Aktion	Zweigstelle	Standorte	Status	Frist	Vorbestellungen
Vorbestellen	Zweigstelle: 07., Urban-Loritz-Pl. 2a	Standorte: GW.S FS.E Kume / College 6c - Englisch / Regal 625	Status: Verfügbar	Frist:	Vorbestellungen: 0

What do a barracks for British troops in the Falklands War, a floating jail off the Bronx, and temporary housing for VW factory workers in Germany have in common? The Balder Scapa: a single barge that served all three roles. A ship with so many names, and so many fates, that to keep it in our sights—as the protagonist of this fascinating economic parable—Ian Kumekawa has no choice but to call it, simply, the Vessel.

 

Despite its sturdy steel structure, the Vessel is a figure as elusive and abstract as the offshore market it comes to embody: a world of island tax havens, exploited labor forces, free banking zones, Thatcherism, Reaganomics, and mass incarceration, where even the prisoners are held offshore. Whether caught in an international dispute or flying yet another foreign “flag of convenience” to mask its ownership, the barge is ever a container for forces much larger than even its hulking self.

 

Empty Vessel is a jaw-dropping microhistory that speaks volumes about the global economy. In following the Vessel, Kumekawa connects the dots of a neoliberal world order in the making, where regulation is for suckers and “Made in USA” feels almost quaint.

 

(Verlagstext)