A compelling look at the history of offshore banking and its current applications. Revealing. Insightful. Candid.

Offshore Banking - When initially brought up, the concept probably elicits images of the Swiss Alps or the beach in the Caribbean, yet in today's global economy these fairytale-like images are not related to offshore banking at all. Behind the Offshore Veil reveals the long, prestigious history of private banking and its current applications. Serving as a detailed introduction into the complexities of the offshore world, Behind the Offshore Veil puts to rest the mainstream misconceptions over the legality of offshore banking.

Over the past two decades, the offshore market has experienced a significant increase in popularity as more individuals have begun to see the vast benefits associated with it. Now more than ever, the need to diversify offshore has become commonplace in furthering business interests while protecting personal wealth. The Banking Crisis of 2008 further affirms the need for business owners and professionals to exert greater control of their assets by bringing critical banking functions in house.

Written by two authors with a combined 30+ years in the international banking industry, Behind the Offshore Veil is a must read for individuals in the business, financial and entrepreneurial sectors; all who seek greater profit, privacy and diversification of their assets.

This volume brings together business, government and academic representatives from the United States, Pacific and Asian nations to address issues of regional economic cooperation in the Pacific Basin. The contributors focus particularly on cooperation in five areas: development, commodities, technology, human resources, and issues and directions. Their papers explore both the broad questions of cooperation in regional economic development and more practical concerns such as appropriate technology, political constraints, and foreign aid. Invaluable supplemental reading for courses in economic development and comparative economics, "Pacific Cooperation and Development" provides important new insights into the dynamics of economic development in an increasingly critical global market.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the nature and determinants of finance and trade and their relationship with Africa's competitiveness. Investment is examined in its various forms (financial vs. physical), and sources (private, public, domestic and FDI), as well as its relation to the size of domestic markets and export potential. The dimensions of trade related to financial development, trade costs, development of value chains and regional integration are also studied. The capacity of finance and investment to boost Africa's competitiveness is assessed to inform continent-wide economic policy.

Over the last decade, market-based incentives have become the regulatory tool of choice when trying to solve difficult environmental problems. Evidence of their dominance can be seen in recent proposals for addressing global warming (through an emissions trading scheme in the Kyoto Protocol) and for amending the Clean Air Act (to add a new emissions trading systems for smog precursors and mercury--the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" program). They are widely viewed as more efficient than traditional command and control regulation. This collection of essays takes a critical look at this question, and evaluates whether the promises of market-based regulation have been fulfilled.
Contributors put forth the ideas that few regulatory instruments are actually purely market-based, or purely prescriptive, and that both approaches can be systematically undermined by insufficiently careful design and by failures of monitoring and enforcement. All in all, the essays recommend future research that no longer pits one kind of approach against the other, but instead examines their interaction and compatibility. This book should appeal to academics in environmental economics and law, along with policymakers in government agencies and advocates in non-governmental organizations.

This study quantifies the relationships between the economies of the Unites States and Japan on an industrially disaggregated basis. It links two large-scale econometric models of the U.S. and Japan in the framework of the world model system (Project LINK). These models are useful not only for forecasts and aggregate policy studies, but also for detailed investigation of industrial changes and trade policy on sectoral output employment, trade balance, and inflation in both countries. The interactions with other parts of the world are also taken into account. Applications to policy changes and exchange rate variations illustrate the potential of the model system and provide a powerful insight into the operation of two closely integrated economies. A pioneering effort to link quantitatively the relationships between the economies of the United States and Japan, this volume will be of interest to economists and policymakers here and abroad.

Eleonora Poli analyses how ideas and material interests have come to determine the evolution of antitrust policies in the USA, EU, Japan and BRICS. She argues that three major economic crises together with market globalisation have changed governments' perceptions of market competition, giving rise to a neo-liberal global phase.

This Handbook adopts a traditional definition of the subject, and focuses primarily on the explanation of international transactions in goods, services, and assets, and on the main domestic effects of those transactions. The first volume deals with the "real side" of international economics. It is concerned with the explanation of trade and factor flows, with their main effects on goods and factor prices, on the allocation of resources and income distribution and on economic welfare, and also with the effects on national policies designed explicitly to influence trade and factor flows. In other words, it deals chiefly with microeconomic issues and methods. The second volume deals with the "monetary side" of the subject. It is concerned with the balance of payments adjustment process under fixed exchange rates, with exchange rate determination under flexible exchange rates, and with the domestic ramifications of these phenomena. Accordingly, it deals mainly with macroeconomic issues, although microeconomic methods are frequently utilized, especially in work on expectations, asset markets, and exchange rate behavior. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http: //www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes

The Mexican expropriation of British and American properties in March 1938 marked the first time any oil-producing country successfully stood up to foreign companies who claimed to own oil properties in that country and who had the support of their respective governments. Totally reliant on overseas oil at a time when war seemed imminent, British officials responsible for policy toward Mexico immediately emphasized the importance of preventing other oil-exporting nations from following Mexico's lead. Washington also sought to make an example of Mexico--one that would guarantee respect for U.S. businesses operating abroad.

