Originally published: London : Bodley Head, 2011.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

How colonialism left through the front door, and came back in through a side window -- 1.Welcome to Nowhere -- An introduction to offshore -- 2.Technically Abroad -- Taxing the Vestey brothers: squeezing rice pudding -- 3.The Profitable Shield of Neutrality -- Switzerland, Europe's ancient secrecy jurisdiction -- 4.The Opposite of Offshore -- John Maynard Keynes and the struggle against financial capital -- 5.Eurodollar: The Bigger Bang -- The Eurodollar markets, the banks and the great escape -- 6.Construction of a Spider's Web -- How Britain built a new overseas empire -- 7.The Fall of America -- How America learned to stop worrying and love offshore business -- 8.The Deep Drains of Development -- How tax havens harm poor countries -- 9.Ratchet -- The roots of crisis -- 10.Resistance -- In combat with the ideological warriors of offshore -- 11.The Life Offshore -- The human factor -- 12.Griffin -- The City of London Corporation.

"Dirty money, tax havens and the offshore system describe the ugliest and most secretive chapter in the history of global economic affairs. Tax havens have declared war on honest, law-abiding people around the world. Wealthy individuals hold over ten trillion dollars offshore. Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor. Britain and the United States are the world's two most important tax havens. Tax havens now lie at the very heart of the global economy. Over half of world trade, and most international lending, is processed through them. Tax havens have been instrumental in nearly every major economic event, in every big financial scandal, and in every financial crisis since the 1970s, including the latest global economic crisis. "Treasure Islands" show how this happens and reveal what the economics text books will not tell you."