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The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World
Borders draw one map of the world, money draws another. A journalist’s riveting account exposes a parallel universe exempt from the laws of the land, and how the wealthy and powerful benefit from it.The map of the globe depicts the world we think we neatly delineated sovereign nations that bestow and restrict the rights of the citizens and entities within their borders. For wealthy individuals and corporations, however, borders are porous, and the globe is pockmarked with thousands of special zones that exist beyond any nation’s control, for their benefit. And for those at the opposite end of privilege, the map fails to prevent exploitation by foreign powers, or willfully creates cracks where refugees fleeing war and hardship can be captured and kept in stateless limbo indefinitely. In this fast-paced and fascinating narrative, Atossa Abrahamian explores this parallel universe. Starting in thirteenth-century Switzerland, where a confederation of poor cantons marketed the commodity they had – bodies, in the form of mercenaries – she stalks the legacy of statelessness around world, from an Emirati-owned port in Somalia to the new charter cities, semi-autonomous city-states in poor countries like Honduras that are controlled by foreign governments or multinational corporations, to Luxembourg, which wants to use its tiny perch to send capitalism into outer space via asteroid mining. Along the way, we meet the shadowy CEOs, visiionary statesmen, eccentric theorists, prize-winning economists, and alarming ideologues who are the masterminds of this parallel order. By mapping the hidden geography that increasingly determines who wins and who loses in the new global order - and how it might be otherwise - The Hidden Globe fascinates, enrages, and inspires.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 8, 2024
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February 14, 2025I liked this book a lot and I think it's worth reading for a number of reasons.
First, I want to address what this book isn't, because although it's about the same stuff as a lot of what I read at the moment, it comes at it from a very different angle, and that seems to be reflected in an element of confusion in a few of the other reviews I have seen for 'The Hidden Globe'.
This is not an academic thesis in the same way that 'Capital in the 21st Century' or 'The Divide' are. There are some statistics mentioned, and some mechanisms explained, but overall this is not designed to give a complete or scientific account of the dynamics of ultra-wealth in the world.
This is a work of journalism: this really is the story of Abrahamian trying to investigate and puzzle out on a fairly personal level what is going on with some of the social phenomena that she explores in the book. Read in that sense, this book is great, it touches on a good number of these wealth 'hacks', from special economic zones to freeports to offshore detention facilities, and I learned a good deal about each of these (and more). I was captivated by a lot of the stories Abrahamian tells, and if the purpose of a work like this is to inspire me to want to learn more to better understand this shady, upside-down world, then 'The Hidden Globe' is a success.
I also liked the expansive scope of this book, although I dare say it got a little out of hand because of just how expansive it is: by the end of the book we have moved on from exotic tax evasion and really are talking about how private interests today are practically more powerful than nation states in their own rights, and how this elusive power dynamic is so dangerous for society as well as the planet. Abrahamian does a great job of showing how this all builds on from itself; it is as a result of concessions like freeports that the power of private wealth can snowball and eventually get to a point where it is calling the shots on a terrifying level and effectively self-reproducing.
If you are looking to start understanding inequality or the dynamics of wealth today, I wouldn't start here, but rather with Piketty, Hickel, or Harrington (full disclosure, I haven't read Harrington's books yet, only some of her academic papers). However, if you have been there and are now looking for a more descriptive account of how this world works and how it permeates every facet of the modern world, I think this is a great and fairly indispensable read.
First, I want to address what this book isn't, because although it's about the same stuff as a lot of what I read at the moment, it comes at it from a very different angle, and that seems to be reflected in an element of confusion in a few of the other reviews I have seen for 'The Hidden Globe'.
This is not an academic thesis in the same way that 'Capital in the 21st Century' or 'The Divide' are. There are some statistics mentioned, and some mechanisms explained, but overall this is not designed to give a complete or scientific account of the dynamics of ultra-wealth in the world.
This is a work of journalism: this really is the story of Abrahamian trying to investigate and puzzle out on a fairly personal level what is going on with some of the social phenomena that she explores in the book. Read in that sense, this book is great, it touches on a good number of these wealth 'hacks', from special economic zones to freeports to offshore detention facilities, and I learned a good deal about each of these (and more). I was captivated by a lot of the stories Abrahamian tells, and if the purpose of a work like this is to inspire me to want to learn more to better understand this shady, upside-down world, then 'The Hidden Globe' is a success.
I also liked the expansive scope of this book, although I dare say it got a little out of hand because of just how expansive it is: by the end of the book we have moved on from exotic tax evasion and really are talking about how private interests today are practically more powerful than nation states in their own rights, and how this elusive power dynamic is so dangerous for society as well as the planet. Abrahamian does a great job of showing how this all builds on from itself; it is as a result of concessions like freeports that the power of private wealth can snowball and eventually get to a point where it is calling the shots on a terrifying level and effectively self-reproducing.
