THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
Friday, December 17, 2004 - Vol. 6 No. 243
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In This Issue:
* COMMENT: The Real Threat.
* OFFSHORE: Swiss Go for Their Own Gold. Monaco Future in Doubt?
* WEALTH: WTO Ruling on U.S. Due. U.S. Deficit Future. Weak Dollar.
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: Airport Security Fashion.
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COMMENT: The Real Threat.
Dear A-Letter Reader:
I once had the pleasure of meeting the late Alice Roosevelt Longworth, indomitable daughter of Pres. Teddy Roosevelt and wife of the late Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Rep. Nicolas Longworth of Ohio. Noted for her acerbic wit, Princess Alice (as she was known in her youthful White House days), reportedly once told a companion at a social gathering: "If you don't have anything nice to say about anyone, please sit down right here beside me."
Bad news seems to be the real news, based on the media treatment of topics. Or as a kindergarten student replied, when asked to finish the phrase, "No news is....impossible."
TGIF, and on Friday's it's sometimes difficult to know what to write about. But what caught my eye today, as it does too many days it seems, was an issue of civil rights. The UK's highest court, the British House of Lords has ruled that the government cannot indefinitely detain foreigners suspected of terrorism without charging or trying them. The issue arose because, under a post 9-11 UK anti-terror law rushed through Parliament, the government has held nine foreign, Muslim men in prison for as long as three years without charges. The prison has been called 'Britain's Guantanamo' by human rights groups, a reference to the scores of foreigners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by the United States. The ruling by the Law Lords, a panel of senior judges who sit in the House of Lords and act as the country's highest court, parallels a June 2004 decision by the US Supreme Court that said "a state of war is not a blank check for the president." The reference was to the persons being held by the US under almost exactly the same conditions as in the UK; no attorneys other than government appointed ones, no outside contact, no charges filed and no access to evidence, if any.
OK, I know from my e-mails, some are saying: "But we are at war, and we are fighting for our survival." But aren't we becoming prisoners of sorts, ourselves?
And what if it were you that was carried off by police and held incommunicado, without counsel, for years on end. Reportedly, some of these prisoners have suffered mental breakdowns and even attempted suicide. What would you do?
One of the British Law Lords spoke for me when he wrote about this draconian law: "It calls into question the very existence of an ancient liberty of which this country has until now been very proud: freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention. The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these." And from those who enact them.
That the way that it looks from here.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
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COMMENT LINKS:
* Britain's Highest Court Overturns Anti-Terrorism Law. LINKS:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/international/europe/16cnd-britain.html
* Terror detainees win Lords appeal.
LINK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4100481.stm
* Kangaroo court in Guantanamo Bay. Nat Hentoff. LINK:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-nat05.html
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* FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK:
* OFFSHORE:
* SWISS GO FOR THEIR GOLD
ZURICH: A year or so ago the Swiss parliament authorized additional sales of government owned gold, the theory being that the relatively huge gold stocks were not really needed to back the strong Swiss franc. Even so, those gold stocks were (are) the closest to precious metal backing for any currency nowadays, and a certain confidence builds on that. It can't help but diminish somewhat when the gold get sold. After all, the value of paper money is really a state mind. But what sold the deal was the fact that Swiss cantons divided up the loot from the gold sales. Now everybody wins - and loses.
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* FUTURE OF MONACO AFTER RAINIER IN DOUBT
MONACO: With the health of the 81-year old ruling Prince said to be failing, the future of this tax haven for the ultra-rich is being quietly debated. For 700 years, this Riviera city-state has been ruled by the Grimaldi family, with periodic intervention from Paris, especially on tax issues. (French citizens who live there must pay French taxes). And the principality has been cleaning up its financial house, with stronger anti-money laundering laws and new agreements with the French. Our bet is that Monaco as a haven for the very wealthy has many years to go.
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WEALTH:
* WHAT WE'VE BEEN TELLING YOU FOR MANY MONTHS
NEW YORK: The weak dollar is driving cash investments out of the US into offshore stocks ands bonds, and we can say 'we told you so.' The NY Times finally notices that investors are getting better returns offshore. Meanwhile, foreigner investors, who have financed US debt, are looking away from he US for better bargains. As of the end of October, Americans have bought $51.9 billion of foreign stocks and bonds, compared with $36.2 billion in all of 2003, according to the US Treasury.
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* W.T.O. STILL TELLING U.S. WHAT TO DO
PARIS: The World Trade Organization will examine in September a new US law aimed at eliminating a corporate tax subsidy WTO had deemed illegal. A negative ruling could lead the EU to re-impose US trade sanctions in January 2006.
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* U.S. BUDGET DEFICITS EATING UP FUTURE
WASHINGTON: America's budget deficits are likely to average about 3.5% of GDP for the rest of the decade. As government continues to gobble up America's scanty savings, it will crowd out the investment on which America's prosperity depends. By 2014, the deficits will have reduced America's wealth by roughly 20-30% of GDP.
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* PRIVACY & RIGHTS:
* LATEST IN AIRPORT FASHION FOR THE SECURITY CONSCIOUS
WASHINGTON: Clothes, bags, accessories, even non-metallic suspenders, for those who don't want to set off the buzzers or the bells at airports.
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OFFSHORE LINKS:
* Swiss cantons strike gold. LINK:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=106&sid=5408827
* Monaco broods future after Rainier's reign. LINK:
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041216-124353-2323r.htm
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WEALTH LINKS:
* Weak Dollar Sending More US Investors Abroad. LINK:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/business/worldbusiness/16dollar.html
* EU expects WTO ruling on new US tax law in Sept. 2005.
LINK: http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/041216123903.32wfb52l
* The high cost of US borrowing. LINK:
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3494519
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PRIVACY & RIGHTS LINKS:
* Functional Fashion Helps Some Through Airport Checkpoints. LINK:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53612-2004Dec9.html
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER.
* Bob Bauman, Editor * Daniel Aponte, Jr. Editorial Asst.
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