Until recently, Delaware was almost universally agreed to be the best place for companies to incorporate. Now, with Elon Musk leading a corporate stampede out of the First State, we revisit an episode from 2023 that asked if Delaware’s “franchise” is wildly corrupt, wildly efficient … or both?

 

• SOURCES:
  • John Cassara, retired Special Agent detailee to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism Finance and Financial Intelligence.
  • Doneene Damon, director with Richards, Layton, and Finger.
  • Travis Laster, Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
  • Dan Nielson, professor of government at the University of Texas.
  • Hal Weitzman, professor of behavioral science, editor-in-chief of Chicago Booth Review, and executive director for intellectual capital at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • “A Silicon Valley Giant Calls for a Delaware Exodus,” by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, and Danielle Kaye (New York Times, 2025).
  • "Financial Secrecy Index," by Tax Justice Network (2025).
  • "Annual Report Statistics," by Delaware Division of Corporations (2023).
  • What’s the Matter with Delaware? How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal — and How It Costs Us All, by Hal Weitzman (2022).
  • Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime, and Terrorism, by Michael G. Findley, Daniel L. Nielson, and J. C. Sharman (2014).
  • "The FATF Recommendations," by the Financial Action Task Force (2012).

 

• EXTRAS:
  • "Will the Democrats 'Make America Great Again'?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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