If you are looking to start understanding inequality or the dynamics of wealth today, I wouldn't start here, but rather with Piketty, Hickel, or Harrington (full disclosure, I haven't read Harrington's books yet, only some of her academic papers). However, if you have been there and are now looking for a more descriptive account of how this world works and how it permeates every facet of the modern world, I think this is a great and fairly indispensable read.
November 19, 2024
I was really interested in the subject of this book and I did make it about halfway through. But how can you rely on the accuracy of a book like this when it has no footnotes or reference sources listed? She has a loose sort of description at the end of people she talked to and some books or articles she may have read but that is not sufficient for a technical subject like this. It’s amazing that a legitimate publisher let this slide.
December 10, 2024
Super interesting book!! I agree with one of the other reviews on here that it’s sort of weird that there aren’t more concrete citations throughout the book, but the “Sources” section at the end feels complete enough. I did love the offhand revelation that the author herself had been a dues-paying member of Asgardia (to the tune of hundreds of euros a year)—it makes you realize that she, too, may have her own streak of libertarian weirdness. But overall I thought this was very well reported, even if I wish she had gone into legal specifics a little more.
March 28, 2025
3.5 stars
This book does a good job illuminating an issue but ultimately doesn’t really say anything about it, I feel.
Also yeah idk why she didn’t just do footnotes.
This book does a good job illuminating an issue but ultimately doesn’t really say anything about it, I feel.
Also yeah idk why she didn’t just do footnotes.
January 11, 2025
I started this one over Thanksgiving and had a few others from Libby checked out at the same time so I wasn't able to finish it in time and had to wait to re-check it out. I think I saw it on a list in The Economist and wasn't sure what the wealth hacks actually were.
Reading this reminded me of a Michael Lewis book, where the author researches and picks real world people/places/laws and visits and unpacks the history. She focuses on tax havens and loopholes (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Singapore, free trade zones like Shenzen, Dubai, vaults for famous paintings, special economic zones, etc.)
Through my line of work, I'm somewhat familiar with the existence of these but know nothing about the history, etc. I was not at all familiar with the court system in Dubai which is now used internationally and is pretty interesting. One of the more interesting chapters was also on the history of one particular ship and how over it's lifetimes it sails under different national flags (it was also very interesting to read about what incentives lead ships to choose their domiciles).
Overall an educational read. One item though that wasn't clear to me was her absolute conclusion on the existence of special economic zones or free trade zones in developing countries. To me she I think she was concluding these are a bad thing as the benefits accrue to few and cause further inequality as opposed to the rising tide of free(r) trade lifting millions out of poverty. She also makes implications of colonialism and capitalism in a negative light but her conclusion wasn't abundantly clear. Educational/informative read overall.
Reading this reminded me of a Michael Lewis book, where the author researches and picks real world people/places/laws and visits and unpacks the history. She focuses on tax havens and loopholes (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Singapore, free trade zones like Shenzen, Dubai, vaults for famous paintings, special economic zones, etc.)
Through my line of work, I'm somewhat familiar with the existence of these but know nothing about the history, etc. I was not at all familiar with the court system in Dubai which is now used internationally and is pretty interesting. One of the more interesting chapters was also on the history of one particular ship and how over it's lifetimes it sails under different national flags (it was also very interesting to read about what incentives lead ships to choose their domiciles).
Overall an educational read. One item though that wasn't clear to me was her absolute conclusion on the existence of special economic zones or free trade zones in developing countries. To me she I think she was concluding these are a bad thing as the benefits accrue to few and cause further inequality as opposed to the rising tide of free(r) trade lifting millions out of poverty. She also makes implications of colonialism and capitalism in a negative light but her conclusion wasn't abundantly clear. Educational/informative read overall.
June 11, 2025
“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.
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.
February 16, 2025
Honestly, I learned some things from this book but it was really scattershot. It took a murky and convoluted subject and failed to really clear up or explain very much at all. Most chapters seemed like book reports on other books. Others seemed like personal irrelevant travel logs. I feel that the subject could have been fascinating if only the book had been written by Michael Lewis.
April 1, 2025
While it was very interesting to learn some of the things the author touches upon (like Svalbard!), I just couldn't really get behind the lack of sources and the way the information is presented as if it most definitely is true.
