More obscure thoughts... If you've ever looked at the back of a large ocean going ship, you may have noticed that more often than not, the ship says either "Panama" or "Monrovia" on it. (those being the capitals of the Republic of Panama and Liberia respectively). The ship will also fly the flag of it's country of registry even though the crew and owner are probably not from there. Here's a list (there are other popular countries too, but you don't see them as much).

The reason is that it's legally advantageous to register your vessel in certain countries, even if it's owned elsewhere.

I can understand stable countries like Panama or the Bahamas as places of registry, but how can a country as messed up as Liberia make this happen? Is there actually a functional Liberian shipping bureaucracy? Or is it just a bunch of people in Switzerland with "Liberia" on the office door? (the Liberian pitch) Then again, if you really want to avoid taxes, perhaps an unstable registry is to your advantage...