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How a Libertarian Island Experiment Became an $11 Billion Nightmare - Big Take
Feb 18, 2025 The Big Take | Bloomberg Podcasts
Prospera is a city-state operated by a private company on the Honduran island of Roatan. It offers businesses single-digit tax rates and the ability to choose their own regulations. Its proponents have touted it as a poverty relief initiative for the country and as the most ambitious experiment in self-governance ever undertaken.
But that dream is now facing an existential crisis. A little more than a decade after Honduras changed its constitution to allow for places like Prospera, a new political party is in charge — and they’re looking to shut the whole thing down.
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg Industry Group’s Umar Farooq and Bloomberg’s Michael McDonald join host Sarah Holder to break down the $11 billion battle over the fate of a special economic zone in the Caribbean.
Prospera is a city-state operated by a private company on the Honduran island of Roatan. It offers businesses single-digit tax rates and the ability to choose their own regulations. Its proponents have touted it as a poverty relief initiative for the country and as the most ambitious experiment in self-governance ever undertaken.
But that dream is now facing an existential crisis. A little more than a decade after Honduras changed its constitution to allow for places like Prospera, a new political party is in charge — and they’re looking to shut the whole thing down.
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg Industry Group’s Umar Farooq and Bloomberg’s Michael McDonald join host Sarah Holder to break down the $11 billion battle over the fate of a special economic zone in the Caribbean.