January 8, 2025
Really enjoyed this and it’s bounty of information on the abstract world of legalities; a “society of loopholes” was my personal way of thinking about the here-nor-thereof which Atossa Araxis Abrahamian writes. She’s very good, excellent even when writing about Switzerland, but the latter half of the book was weaker than her chapters on Switzerland. There was a real sense of lived reportage, an abundance of information and insight into her stories there that felt vivid. By contrast, the chapter on Manus Island felt surface-level, like she was recounting what she learned from articles. I was disappointed in that section because I was interested in what she, the author and journalist, would say about it, but I didn’t come away with much else than what I could find on Wikipedia. Atossa Araxia Abrahamian gives somewhat of an explanation for this: she was halfway through this book when covid struck. Despite that, I love how she takes on the dark side of Switzerland, because it really is quite dark; something that is lost in the sentimental image of the von Trapps escaping the Nazis for the picturesque Swiss mountains.
November 23, 2024
Excellent but also 3 different angles that she stretches to bring together.
April 20, 2025
Really well-written book although at times it got somewhat abstract and was a little harder to understand. The 1st 3 chapters were about the hidden ways in which the rich move money and goods around the world into places without taxes; with laws that hide the names associated with the money, tax-free, tariff free. It's all very interesting but makes me think that the average person will never get ahead with the few super rich people (and obviously there's more than a few) who hoard money. There's so much money that they couldn't possibly even spend it all. But, then she gets into some of the abstract issues like how a place can be "declared" not to be part of a place in order to get around laws. It didn't seem as related to the wealth issue. Like immigrants taken to Guantanamo so the US doesn't have to treat them IAW our laws. Well worth the read.
April 29, 2025
I found the entire book interesting. I knew about free ports due to nefarious characters in Daniel Silva books hiding stolen art. but this then discussed those zones where products are assembled, migrants are imprisoned, and legal systems created. stuff everyone should know.
July 19, 2025
This book is like a light google search on each topic. It’s a primer, merely scratching the surface of how each “hack” affects the global economy. Think of it like in college: Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation for a paper, but its overview can help to pinpoint areas for deeper (and more reputable) research.
From that perspective, you can be brought along on the journey the author took around the world. I felt like I was touring with someone’s family member who told good stories rather than an expert guide. And rather than a dry lecture, this book was far more enjoyable to experience.
Accessible uncovering of the “hidden globe”…the average citizen of the world can gain insight into this particular convoluted and complex international ball of wax. If there’s one thing the author accomplished, it was to humanize the end points of the wealth economy: who benefits from these loopholes, who took advantage of lucrative opportunities to shelter wealth, and what some of these terms look like in practice.
From that perspective, you can be brought along on the journey the author took around the world. I felt like I was touring with someone’s family member who told good stories rather than an expert guide. And rather than a dry lecture, this book was far more enjoyable to experience.
Accessible uncovering of the “hidden globe”…the average citizen of the world can gain insight into this particular convoluted and complex international ball of wax. If there’s one thing the author accomplished, it was to humanize the end points of the wealth economy: who benefits from these loopholes, who took advantage of lucrative opportunities to shelter wealth, and what some of these terms look like in practice.
August 31, 2025
way outside of my usual wheelhouse, but an interesting read I was not expecting
February 6, 2025
Eye-opening on the discontents of capitalism …
On how the wealthy skirt and bend global laws and regulations by exploiting statelessness and the spaces outside of the nation-state via freeports, special economic zones, free trade zones, charter cities, ship-breaking, and off-shore prisons.
I found this quite fascinating and illuminating. I appreciated how Abrahamian draws upon fairly well-known examples. My only gripe, is that often it’s quite long-winded, yet surprisingly vague and can tilt a bit polemic. I deeply appreciated her framing these examples in the spaces of the borderless, I’ve never thought about the similarities between financial maneuverings and the disparities of human rights. Oh … capitalism …
On how the wealthy skirt and bend global laws and regulations by exploiting statelessness and the spaces outside of the nation-state via freeports, special economic zones, free trade zones, charter cities, ship-breaking, and off-shore prisons.
I found this quite fascinating and illuminating. I appreciated how Abrahamian draws upon fairly well-known examples. My only gripe, is that often it’s quite long-winded, yet surprisingly vague and can tilt a bit polemic. I deeply appreciated her framing these examples in the spaces of the borderless, I’ve never thought about the similarities between financial maneuverings and the disparities of human rights. Oh … capitalism …
August 3, 2025
3.5 stars. Interesting subject matter, even revealing at times. A fun non-fiction read.
August 5, 2025
The Hidden Globe digs into various politically and economically questionable places such as extraterritorial zones. The topic was interesting but in retrospect I would have gotten enough info from a long article rather than needing a whole book on the topic.
April 25, 2025
Love may not always find a way, but money will. Laws that cut into profits (human rights, taxes, minimum wage, safety, oversight) will eventually spur workarounds for the privileged and/or persistent few. Sometimes the workarounds are intentionally set up by the same country to benefit the rich, and sometimes other countries will see an opportunity and swoop in to rent out their sovereignty, identity, or jurisdiction to allow others to avoid issues in their countries of origin.