Although both Washington and London wanted to return to the pre-expropriation status quo, Washington was unwilling to work with London to achieve this goal, and Washington's attitude paralleled its reaction to British efforts to get U.S. support on certain defense issues during this critical period. The resulting Anglo-American strife over how to handle Mexico was also consistent with Anglo-American commercial competition and the oil rivalry in Mexico early in the century.

This encompassing study traces the issues of international cartels from the early days of World War II through the occupation of Germany and Japan. It focuses attention on the Justice Department's Economic Warfare Section as it utilized its resources in uncovering economic and strategic information that could be used in the war effort, such as the selection of economic bottlenecks for bombing. Maddox examines how cartels such as I. G. Farben, Carl Zeiss, the Steel Cartel and others worked to harm U.S. strategic interests, and he details how cartel agreements allowed the Japanese to acquire critical technologies and strategic materials. Using newly released Justice Department records, this thorough investigation of decartelization captures the debate over implementation of the policy issues.

These exposures by both the Justice Department and the Kilgore Committee ultimately helped stimulate debate over the economic treatment of enemy nations in the postwar period. Despite an Allied decision in Potsdam to apply decartelization and deconcentration policies to Germany and Japan, the decartelization policy ran into difficulty in Germany with blatant attempts by the American Military Government to subvert it. Events in Japan followed a similar path. After first taking on the zaibatsu and other cartel-like business practices, policy would be reversed.

Economics, Dominique reminds us, is a social science, with prescriptions that are statistical in character but inherently polemical. In contrast to the laws of the natural sciences, economic statements, meaningful as well as meaningless, can be transformed into a vehicle for the promotion of false consciousness, as when the polemical prescriptions of social sciences are used to promote unavowed interests. The axiomatization of economics in the early 1950s, though well-intended, has produced two negative consequences: the equation of science and mathematical formalism by some, and a total lack of concern for experimentation on the part of others. These translate into excessive abstraction, empirical irrelevance, and a total lack of social purpose.

Dominique argues that excessive abstraction is causing economics to gradually lose its social usefulness. This state of affairs has, in turn, led the general public to accept at face value the prescriptions of an untested orthodoxy, such as unfettered globalization, as genuinely scientific. In the era of unfettered globalization, the top 20 percent of the world's income earners have become richer while the bottom 80 percent have become impoverished and environmental degradation has gone unabated. Dominique argues that, according to the scientific theory of economics, the top quintile must pay the costs and the bottom four quintiles ought not bear alone the brunt of globalization. To reverse this outcome, the bottom 80 percent must become pro-active in economic policy formulation. A challenge to contemporary development and economic policy that will be of interest to economists, public policy makers, the international business community, and social activists.

The author examines the rise of the BRICs and the supposed decline of the United States. Focusing on the boom years from 1992 to 2007, and the crisis years after 2008, he argues that there are limits to the rise of the former and that the extent of US decline has been greatly exaggerated.

Multinationality, or the degree of internationalization, has favorable financial results and implications. Highly valued by the market as a hidden asset, multinationality is related to earnings management, systematic risk, capital structure, and growth opportunities as measured by the investment opportunity set. Riahi-Belkaoui examines the performance results of a multinational strategy and concludes that multinationality can be quantified and does play a significant role in keeping a firm healthy and growing. His book is a far-reaching examination of the data and a persuasive argument for why firms should make multinationality a critical part of their overall business strategy.

Riahi-Belkaoui presents research results supporting multinationality. He confirms that the market reacts more favorably the larger (smaller) cash flows are (accruals), and he shows that the preference of cash flows over accruals will increase under conditions of high multinationality and high reputation. He argues that the level of multinationality affects net income and net worth and thereby, political costs and risk. Analyzing the association between multinationality and systematic risk as measured by the market model beta, he finds that systematic risk is positively related to the level of multinationality after controlling for corporate reputation and other factors. He examines the role of multinationality and profitability as determinants of the investment opportunity set and considers whether a firM's investment opportunity is associated with corporate financing. Finally, he investigates whether disclosure policy, level of economic risk, and the nature of the alignment of financial and tax accounting explain differences in financial analysts' forecast error internationally. The book concludes with a model of the determinants of the investment opportunity set of multinational firms.

