How the “First State” has enabled international crime, sheltered tax dodgers, and diverted hard-earned dollars from the rest of us The legal home to over a million companies, Delaware has more registered businesses than residents. Why do virtually all of the biggest corporations in the United States register there? Why do so many small companies choose to set up in Delaware rather than their home states? Why do wealthy individuals form multiple layers of private companies in the state? This book reveals how a systematic enterprise lies behind the business-friendly corporate veneer, one that has kept the state afloat financially by diverting public funds away from some of the poorest people in the United States and supporting dictators and criminals across the world. Hal Weitzman shows how the de facto capital of corporate America has provided safe haven to money launderers, kleptocratic foreign rulers, and human traffickers, and facilitated tax dodging and money laundering by multinational companies and international gangsters. Revenues from Delaware's business-formation industry, known as the Franchise, account for two-fifths of the state’s budget and have helped to keep the tax burden on its residents among the lowest in the United States. Delaware derives enormous political clout from the Franchise, effectively writing the corporate code for the entire country—and because of its outsized influence on corporate America, the second smallest state in the United States also writes the rules for much of the world. What's the Matter with Delaware? shows how, in Joe Biden’s home state, the corporate laws get written behind closed doors, enabling the rich and powerful to do business in the shadows.

Examines the history of Delaware, from its first inhabitants and the arrival of European settlers to the effect of modern times on its business and government.

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of both the historical and the contemporary dimensions of the politics and government of the First State. Once a sparsely populated, agrarian, and relatively insignificant polity, Delaware has become a densely and diversely populated financial and legal center often called the corporation capital of the world. Delaware s prime location has been central to its development and transition from a goods-producing economy to a fast-growing, service-based economy. Despite its diminutive size, Delaware is, in many ways, the nation s preferred corporate home. William W. Boyer and Edward C. Ratledge provide an overview of Delaware s history, structure, and present politics and explain why one of the smallest states in the country is also one of the most powerful. Delaware continually promotes pro-business legislation, business and public objectives are entwined, and privatization is a dominant theme in public affairs. The state has an individualistic political order in which public participation is indirect and citizen activism is limited.

Since its founding in 1891, Delaware State University has proven to be an influential leader in the campaign for equal and quality higher education for students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds in the state of Delaware. Originally the State College for Colored Students, the school was established in response to the Second Morrill Land Grant Act, which required states to allow African Americans entrance into state colleges or to create separate schools for such students. Born in the age of segregation, this proud institution has weathered the storms of over a century and, with vision and persistence, transformed itself into a highly regarded, four-year university. Containing over two hundred black-and-white photographs, Delaware State University tells the remarkable story of a beloved college. The faces and deeds of faculty and students--from professional athlete John Taylor to Ambassador Jerome Holland, from Civil Rights activist Ethel Belton to jazz great Clifford Brown--are depicted in this volume, as well as historical events that came to bear on university life, such as the training of pilots through the Civilian Pilot Training Program and the desegregation that stemmed from the Civil Rights Movement. Reflecting the changing landscape of American society, Delaware State University continues to reinvent itself and endeavors, always, to instill in its students the truth that "Only the Educated are Free."