This is predictable and even understandable at times, but also unfortunate: many well-intentioned laws meant to protect, uplift, fund services, or decrease inequality turn out to be rather depressingly potemkin.
This is predictable and even understandable at times, but also unfortunate: many well-intentioned laws meant to protect, uplift, fund services, or decrease inequality turn out to be rather depressingly potemkin.
November 22, 2024
From special economic zones to diplomatic enclaves to offshore havens and prisons, from the seas to outer space, Abrahamian covers the hidden regions of the globe, many in person, and always in prose that is witty, informed, and intimate.
June 12, 2025
So informative and the concept for this book is so eclectic - so many different kind of extra-sovereign realms and even more ways they impact people.
“The concept of the loophole originated in the 17th century to describe the small vertical slits in a castle wall through which archers could fire without risking enemy exposure.”
“In French as in English, receleur and fence are double entendres that can refer either to a physical barrier or to a recipient of stolen goods. The fence is both the border and the banker, the moat and the middleman.”
“But [Oddný] Helgadóttir suggests that the government's preoccupation with narrowly defining what is strictly illegal ends up sanitizing what is only technically legal.”
“Like freeports, FTZs are a bridge between the nation and the world, a place that explodes the binary between nationalist politics and globalist economics.”
“It is reasonable to wonder how exactly a marginal European monarchy egged on by a vivacious socialist ended up convincing American entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of innovation that their Hamlet sized state could propel humanity and capitalism into deep space.”
“Sovereign equality creates a Monopoly board out of the world map. On the one hand marginalized or relatively powerless nation states will, as is their right, due what they can to collect rents. But the pressures to do so from their people but also from international agencies like the World Bank and the IMF run the risk of turning them into play things that capitalists can exploit for personal gain.”
“This was not because the system was broken, but because it worked. The flag was not a meaningful guarantor of rights, but a legal fiction behind which businesses from one country could claim to be from someplace else.” (flags on boats)
“Reflagging and cash practices convert something with a negative price to something with a positive price. Positive only because they don’t assume any of the environmental cost.”
“Geneva's full of such contradictions. Do conventions on war crimes absolve the city for its role in managing the wealth of war criminals? Do it summits on the environment undo the damage wrought by its resident oil traders? Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions.”
“Daniel Ghezelbash, himself The child of Iranian refugees in Australia, as a term for this overly literal bad faith use of territorial space: hyperlegalism. Hyperlegalism occurs when states exploit perceived gaps in the International System to get around agreements they willingly signed on to.”
“Karl Marx famously theorized about ‘the annihilation of space by time’, the tendency of capitalism to destroy spatial barriers to its expansion with inventions like the railroad or the telegraph. He would have felt Vindicated in Laos.”
“Zomia is a heterogeneous territory the size of Europe covering the highlands of Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia as well as four provinces in China.”
“...The Golden Triangle where the borders or Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet.” (SEZ)
“Sweden and Norway, until 1904 one nation.”
“Still the more money Longear poured into his creaky mines the more entitled he felt to political control and the more of his time he dedicated to ensuring that the company’s holdings would be protected.”
“It’s hard not to resent them in advance for ruining something so perfectly ruined.”
“The concept of the loophole originated in the 17th century to describe the small vertical slits in a castle wall through which archers could fire without risking enemy exposure.”
“In French as in English, receleur and fence are double entendres that can refer either to a physical barrier or to a recipient of stolen goods. The fence is both the border and the banker, the moat and the middleman.”
“But [Oddný] Helgadóttir suggests that the government's preoccupation with narrowly defining what is strictly illegal ends up sanitizing what is only technically legal.”
“Like freeports, FTZs are a bridge between the nation and the world, a place that explodes the binary between nationalist politics and globalist economics.”
“It is reasonable to wonder how exactly a marginal European monarchy egged on by a vivacious socialist ended up convincing American entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of innovation that their Hamlet sized state could propel humanity and capitalism into deep space.”
“Sovereign equality creates a Monopoly board out of the world map. On the one hand marginalized or relatively powerless nation states will, as is their right, due what they can to collect rents. But the pressures to do so from their people but also from international agencies like the World Bank and the IMF run the risk of turning them into play things that capitalists can exploit for personal gain.”
“This was not because the system was broken, but because it worked. The flag was not a meaningful guarantor of rights, but a legal fiction behind which businesses from one country could claim to be from someplace else.” (flags on boats)
“Reflagging and cash practices convert something with a negative price to something with a positive price. Positive only because they don’t assume any of the environmental cost.”
“Geneva's full of such contradictions. Do conventions on war crimes absolve the city for its role in managing the wealth of war criminals? Do it summits on the environment undo the damage wrought by its resident oil traders? Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions.”
