Shaxson was born in
Malawi and educated in Britain. He has lived at various times in India, Brazil, England, Lesotho, Spain, Angola, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Since 1993, he has written on global business and politics for
The Financial Times,
The Guardian,
the Economist Intelligence Unit,
Foreign Affairs,
The Nation,
American Interest, and others. Shaxson first began working for the
Tax Justice Network in 2006. His first book was
Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil. In 2011 he wrote
Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World. In 2018, he published
The Finance Curse: How global finance is making us all poorer. In 2021 he co-founded the Balanced Economy Project, Europe’s first general purpose anti-monopoly organisation since the 2000s. He left in 2024 to write a book on monopolies and market power. ==Awards and honours==