Status Updates From Capitalism: A Global History

Hiding wealth offshore became common, with tax havens in the mid-2010s harboring assets equal to almost 10 percent of the global GDP. It has been estimated that in some countries, including Britain, Spain, and France, the wealthiest 0.01 percent hold as much as 30 to 40 percent of their liquid assets in these havens.”

“For them and many other members of the 1 percent, assets were to be moved wherever they could escape the state's grasp: In Geneva's landlocked "free port," highly protected warchouses stored what was probably the world's greatest art collection-1.2 million pieces, including 1,000 Picassos—and allowed owners to trade or mortgage their art without triggering any estate or sales taxes.

“The story of capitalism is often made from its margins, not its centers.” Sven Beckert

“Capitalism is the only religion without taboos.”
Achille Mbembe

“These merchants lived by the logic of capital... Yet as they invested capital to gain more capital, something strange happened: Capital developed its own powers, including over its owners, a truly extraordinary development of sell-mystification in which a human-created social relationship seemed to move beyond human control, making ever more people act on its logic—a kind of rogue artificial intelligence.”