“Daniel Ghezelbash, himself The child of Iranian refugees in Australia, as a term for this overly literal bad faith use of territorial space: hyperlegalism. Hyperlegalism occurs when states exploit perceived gaps in the International System to get around agreements they willingly signed on to.”
“Karl Marx famously theorized about ‘the annihilation of space by time’, the tendency of capitalism to destroy spatial barriers to its expansion with inventions like the railroad or the telegraph. He would have felt Vindicated in Laos.”
“Zomia is a heterogeneous territory the size of Europe covering the highlands of Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia as well as four provinces in China.”
“...The Golden Triangle where the borders or Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet.” (SEZ)
“Sweden and Norway, until 1904 one nation.”
“Still the more money Longear poured into his creaky mines the more entitled he felt to political control and the more of his time he dedicated to ensuring that the company’s holdings would be protected.”
“It’s hard not to resent them in advance for ruining something so perfectly ruined.”
February 16, 2025
Uma visita aos não-lugares, espaços de transiência onde a legalidade dos estados-nação é suspensa, com acordo dos mesmos, para permitir ações e atividades que violam as leis que regem os estados. Atossa Abrahamian leva-nos numa viagem pelos palcos obscuros da globalização, os espaços que sustentam o progresso do neoliberalismo, o crescente fosso de desigualdades, a acumulação exponencial de riqueza das oligarquias transnacionais, as injustiças que contornam as boas intenções expressas na gestão de imigração.
A viagem inicia-se em Genebra, e termina nas ilhas Spitzbergen. Passamos por várias zonas geográficas. Portos livres, zonas francas, cidades-tampão, territórios sobre-exlorados, campos de detenção de imigrantes, bandeiras de conveniência. Zonas que têm em comum o permitir ao capitalismo soltar-se dos grilhões das leis financeiras, laborais, sociais e ambientais para explorar e lucrar. Os espaços visitados e descritos por Abrahamian são variados. Incluem armazéns suíços de obras de arte, onde os milionários guardam os seus investimentos da pintura aos vinhos em zonas discretas, livres de impostos. As zonas francas onde prospera a manufatura a baixo custo para as marcas globais. Paraísos fiscais que permitem os mais mirabolantes esquemas de fuga legal aos impostos - legal, porque assentam em construções legislativas fundamentalmente corruptas mas aprovadas por estados. Zonas de escape de dinheiro, especialmente chinês, que se tornam de facto colónias incrustadas noutros estados. A complexidade das relações marítimas, essa teia de bandeiras de conveniencia e armadores que consegue ofuscar o comércio marítimo dentro de uma rede complexa que dificulta a ligação de um dado navio a um país, fugindo a todas as leis laborais e ambientais. Os espaços de asilo extra-nacionais, onde estados pagam a outros estados para depositar imigrantes fora do seu território.
O livro termina com uma visita a uma zona incongruente, onde a falta de domínio nacional tradicional não se traduz num espírito de liberdade ilegal. As ilhas Spitzbergen são nonimalmente parte da Noruega, mas o tratado que as rege abre um conceito diferente de soberania, onde as fronteiras entre estados não existem e qualquer um pode viver, dentro de um enquadramento próprio. Apesar desta conclusão diferente, a mensagem do livro é clara. Ao longo do século XX, o capitalismo investiu na construção de espaços de exceção que lhe permitem fugir, de forma legal, às leis e costumes dos estados. Os efeitos deste acumular de exceções são maus para todos, exceto para a minoria oligárquica e os seus sicofantes, que diretamente deles benificiam.
A viagem inicia-se em Genebra, e termina nas ilhas Spitzbergen. Passamos por várias zonas geográficas. Portos livres, zonas francas, cidades-tampão, territórios sobre-exlorados, campos de detenção de imigrantes, bandeiras de conveniência. Zonas que têm em comum o permitir ao capitalismo soltar-se dos grilhões das leis financeiras, laborais, sociais e ambientais para explorar e lucrar. Os espaços visitados e descritos por Abrahamian são variados. Incluem armazéns suíços de obras de arte, onde os milionários guardam os seus investimentos da pintura aos vinhos em zonas discretas, livres de impostos. As zonas francas onde prospera a manufatura a baixo custo para as marcas globais. Paraísos fiscais que permitem os mais mirabolantes esquemas de fuga legal aos impostos - legal, porque assentam em construções legislativas fundamentalmente corruptas mas aprovadas por estados. Zonas de escape de dinheiro, especialmente chinês, que se tornam de facto colónias incrustadas noutros estados. A complexidade das relações marítimas, essa teia de bandeiras de conveniencia e armadores que consegue ofuscar o comércio marítimo dentro de uma rede complexa que dificulta a ligação de um dado navio a um país, fugindo a todas as leis laborais e ambientais. Os espaços de asilo extra-nacionais, onde estados pagam a outros estados para depositar imigrantes fora do seu território.
