Crack-up capitalism

Look at a map of the world and you’ll see a neat patchwork of nation-states. But this is not where power actually resides. From the 1990s onwards, globalization has shattered the map, leading to an explosion of new legal entities: tax havens, free ports, city-states, gated enclaves, and special economic zones. These new spaces are freed from ordinary forms of regulation, taxation and mutual obligation – and with them, ultracapitalists believe that it is possible to escape the bonds of democratic government and oversight altogether. Historian Quinn Slobodian follows the most notorious radical libertarians – from Milton Friedman to Peter Thiel – around the globe as they search for the perfect home for their free market fantasy.