William G. Martin's Semiperipheral States in the World-Economy diverges sharply from past international labor division interpretations of semiperipheral development. Martin emphasizes the importance of each country's individual conditions. Linking each example, however, is the theory that there is a relatively rare set of conditions that make economic, political, and social advancement of the semiperipheral states successful or even possible. Martin and the contributing writers present the thesis that mobility of semiperipheral states to the core world-economy is a very rare phenomenon. Indeed, they even go so far as to suggest that it is the very set of social and institutional ruptures that were necessary to achieve semiperipheral status which often create the social and political forces that prevent any further advance. Economic pressure from core nations and intense competition within the semiperiphery are cited as being foremost among these factors. Such general topics occupy the first few chapters of the book, while the later chapters examine specific semiperipheral countries in depth. The final interpretation provides a better understanding of this segment of the world-economy and of the transformational possibilities of the capitalist world itself. Students of both world-economy and the social and political conditions of the semiperiphery will find this an invaluable study.

With a new introduction on the Ukraine crisis LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 A DAILY MAIL BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOK OF 2022 A DAILY MIRROR BEST NON-FICTION BOOK OF 2022 A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 PRESENTER OF THE BBC RADIO 4 SERIES 'HOW TO STEAL A TRILLION' A WATERSTONES BEST POLITICS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 AN IRISH TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 How did Britain become the servant of the world's most powerful and corrupt men? From accepting multi-million pound tips from Russian oligarchs, to the offshore tax havens, meet Butler Britain... In his Sunday Times-bestselling expose, Oliver Bullough reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. Though the UK prides itself on values of fair play and the rule of law, few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts. From the murky origins of tax havens and gambling centres in the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar to the influence of oligarchs in the British establishment, Butler to the World is the story of how we became a nation of Jeeveses - and how it doesn't have to be this way.

This uniquely interdisciplinary volume analyzes the challenges posed by the heterogeneity of the world where radically different players are crammed into increasingly limited political, commercial, social, and ecological space. The rapid rise of Communist Party-ruled China is posing serious challenges to the postwar politico-economic architecture dominated by the United States. Russia, once expected to become a partner of the liberal Western international order, has started behaving in an increasingly unilateral fashion. The developing world is more characterized by failed governance rather than convergence to liberal democracies as was hoped by many Western authors. Given links provided by low-cost carriers, the Internet, and trade and investment, we simply cannot shield ourselves from influences, whether benign or malign, from neighbors on this planet.The authors, including political scientists, economists, social physicists, and experts on complexity theory and informatics, examine how interactions among actors with different properties can cause problems, and they analyze risks resulting from the interactions. While employing a variety of approaches to address topics such as economic interdependence among democracies and authoritarian states, the development assistance regimes, internal conflicts in developing countries, and cyber security, the whole volume presents a clear overview of challenges and risks the world is facing. This work makes a valuable contribution to students of social sciences as well as to practitioners interested in the emerging global order.

Entrepreneurs, technical experts, professionals, international students, writers, and artists are among the most highly mobile people in the global economy today. These talented elite often originate from developing countries and migrate to industrial economies. Many return home with new ideas, experiences, and capital useful for national development, whilst others remain to produce quality goods and services that are useful everywhere in the global economy.
The economic potential of globalization is ultimately dependent on the international mobility of highly talented individuals that transfer knowledge, new technologies, ideas, business capacities, and other creative capabilities. Developing countries and advanced economies may both gain from this mobility if it is effectively and smartly managed. This volume, with original contributions from outstanding international experts in the subject, provides a novel analysis of the main determinants and development impact of talent mobility in the global economy.

This volume deals with the role and impact of technology on the economy and society. The papers on corporate dimensions address the impact of patents, determinants of innovative activities, differential behaviour of multinationals, industrial groups and other firms with regard to innovations and technology. In contrast, the papers on social dimensions chiefly deal with the role of technology in reducing inequality. The majority of the papers employ econometric techniques and other statistical methods, and many are based on primary data. The studies emphasise the importance of innovations (especially patents) and human capital in influencing productivity across Indian states, the significance of patenting in determining the efficiency of firms, the role of business groups in promoting innovations, differences in the technological characteristics of multinational and domestic firms, and how mergers and acquisitions can promote R&D. The papers on social dimensions analyse how innovative activities can shape employment, the impact of technology on poverty, the socioeconomic characteristics of mobile phone ownerships, use of information and communications technologies at educational institutions, and the influence of Synchronous Technologies in reducing access to teaching programmes. The studies show that those Indian states that have invested in human capital and technology experienced higher labour productivity. Further, the studies establish a positive correlation between R&D spending and employment. Lastly, they demonstrate that the adoption of agriculture-related technologies can have a significant impact on rural poverty and consumption expenditures.

Development Corruption in South Africa examines governance matters with a focus on corruption. This rich empirical body on governance variables and governance performance is a welcome addition to South African government literature.