O livro termina com uma visita a uma zona incongruente, onde a falta de domínio nacional tradicional não se traduz num espírito de liberdade ilegal. As ilhas Spitzbergen são nonimalmente parte da Noruega, mas o tratado que as rege abre um conceito diferente de soberania, onde as fronteiras entre estados não existem e qualquer um pode viver, dentro de um enquadramento próprio. Apesar desta conclusão diferente, a mensagem do livro é clara. Ao longo do século XX, o capitalismo investiu na construção de espaços de exceção que lhe permitem fugir, de forma legal, às leis e costumes dos estados. Os efeitos deste acumular de exceções são maus para todos, exceto para a minoria oligárquica e os seus sicofantes, que diretamente deles benificiam.
May 23, 2025
What a fascinating book! Going from Geneva to Svalbard (in the Arctic north) Abrahamian describes free zones, where businesses and money can freely grow with a minimum of restrictions. The title The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World tells you about the book. But it’s not simply that. I, for one, am not so interested in business and money but the author made this topic so intriguing. And as I realized from my book group members— it’s an important topic to explore and know about because we live in a highly capitalistic world. We are governed by money and business whether we like it or not and we need to know about it.
“Taken together these places are more than the sum of their parts. They can’t be entirely reduced to single policy decisions or individual people or clear ideologies. I don’t think they can be clearly written off as all good or all evil. Like the visible world of flesh and bone and blood, they just are what is.”
I’d like to meet Atossa Araxia Abrahamian. She seems like a fascinating person herself and has an incredible mind. She used to be editor for The Nation, a major leftist newspaper. She did some of the work for articles and then incorporated them in this book. I appreciate not only the research she did but the way she highlighted the free zones she visited with stories focused on the people, the surroundings and even her own way of finding out information.
The information and stories about free zones, a topic I knew nothing about before this book The Hidden Globe, are invaluable. But what do we do with this knowledge? And what about those who suffer from these free zones?
“Taken together these places are more than the sum of their parts. They can’t be entirely reduced to single policy decisions or individual people or clear ideologies. I don’t think they can be clearly written off as all good or all evil. Like the visible world of flesh and bone and blood, they just are what is.”
I’d like to meet Atossa Araxia Abrahamian. She seems like a fascinating person herself and has an incredible mind. She used to be editor for The Nation, a major leftist newspaper. She did some of the work for articles and then incorporated them in this book. I appreciate not only the research she did but the way she highlighted the free zones she visited with stories focused on the people, the surroundings and even her own way of finding out information.
The information and stories about free zones, a topic I knew nothing about before this book The Hidden Globe, are invaluable. But what do we do with this knowledge? And what about those who suffer from these free zones?
November 1, 2025
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian asks one to put the geography of nation states in the backseat, and let the ideas that consolidate nationalism and capitalism, and the freeflow of money and not people be in the driver's seat. She does this by weaving together the ideas of freeports, flags of convenience, offshore migration detention centers, special economic zones (SEZs), charter cities, Luxemburg's bid for management in space mining, Puerto Rico's capitalist loopholes, and Svalbard's open border status into a cohesive narrative based on their economic and political geography. I disliked how hard it was to get through this book. I had never read something that used such varied vocabulary within the scope of politics and economy; this required me to constantly have my phone by my side, ready to find the definitions of words. However, I am glad I read this book because it has helped to open my eyes to the sheer complexity of the world we live in. I particularly enjoyed how clearly she depicted the dehumanization caused by offshore migration detention centers. She mentioned Guantanamo Bay in Cuba which under U.S. authority held hundreds of Haitian migrants, some of which had valid reasons for U.S. asylum, but focused mostly on Australia's detention center in Manus, Papua New Guinea and its abject living conditions. I would recommend this book for people who want an introduction to our globalist world, but other books could serve better to go in depth into any of the topics mentioned. I rate this 4 out of 5 stars for its well used vocabulary, introductory status, and well made research.
June 26, 2025
The Hidden Globe promises a fascinating premise: that a parallel legal and financial world—offshore zones, special jurisdictions, and extraterritorial loopholes—has quietly reshaped how power and wealth operate across the globe. In her globe-spanning investigation, Abrahamian seeks to uncover the hidden infrastructure that allows elites to store art in tax-free freeports, register yachts under foreign flags, and build entire cities outside the grasp of national law.
To her credit, she writes with intelligence and curiosity. The early chapters—especially those exploring the strange legal status of Swiss mercenaries and the high-security vaults of Geneva—are compelling. Her section on the creation of the University of Svalbard, in a place with no natural citizens, feels like something out of a Cold War novel.
