I don’t usually blog about books I don’t like but I thought I could save people some time – don’t bother with The Complete Guide to Offshore Money Havens. I was in the library looking at finance books (like the rest of the world) and I ran across it. As I had a two year old with me (hanging out in the library is an excellent thing to do with a two year old on a cold rainy Sunday) I couldn’t really peruse it well, but it had 3.5 stars on Amazon. I figured that meant the writing style was hard to read but the content might still be ok.
I spent half an hour on the book this evening and it was terrible. The main point I got? "Taxes are way too high, start a bank in the Bahamas, sell yourself insurance and get deposits from your friends." Granted I didn’t really read it but I read the first few pages and skimmed the rest and what I read was … biased, wrong, and lacking any background explanation. You’ve been warned.
Now if anybody knows of a good book that explains international banking and finance … I’m still looking.
well there’s no one book that will lay out everything accurately…
you’re probably better off auditing a berkeley or mit course and picking out the pieces that you want.
Why international finance anyway? If you know basic financing well the only added complication is the legal side and the currency side.
it also really depends if you’re looking for information from an investor’s standpoint, or from a more academic understanding …
I’m not necessarily looking for one book to cover it all. I’m looking for good books that each cover at least a piece well.
In this case, “Offshore banks” have a mysterious aura around them here in the States. I was just curious to learn more about what it really offshore banks really mean to an American investor and how they really work.
Hi Stormy.
I’ve not really read books about finances, but here’s a movie that presents the root problems very clearly:
http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279
After seeing this, it also became clear to me why future bubbles or system crises cannot be prevented by just regulatory means.
I have been reading the Daily Articles and the Economics Blog at the Mises Institute. I find the blog very informative on Austrian Economics (vs. Hamilton/Keynes) and the ongoing global financial crisis. The blog typically advertises books that it recommends (and sometimes publishes) including collections around a particular topic of interest. I am intending to buy and read “The Mystery of Banking” by Murray N. Rothbard to help answer the same question. I just haven’t gotten around to it.
This book is actually part of two large reading lists that I got off the Education tab of the Campaign for Liberty site (one of Ron Paul‘s initiatives). All of these are on my “To be read” list. I pretty much finished all the web-accessible entries on the Bailout.
– jss