PositiveThe New RepublicWhere Abrahamian pushes things forward—or backward, at least in terms of timing—is in tracing the world of offshored finance to its roots and taking us back to the country, and even the city, where it all began ... Some of the book’s sections feel shoehorned in: a chapter on immigration detention centers used, and abused, by Australian authorities draws on powerful reporting but has little bearing on, as the book’s subtitle promises, how “wealth hacks the world.” Still, other explorations—of how Singapore has transformed into a center for money laundering via the antiquities trade, or how U.S. authorities reinforce Puerto Rico’s colonial status via a series of tax loopholes that only benefit wealthy Americans—are newly revealing.