But somewhere around the halfway mark, the book lost me. Despite the richness of the topic, the storytelling begins to drag, and the parade of examples (from Dubai to Roatán to low-Earth orbit) starts to blur together. It becomes less a narrative than a catalog, and I found myself skimming, then ultimately stopping altogether. Perhaps it would’ve benefited from a tighter narrative arc—or more pointed conclusions about what should be done with all this information.
Still, The Hidden Globe does succeed in one important way: it makes you see the world differently. After reading even part of it, you’ll never look at a cruise ship, a diplomatic zone, or a warehouse in Luxembourg the same way again.
To her credit, she writes with intelligence and curiosity. The early chapters—especially those exploring the strange legal status of Swiss mercenaries and the high-security vaults of Geneva—are compelling. Her section on the creation of the University of Svalbard, in a place with no natural citizens, feels like something out of a Cold War novel.
But somewhere around the halfway mark, the book lost me. Despite the richness of the topic, the storytelling begins to drag, and the parade of examples (from Dubai to Roatán to low-Earth orbit) starts to blur together. It becomes less a narrative than a catalog, and I found myself skimming, then ultimately stopping altogether. Perhaps it would’ve benefited from a tighter narrative arc—or more pointed conclusions about what should be done with all this information.
Still, The Hidden Globe does succeed in one important way: it makes you see the world differently. After reading even part of it, you’ll never look at a cruise ship, a diplomatic zone, or a warehouse in Luxembourg the same way again.
September 8, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of topics explored in this book and deeply appreciated the effort Atossa invested in interviewing key figures who shaped the very systems that allow the wealthy to “hack” the world.
Another insight that stayed with me was the emphasis on trust. The book reminded me that the “law” and “concepts” are social constructs that can be reshaped according to an individual’s interest. For example, art is viewed as a “high value commodity” or freeports as a mechanism to “plant foreign ideas on domestic soil” or flags as a “method of avoiding higher tax.” The rich have the power to work outside the intended definition of a concept and two mechanisms that enable this, includes “commonality of interests” and trust.
For the wealthy to move their money around or invest their money in something, there must be faith in the bank, the country’s legal framework, or the structures of anonymity available to them. In their world, “less is more” — fewer regulations mean greater freedom and, ultimately, greater power.
In this capitalist world, money is perceived as security, freedom and power, and as we continue to live in this world with that perception, the rich will continue to accumulate wealth and leave the majority to bear the consequences of it.
My only critique of the book is the occasional use of overly cheesy lines or forced comparisons that didn’t fit the findings.
Another insight that stayed with me was the emphasis on trust. The book reminded me that the “law” and “concepts” are social constructs that can be reshaped according to an individual’s interest. For example, art is viewed as a “high value commodity” or freeports as a mechanism to “plant foreign ideas on domestic soil” or flags as a “method of avoiding higher tax.” The rich have the power to work outside the intended definition of a concept and two mechanisms that enable this, includes “commonality of interests” and trust.
For the wealthy to move their money around or invest their money in something, there must be faith in the bank, the country’s legal framework, or the structures of anonymity available to them. In their world, “less is more” — fewer regulations mean greater freedom and, ultimately, greater power.
In this capitalist world, money is perceived as security, freedom and power, and as we continue to live in this world with that perception, the rich will continue to accumulate wealth and leave the majority to bear the consequences of it.
My only critique of the book is the occasional use of overly cheesy lines or forced comparisons that didn’t fit the findings.
September 9, 2025
By far my favorite of this genre--which is, to be clear, not political economy. This should be put next to the journalistic accounts of the Panama Papers, or the British Empire, and so on, rather than next to Piketty and Milanovic. Hence the lack of footnotes, which I found a blessed relief. You may have noticed that newspaper articles don't have footnotes, because they are written by journalists. And really, really good journalists are the people cited in footnotes. Abrahamian is just such a journalist.
This is also the rare book written with a gimmick that actually makes its subject matter clear. The 'hidden globe' looks like it will just be a cute concept letting Abrahamian link together a few different long-form stories. Instead, it's genuinely illuminating. We start from the obvious stuff like off-shore banking, and before you know it, the same mechanisms used for off-shore banking are being used in space and under-water and on people.
This is more or less the best version of this book. Abrahamian did on the ground reporting; she did research; she spoke to experts; she spoke to actors in the story. Then, she pulls it altogether with an illuminating metaphor, writes about it all solidly, and structures the book ingeniously. You should come away thinking about democracy, the nation-state, individualism, and so on more deeply and more passionately.
Or, you could complain that it doesn't have footnotes.
