Crack-Up Capitalism

What do a Dubai free zone, a Honduran charter city, a crypto-island, and a gated community in South Africa have in common? They're all experiments in what historian Quinn Slobodian calls crack-up capitalism — attempts by the ultra-wealthy to secede from the social contract and create private jurisdictions beyond the reach of democratic governments.

In this riveting work of global reporting and intellectual history, Slobodian travels the world to visit these zones where taxes vanish, labour laws don't apply, and sovereignty is for sale. He reveals how a radical libertarian movement — from Milton Friedman's disciples to Peter Thiel and his acolytes — has spent decades working to replace democracy with markets, and nations with economic zones.

A brilliant, unsettling map of a world being quietly carved up by the super-rich.