CONFLICTED

The Rise of the Offshore World

Donnerstag, 20. August 2026 · 1 h 01

MP3

Shownotes

In this Conflicted Conversation, Ian Kumekawa (a fellow of Harvard University and a lecturer at MIT) talks about his book Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Ship (hachette.co.uk/titles/ian-kumekawa/empty-vesse…).

Ian explains:

• The offshore global economy: where loopholes, ships and responsibility slip beyond ordinary jurisdiction

• From Little Toot to rusting barges: how industrial capitalism lost its confident postwar world

• Sweden’s socialist shipyards, private tax dodges, and the strange birth of the Vessel

• Containerisation’s hidden cost: how global trade hollowed out Manhattan’s working waterfront

• The Falklands War, Thatcherism, and the private infrastructure behind imperial sovereignty

• New York’s floating prison: mass incarceration meets offshore legal ingenuity

• Wall Street goes offshore onshore: banks, deregulation and International Banking Facilities

• Neoliberalism, legality and injustice: when the modern economy makes the immoral lawful

Visit Ian’s website: www.iankumekawa.com

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

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