This is also the rare book written with a gimmick that actually makes its subject matter clear. The 'hidden globe' looks like it will just be a cute concept letting Abrahamian link together a few different long-form stories. Instead, it's genuinely illuminating. We start from the obvious stuff like off-shore banking, and before you know it, the same mechanisms used for off-shore banking are being used in space and under-water and on people.
This is more or less the best version of this book. Abrahamian did on the ground reporting; she did research; she spoke to experts; she spoke to actors in the story. Then, she pulls it altogether with an illuminating metaphor, writes about it all solidly, and structures the book ingeniously. You should come away thinking about democracy, the nation-state, individualism, and so on more deeply and more passionately.
Or, you could complain that it doesn't have footnotes.
December 31, 2024
I assumed from the title that it was going to be mostly about tax havens. It wasn't. This book covers a variety of other devices used by rich people to avoid taxes and government regulation from freeports (that are rarely actual ports) to flags of convenience to using small countries to grab satellite slots. It's interesting, but was mostly not anything that I cared about. The businesses of parking art in tax free zones and registering derelict ships in small corrupt countries have been going on for so long that it's hard to get upset about, and thought it may involve hundreds of millions of dollars, that's such a drop in the bucket today in the universe of corruption that it was hard for me to get morally outraged over it. I suppose that for someone who is young, ambitious, eager to make money and not so concerned about moral niceties, this book might get you thinking about where to find a new loophole to use to build a fortune. Of course, that wasn't the author's intent, but I came away from this book thinking that it is more likely work as an inspiration for aspiring scammers than it is to lead to any kind of reform of international systems to reduce corruption.
March 31, 2025
The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World redefines how we perceive power, sovereignty, and the modern world. This book unveils the rise of extraterritorial zones that transcend the boundaries of nations, operating for the benefit of the wealthiest individuals and corporations.
It's a fascinating journey, weaving together history like the legacy of Swiss mercenaries—with our modern world including free trade zones, flags of convenience, offshore detention centers, and charter cities. What’s particularly striking is how these trends extend into space exploration, painting a stark picture of how wealth is shaping not only Earth but also our cosmic future.
The writing is thought-provoking, urging readers to question long-held beliefs about global governance and justice. It connects the dots between seemingly disparate phenomena to reveal a hidden network of privilege and autonomy. This isn’t just a critique; it’s an invitation to engage with one of the defining aspects of our era.
If you're interested in geopolitics, economics, or understanding the forces shaping our world, this book is a good read.
It's a fascinating journey, weaving together history like the legacy of Swiss mercenaries—with our modern world including free trade zones, flags of convenience, offshore detention centers, and charter cities. What’s particularly striking is how these trends extend into space exploration, painting a stark picture of how wealth is shaping not only Earth but also our cosmic future.
The writing is thought-provoking, urging readers to question long-held beliefs about global governance and justice. It connects the dots between seemingly disparate phenomena to reveal a hidden network of privilege and autonomy. This isn’t just a critique; it’s an invitation to engage with one of the defining aspects of our era.
If you're interested in geopolitics, economics, or understanding the forces shaping our world, this book is a good read.
July 14, 2025
An illuminating look at the world's legal gray zones, but lacking in clarity where it counts.
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian explores the “in-between places” where national laws are loosely applied or modified, often to the benefit of the ultra-wealthy. The book offers intriguing examples of jurisdictions and loopholes that function outside of traditional legal norms, shedding light on a global patchwork of legal and financial havens.
However, my biggest criticism is that the implications of these arrangements are often described in vague or abstract terms. While this might be an attempt to avoid overwhelming the lay reader with complexity, I would have preferred more concrete, detailed examples of exactly who benefits and how. Without that, the systems remain opaque.
In contrast, the narrative sometimes veers too far into character backstories and contextual asides. While these enrich the storytelling, they felt irrelevant from the perspective of someone trying to understand these systems.
A compelling premise, but one that left me wanting a more focused and incisive explanation of how the system actually works—and for whom.
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian explores the “in-between places” where national laws are loosely applied or modified, often to the benefit of the ultra-wealthy. The book offers intriguing examples of jurisdictions and loopholes that function outside of traditional legal norms, shedding light on a global patchwork of legal and financial havens.
However, my biggest criticism is that the implications of these arrangements are often described in vague or abstract terms. While this might be an attempt to avoid overwhelming the lay reader with complexity, I would have preferred more concrete, detailed examples of exactly who benefits and how. Without that, the systems remain opaque.
In contrast, the narrative sometimes veers too far into character backstories and contextual asides. While these enrich the storytelling, they felt irrelevant from the perspective of someone trying to understand these systems.
A compelling premise, but one that left me wanting a more focused and incisive explanation of how the system actually works—and for whom.
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