``One of the central messages of my book-and I explore the history of this in quite a lot of detail-is that tax havens have grown so fast in the era of globalization, since kind of the 1970s, that they have now become right-they are now right at the heart of the global economy and are absolutely huge. I mean, there are 10-anywhere between 10 and 20 trillion U.S. dollars sitting offshore at the moment. Half of world trade is processed in one way or another through tax havens. It's all around us, and it's absolutely huge.
Part of that-part of that message is that the biggest tax havens in the world are not so much these little islands, but big, rich countries. The United Kingdom, my country, is one of the world's most important tax havens. And right now in Washington, D.C., I'm sitting in one of the world's biggest tax havens, as well: the United States.'' Nicholas Shaxson
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/15/offshore_banking_and_tax_havens_have
One of the interesting themes Nicholas Shaxson indicates but doesn't develop much in the interview is the idea of financial sector international actors run the upper reaches of imperialism in the old imperialist countries. In other words there is an overt imperialism and colonization, and there is a covert imperialism run within the international banking system and financial system.
CG