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posted by CoolHand on Monday October 15 2018, @05:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-rich-getting-richer dept.

Understanding 'Moneyland' — the offshore world of the super-rich

Many of the world's problems — from declining public services to corruption — can be explained in two words: offshore wealth. That's according to investigative journalist Oliver Bullough, who is working to unravel the intricate global web of money and power. To try and de-mystify the idea, Bullough came up with his own word: Moneyland. "I invented 'Moneyland' to try and get my own head around this problem, basically," he says.

[...] One of the greatest stumbling blocks in addressing the issues around offshore tax havens, Bullough says, is that the very term is relatively ambiguous and generally difficult to conceptualise. "'Offshore' isn't a place, it's not the British Virgin Islands or Hong Kong or whatever," he says. "'Offshore' just means not here; elsewhere. It's a legal construct that essentially means something can hide without being anywhere in particular."

To try and de-mystify the idea, Bullough came up with his own word: Moneyland. "I invented 'Moneyland' to try and get my own head around this problem, basically," he says. Moneyland — also the name of Bullough's book on the issue — makes up roughly 10 per cent of the world's wealth, he says. "If you look at its economy, it is the third biggest economy in the world after America and China, it's absolutely massive." Bullough declares London to be the likely capital of Moneyland, followed closely by New York. According to Oxfam, the top three-and-a-half dozen people in the world this year owns the same amount of stuff as the bottom 3.5 billion people in the world.

How far does the Gini curve have to bend before something snaps?


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Tuesday October 16 2018, @12:12AM (1 child)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday October 16 2018, @12:12AM (#749308) Journal

    Non-existent people don't matter.

    When those "non-existent" people hold much of the available wealth, and their greed prevents that wealth from working within the system, it turns out they do matter. A lot.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @04:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @04:09PM (#749570)

    Wealth is not as diversely owned as people think. You can have 99% of the money supply but not 99% of wealth. If they were to try to use all of that money at once it would cause inflation.

    The rich don't have as much wealth as you'd think. They just have more money.