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In his newly published Empty Vessel, Harvard economic historian Ian Kumekawa tells the history of the global economy through a single barge: which throughout the 20th century served as a floating prison, military barracks, housing for migrant workers, serviced offshore oil rigs, and anything else the market demanded.

Ian Kumekawa joins us on WorldNow with Jim Falk to explore the making and offshoring of the modern global economy – from mass incarceration, tax havens, and fossil fuel extraction to military power and deregulation. We’ll also discuss what the story reveals about the global economy today and the administration’s increased use of offshore prisons, tariffs, and economic nationalism.