The Spider's Web, Britain's Second Empire

This is a very interesting film based on Nicholas Shaxson’s book Treasure Islands, which traces the rise of Britain’s offshore tax havens following the collapse of the British Empire after WWII. During the Empire days of course London was the financial capital of the world, but following it’s gradual collapse bankers had to look for new ventures.

One of the main expressions of that has been the setting up of secrecy jurisdictions in British dominions, like the Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Jersey and other outposts. These have special rules so that people and corporations can effectively hide their wealth from Governments, in turn increasing taxation of the ordinary person.

This has not only affected the wealthy countries, but also the elites in developing countries take their wealth out of those countries and into hidden assets, which remain under their control, but are not traceable back to them.

The interesting thing is how much cryptocurrencies are criticised for being susceptible to money laundering, tax evasion and terrorism financing, when the main people making these criticisms are deeply engaged in just those activities.

In fact blockchain technologies promise much more transparency, and a more level playing field than we have at present, where the rich are getting much richer, and the poor are actually subsidising their wealth.

This film by Michael Oswald was made for the astonishingly low budget of £4,000, but is exceptionally well researched and presented. It features interviews with Nicholas Shaxson, Ronen Palan. Alex Cobham, Prem Sikka, John Christensen and many more, and is illustrated by archival footage.

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