A former Senior Deputy Secretary of Information in Pretoria shows how U.S. economic and trade sanctions against South Africa brought about radical political change there. This insider history describes how commercial, cultural, and diplomatic punitive measures over almost 40 years transformed the social and political system of the nation and brought about the demise of apartheid policies and the elections of 1994. This lively, timely, and thought-providing account, easy-to-read and well-written, will interest students, teachers, and general readers concerned with international affairs, global economic relations, and world history.

As a participant in the events in South Africa, de Villiers uses a wide range of primary and secondary sources and oral testimony in his critical examination of the efforts of various anti-apartheid and prosanctions groups and shows how devastating formal and informal measures can be. He provides a perspective also for understanding the new bilateral relationship between South Africa and the United States today and the effectiveness of sanctions as a foreign policy tool. This lively, timely, and thought-providing account, easy-to-read and well-written, will interest students, teachers, public policymakers, businessmen, and general readers concerned with international affairs, global economic relations, and world history.

With real case stories, Wells and Ahmed bring to life both the hopes for and the failures of international guarantees of property rights for investors in the developing world. Their cases focus on infrastructure projects, but the lessons apply equally to many other investments. In the 1990's inexperienced firms from rich countries jumped directly into huge projects in some of the world's least developed countries. Their investments reflected almost unbridled enthusiasm for emerging markets and trust in new international guarantees. Yet within a few years the business pages of the world press were reporting an exploding number of serious disputes between foreign investors and governments. As the expected bonanzas proved elusive and the protections weaker than anticipated, many foreign investors became disenchanted with emerging markets. So bad were the outcomes in some cases that a few notable infrastructure firms came close to bankruptcy; several others hurriedly fled poor countries as projects soured.
In this book, Louis Wells and Rafiq Ahmed show why disputes developed, point out how investments and disputes have changed over time, explore why various firms responded differently to crises, and question the basic wisdom of some of the enthusiasm for privatization. The authors tell how firms, countries, and multilateral development organizations can build a conflict-management system that balances the legitimate economic and social concerns of the host countries and those of investors. Without these changes, multinational corporations will lose profitable opportunities and poor countries will not gain the contributions that foreign investment can make toward alleviating poverty.

Combining impartial analysis with reliable facts and figures, this fully revised and updated 24th edition provides up-to-date commentary on these vast North American nations. General Survey Essays by leading experts analyse topics of regional importance, including: - US-Canadian integration, US foreign policy in the Arctic region, and the COVID-19 pandemic in North America. Country Surveys Each country is dealt with in greater detail within its own section. Country chapters include: - a chronology of political events - essays covering key socio-political and economic themes, including: recent political developments; foreign policy; constitution; the economy; energy policy; agriculture; trade; health and social policy - additional essays examining timely subjects such as religion in US politics and the US Judicial system - historical, political and economic surveys of each of the US states and Canadian provinces and territories - statistical surveys of economic and demographic indicators - comprehensive directory sections covering public affairs, the economy and society, which provide contact details and other useful information for the most significant institutions in the region.

As the way work is done changes and as organizations flatten themselves down in response to demands posed by the new global economy, managers on the front lines, where some say the real work is done, need a broader set of skills than ever before. They must learn to see their jobs differently--to become tougher and more durable--but they must also become more flexible in how they interact with the organization itself and its changing work and economic environments. The authors emphasize key tasks that front-line managers must do today, such as strategic planning, budgeting, quality management, and benchmarking, and how they must focus attention on their customers, until now far removed and perhaps out of mind. They must also recognize the need for effective information systems and find ways to align their immediate work units with larger organizational strategies and processes. In short, the authors offer essentially a new paradigm for the way management should now be practiced in a far-ranging book that today's managers will need to keep pace with changes that could threaten their careers, and a book that offers others on the way up a way to start their own careers on the right foot.

Becoming an effective front-line manager starts with understanding the job. The authors begin with a comprehensive look at what it means to be a front-line manager and the special challenges they face. They must become all things to all people, say the authors, and at the same time consider other, perhaps unfamiliar challenges, such as safety and health concerns. Front-line managers today must also learn to grow and adapt to changing work environments. The authors present an extensive view of these new tasks and roles and detail the ways in which front-line managers can address and overcome the obstacles they will find. The book is a readable, thought-provoking study of special interest to teachers of general management courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels.

This book is devoted to the analysis of the three main financial crises that have marked this century: 2001 Argentina's defaulting on its external debt, the American subprime crisis in 2008, and the current European debt crisis in Europe. The book pursues three major objectives: firstly, to accurately portray these three financial crises; secondly, to analyze what went wrong with mainstream economic theory, which was unable to foresee these types of economic turmoil; and thirdly, to review macroeconomic theory, re-evaluating Keynes' original contribution to economic analysis and pointing out the need to rebuild macroeconomics with a view to studying economic illness rather than trying to prove the non-existence of economic problems.