Fans pick 100 books like Capital without Borders

I think Treasure Islands may well be the most influential book in tax justice.

Author Nick Shaxson, previously a journalist for the Financial Times and Reuters, became a key member of the Tax Justice Network and wrote this rollicking blockbuster. In a story that spans the globe, Shaxson captures the lurking malevolence of the men – and it is almost always men – who shaped our world so they could profit from selling opportunities for tax abuse and financial crime.

I loved this book because it is such an incredible example of brave journalism that exposes one of the biggest global financial scandals in history. The book outlines an intricate web of corruption involving a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. It draws connections between Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the United States of America.

I love how they tell the story of an awkward schoolboy who finds a way to make it in with some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities and some of the most reputable financial institutions, like Goldman Sachs. The book also shows who the “fall people” are, who bear all of the criminal risks while the mastermind, Jho Low, has not been caught. 

This is an obvious choice, but it’s obvious for a reason–it sets out clearly and rigorously the extent to which the super-rich across multiple different countries suck up an ever-increasing share of aggregate income and wealth.

There’s doubtless some satisfaction from being one of the small proportion of purchasers to get through all 700+ pages, but it’s actually quite readable and peppered with literary references to writers like Jane Austen and Honore Balzac.

Eva Joly is one of the great heroes of tax justice, one of my heroes, a campaigning judge who faced down death threats in order to break the extraordinary corruption case of France’s biggest oil company.

But here, she joins forces with the novelist Judith Perrignon to tell a story of corruption that is sharp, ironic, and intelligent, as it runs from Lagos to London, by way of Paris and St Petersburg.

How did the UK and its network of dependent territories emerge as the greatest global threat, in terms of tax abuse and financial secrecy? And just how much damage has this done to the country itself, never mind all those it has helped to cheat elsewhere?

If you’re interested in these questions, I can’t recommend any book more highly than that of investigative journalist Oliver Bullough. His answers are damning, and sharply comic. “We are now a nation of Jeeveses, snobbish enablers for rich halfwits of considerably less charm than Bertie Wooster. It doesn’t have to be that way.”

I found this book to be a raw act of bravery. Desmond Shum describes his and his ex-wife Whitney Duan’s economic ascendancy in China as they climbed to become part of a billionaire class. Shum describes all of the ways they had to play in the gray in order to successfully execute massive real estate and airport projects. On a personal level, he takes you inside his life as an elite, purchasing expensive homes, vehicles, and art. But just as quickly as they rose, his wife vanished as part of the party’s use of extralegal kidnappings to facilitate investigations into corruption.

This book is one man’s act of bravery in risking everything to tell his story while also implicating himself in corrupt activity. He shows us that charges of corruption must be understood through a political lens with the objective of consolidating power and preserving the legitimacy of the Communist… show more.

I loved this book because it takes you inside the exclusive world of the ultra-wealthy within the United States and shows how the richest are exploiting the natural environment in Teton County, Wyoming, to solve personal existential crises.

The author managed to get incredible access to prominent tech CEOs, Wall Street financiers, and other ultra-high-net-worth individuals who have moved to a place where they can profit from their environmental philanthropy while also contributing to ever-widening economic inequality by privatizing public goods. I thought this book provided a fair yet fascinating insight into the contradictions of philanthropy, which allow the rich to donate in ways that absolve themselves from the guilt of the inequality that they contribute to. 

This is one of my favorite new books that provides an on-the-ground investigation of the global market for citizenship. I learned a tremendous amount about the “market” for passports.

Surak provides a window into the states and brokers who sell them and the billionaire/multimillionaire elites who can afford to buy them. With an incredible six years of fieldwork and hundreds of interviews, she shows the scale of a full-blown industry where buyers, brokers, and sellers all profit from the citizenship trade. 

This is a unique way of saving money by engaging in some extra creative activities, and thereby earning money from them outside of your normal salary/income.

For instance, this is similar to an employee or business owner having their own side hustle. Extra ways to earn money are also covered, and when you have saved in $1K parcels; then that money goes towards the relevant goal you have set for yourself.

The author uses her $1K parcels to buy shares. 

This books takes the opposite approach to The Simple Path To Wealth; it covers a vast range of financial topics and historical figures while diving deep into the mathematics of a rational retirement plan. This book can be a challenging read at times, but it will make you smarter. Consider this a graduate school-level education in retirement.