4 ms·

So like get a rogue country to finance a $200M private army to take over the island.

• nolok 8y ago
  And do what ? It's not like there is $23B in cash laying around for them to steal. Even if they went and stole the hardware server they wouldn't have the money. They would have more luck by taking Larry Page hostage (and no, it wouldn't work either).
• tareqak 8y ago
  Your comment reminded me of a thought I had not too long ago: what would stop a superpower like the United States from going around shaking down all the supposed tax havens? They wouldn't have to declare war outright, they could just impose a no-fly zone and put a navy cordon in international waters. In the cases of land-locked tax-havens in Europe, the superpower would need to negotiate with the tax havens of the bordering countries, so it's less feasible, but still possible. Edit: This would be specifically for individuals hiding their wealth abroad and declaring a lower than actual income, and not for corporations that publish their balance sheets.
  • fixermark 8y ago
    It would disrupt the delicate framework of trust that the top level of global economics flows upon, and ultimately, the US economy is a trust-based animal. The more interesting scenario would be a smaller government trying to embarrass or blackmail the US by doing something similar with THEIR military, and that's the stuff of James Bond movies. ;)
• fixermark 8y ago
  Now THAT'S what I call systems thinking. ;)