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Cheers from Copenhagen
Alettermock2
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Vol. 8 No. 189
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In Today's Letter:
Comment:
Cheers from Copenhagen
Offshore:
Tax Havens Are Winning
Wealth:
ETF Sector Fees on the Rise
Privacy & Rights:
Parent = Suspect
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Cheers from Copenhagen
Today's
comment is by Larry Grossman, Certified Financial Planner, managing
director of Sovereign International Asset Management Inc., member of
The Sovereign Society Council of Experts and speaker at The European
Banking Tour.
Dear A-Letter Reader,
Greetings from Copenhagen! Today is the official start of The
European Banking Tour. But I flew in early on Wednesday morning for two
reasons. First, I wanted a chance to spend time in one of my favorite
cities in the world. Second, I wanted a chance to spend time with some
of my European banking friends. This kind of relaxed time to swap info
- from a global perspective - is what allows us to keep our edge when
we give our readers here the latest updates.
Tonight we'll do just that. First topic: where are the U.S. dollar
and global markets heading in the future? I'm having dinner with my
good friend and host of this leg of the trip, Thomas Fischer. Thomas
works for Jyske Bank, one of Denmark's oldest and most respected banks.
Among other things, Jyske Bank specializes in the currency markets, so
picking Thomas's brain is usually one of my most educational stops on
the trip.
I am always struck by the tremendous disparities
between the Danish system and ours in the States. One of my friends
here says she now enjoys 7 weeks paid vacation a year and is soon
looking forward to her retirement. Of course her retirement and
benefits will be radically different than most of us in the states. A
friend of mine retired here 4 years ago and is still on a full payout
of his previous salary. Can you imagine - making your previous salary
for just enjoying your retirement (without using your savings)?
Unfortunately,
most of us in the States don't have this type of security awaiting us.
I always meet attendees at these events who are woefully unaware of
what their retirement needs will be and how much they will have in
retirement. That's why once I return, I will again focus on the issues
facing those of us who aren't lucky enough to receive full salaries
during our retirement.
And for those of you who are in
your early accumulation years, now is the time to think about these
issues and put the proper planning in place.
A handful of
Sovereign Society members are getting serious about retirement and
estate planning by attending the Permanent Wealth Protection Summit in
Ireland next month. There, myself and a number of other Council of
Experts will be on hand to spend time with each attendee one-on-one in
what is arguably one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been.
Relaxing in an Irish castle and dreaming and planning the future with
each person individually will be an interesting change from lecturing
in a conference setting.
If you are not one of the
people who have been able to get a space at that event, I urge you to
seriously review your current retirement plan. Are you saving enough,
do you have the right type of retirement plan, and is it invested in
the right way? Remember, you can "Liberate Your Retirement Plan"
legally and gain access to the world's greatest investments. Most of us
will never have the luxury of a European style retirement plan that
offers total security...but there are ways to secure your future
yourself. A little leg work to get it in place is in order.
Cheers from Kobenhavn!
LARRY GROSSMAN, Our "Retirement Guy"
Copenhagen, Denmark
EDITOR'S NOTE: Next month's Permanent Wealth
Protection Summit still has spots open if you're interested in
one-on-one personal asset protection advice from our panel of asset
protection experts. Call David Newman right now to learn more:
1-866-765-7506. And look for more comments on the European Banking Tour
coming in next week's A-Letters.
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Your Life is an Open Book...If
- You've given out your SSN to anyone in the past 6 months...
- You belong to any church or organization...
- You hold 50% or more of your assets in any U.S. bank...
You're an easy target for unjust lawsuits, asset forfeitures and identity theft.
I'll show you 109 ways to protect your privacy and property rights -
and secure your wealth - using the secrets of the United States Witness
Protection Program...
LINK: http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/190SSWPP/E190G940/
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Tax Havens Winning Over the OECD
Tax
havens seem to be winning the war waged by the meddlesome OECD. "The
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been
on a long process of backing down," says Jason Sharman, a University of
Sydney (Australia) researcher author of the forthcoming book, Havens in
a Storm - the Struggle for Global Tax Regulation. "It started off with
ambitious aims and has pretty much become a voluntary exercise." After
early successes in places like Vanuatu, the OECD has made little
headway, he says. The OECD blacklisting of tax havens based on their
low taxes began to wither in 2001 when the Bush administration opposed
the OECD's phony campaign again what it called "unfair tax
competition." Behind the scenes, right-wing think tanks rallied U.S.
congressmen and administration officials to the cause of tax global
competition. The Sovereign Society joined with the Center for Freedom
and Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, and other groups and Sharman
credits them with helping to block the OECD's nefarious plans to impose
high taxes on the world.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
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ETF Sector Fees On to Rise
Exchange-traded-funds
(ETFs) have mushroomed this decade and ETFs fees are on the rise.
Particularly, the fees for sector ETFs are rising in the United States.
The fees for sector ETF's have risen from 0.5% and 0.65%, while
broad-based fees have risen from 0.20% to 0.25%. ETFs were originally
intended to mimic a broad index using a passive, low-cost investment
strategy. But over the last three years, service-providers are
unleashing a wave of sector-specific products which levy higher fees
than traditional low-cost ETFs focusing on domestic indices. More than
two-thirds of all ETFs today are either sector funds or country ETFs
and charge more than broadly diversified ETFs in the United States. If
you're still looking for a cheap ETF, one of the lowest-cost ETFs
remains Vanguard, also ranked as the lowest-cost open-end index fund
organization in the United States since the late 1970s.
ERIC ROSEMAN, Investment Director
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If You're a Parent - You're a Criminal Suspect
Governments
worldwide are consolidating information about every aspect of your life
- including your children. Or more specifically, about how 'effective'
you are as a parent, based on the private information they're
collecting about your children.
In Germany, for instance, it's a criminal offense to home-school
your children. So, naturally, German authorities have constructed a
database to identify "suspect parents" who might be illegally
home-schooling their children, and targeting them for raids.
In the U.S., much effort has been devoted to developing a system to
identify "deadbeat Dads" who refuse to pay child support to former
spouses or girlfriends. Past due support payments can be deducted from
income tax returns. And, in extreme cases, fathers who fail to make the
required payments can be imprisoned... denied passports...
employment... and restricted in a number of other ways.
But perhaps the most ambitious effort to identify bad parents is
underway in the UK, where the "New Labour" government has proposed
spending nearly US$500 million to create a database of all children and
their parents. The database is designed to detect child abuse, and will
contain dozens of "data points," monitoring everything from children's
immunization records to whether they're eating properly.
The government claims the database will be rigorously monitored to
prevent abuse. I'm not so sure, given the fact that just a few weeks
ago, hackers managed to penetrate the "super-secure" Identity and
Passport Service, which is setting up the National Identity Register as
part of New Labour's US$16 billion national identification card
scheme.
That, and the fact that the government will exclude details of the
children of "celebrities" from the children's database. If the database
is truly ultra-secure, and truly politicians believe that, then why
exempt anyone from it?
MARK NESTMANN, Privacy Expert & President of The Nestmann Group
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