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Last week I spent time watching some videos in a new YouTube channel that I subscribed to, called FATCAForum and reading thru a website called RepealFATCA.com. It was moving seeing first-hand accounts of how this law is impacting regular people. There is this one clip in which a man is actually crying as he describes […]
FATCA and the Petrodollar Read More »
Another UBS U.S. Depositor Convicted (10/25/13) DOJ announces, here, that Dr. Patricia Lynn Hough has been convicted convicted today by a jury in Fort Myers, Fla., of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by concealing millions of dollars in assets and income in offshore bank accounts at UBS and other foreign banks, and of
Caribbean Medical School Directors Convicted Read More »
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is part of the effort by the US government to prevent money laundering, and reduce tax evasion. It has implications for (1) Americans residing outside of the US, (2) for financial institutions outside of the US (FFIs) with American clients and for (3) non-American businesses with American clients.
The Truth Behind FATCA Read More »
For me the best movie of the summer was Elysium. It is set in the year 2154, where the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the poverty-stricken population resides on a ruined Earth. The movie is about one man’s mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. When
Preparing for Elysium Read More »
I previously wrote that we live in the age of the great decoupling. The decoupling of productivity from employment. The decoupling of wealth from work. The key to it all is technology. Technology is racing ahead and leaving more and more people behind. As symbolized in so many movies, the race against the machines is
Technology vs. the Middle Class Read More »
There was a July 26th article in the FT which carried the same title as this commentary. As I read it, two Roberts came to my mind. The first was Robert Shiller’s (Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale) writing in the NYT on July 13th as he explained why “Owning your own home is not always
The cult of home ownership is dangerous and damaging Read More »
In a Linkedin group on FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), someone highlighted an article on the Global Research (Center for Research on Globalization) website called The Dollar Racket. In this piece, Valentin Katasonov, points out the increasing trend towards US authorities penalizing non US entities while remaining silent on the operations of American ones.
A Reminder of the Golden Rule Read More »
Well one of my favorite websites, TheDailyBell.com has decided to close up shop. The site will still be up but the editorial team will no longer update it. For those unfamiliar with their work, the site sought to analyze contemporary economic events from a somewhat strict Austrian point of view. One of my favorite geopolitical
Triumph of Optimism? Read More »
It’s hard to believe that we are more than half way thru 2013 already. Time is indeed flying. It seems like only yesterday, I was complaining about the terrible winter weather. I remember last November focusing on the December 21st 2012 milestone for two reasons. Firstly in my line of work (technical price calculations), December
New Economic Paradigms Read More »
It is somewhat of an understatement to say that we live in challenging times. This is probably the first time since the Second World War that so many of us fear that our children will be worse off than we are. Austerity is the buzz word of the day. There is a way of measuring
The Importance of Giving Read More »