Charli Carpenter at LGM has excerpted a report from the Monitoring Group on Somalia with some fascinating details on the piracy business model. As she says, it’s getting a little top heavy, with A and B shares, various investors and service providers and payoffs to local tribal bigwigs for anchoring rights. I can just see some Somali kid telling his mates that dad wants him to get a trade and join the family business, but he doesn’t want to become just another corporate suit.
Still, Francis Drake had to kick up half of what he took to Good Queen Bess even before he started handing the goodies out to his crew and there doesn’t seem to be anywhere near that level of rent seeking.
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