. One such zone was started in Honduras called Prospera, and it has been met with mixed results, including a repeal of the Honduran law that created them.

• The tiny European country of Luxembourg has developed a space agency, even though they have no way to travel to space. They are just hoping to cash in on future endeavors by other nations.

• The oceans are a complex web of cruise ships and enormous tankers and cargo ships that operate under a variety of flags. While owned by wealthier countries, they fly the flags of smaller countries like Liberia, Panama, or the Bahamas that offer lax regulations and low taxes. This can result in crews being treated poorly while safety and environmental regulations are ignored.

The clothes that you are wearing right now, the food that you eat, and the thousands of spam email messages that you get every day- a lot of it comes from other countries. Sometimes they are identified with a label, often they are not. The world is so much more interconnected than it used to be. It's amazing that not much progress has been made on global problems like war, poverty, or climate.

A big part of the problem is how the wealthy have managed to hack the international system. Trillions of dollars are being siphoned off into worthless vanity projects by global oligarchs. Governments are no match for smart lawyers and corrupt leaders. Hopefully books like this will open enough eyes to elicit some real global actions.

The planet Earth doesn't belong to any of us- we're just renting it for a brief lifetime. We need to keep each other honest and preserve things for future generations.