As Dot-Coms Go Bust in the U.S., Bermuda Hosts a Little Boomlet

[Ken Brown]

mean-green at hushmail.com posted:
> 
> As Dot-Coms Go Bust in the U.S.,
> Bermuda Hosts a Little Boomlet
> By MICHAEL ALLEN

[...]

> Plenty of dot-coms are asking themselves the same question these days. Undaunted
> by their industry's growing ranks of flameouts and hoping to emerge as one
> of the profitable few, dozens of them are popping up in tax havens around
> the world.

One of the interesting, and to my mind odd, things is that they
*aren't*  "popping up in tax havens around the world". They are popping
up in little islands that are formally or effectively under British
colonial rule, if not actually occupied by the British army. 

Britain has a good track record of supporting business in its little
island colonies & ex-colonies - most notably Hong Kong which at one time
had a GDP larger than that of the rest of China by some measures - but
does anyone seriously think that if businesses located in those places
were ever seen as a threat by the UK government/establishment/military,
or by their US handlers,  they wouldn't just move in and close them
down?  Even some of the ex-colonies rely on Britain  or (especially in
the the Caribbean) the USA for foreign aid and military protection (that
could be "protection" as in "protection racket") and their governments
aren't in a position to stand up to either the Mother Country or her
Bigger Brother.  And, on the whole, their ordinary citizens (never mind
resident aliens) don't even have the legal rights they would in Britain,
and nothing like those of the USA.

The very fact that such business are allowed to flourish is a Big Clue
that they aren't really causing the US or UK governments any hassle.
They are quite happy to have most people at home paying tax & a few
overseas not paying tax but doing business. But if they ever really
wanted to get an individual or a business, they would.

The sun still doesn't set on the British Empire (not while we have
Pitcairn!), London is still the heart of darkness, it is is still the
place where the money is (most of the money in the world, by orders of
magnitude, is in meaninglessly large dollar accounts in databases owned
by London banks, representing currency trades), and if you think you can
trust these guys to do anything other than act in the interests of their
own profits you are making a big mistake.

Ken