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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - Vol. 5 No. 145
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In This Issue:
* COMMENT: 30 Year Failure.
* OFFSHORE: Deposits Double. UK Killing Its Offshore Havens. Panama Bank Accounts. St. Kitts-Nevis Citizenship. Slovak Flat Tax.
* WEALTH: Dollar Slide Continues. Gold Goes UP. Mad George.US Investors Moving Offshore. Asian Investment Star Rising.
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: Screw Welfare. Terror Hype. Web Site Fraud.
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COMMENT: 30 Year Failure.
Dear A-Letter Reader:
Regular readers of The A-Letter know that I often have addressed the destruction of personal and financial privacy caused by the 2001 PATRIOT USA Act that was rushed through the US Congress shortly after the 9-11 terror attacks. The 342 page law gave the FBI and police many unchecked powers, including broad surveillance over domestic and offshore financial activity.
The justification for this unprecedented grant of police power over US citizens was to prevent future terror attacks. The big lie used to extend control over personal financial information was that this would allow government to find unusual patterns of financial activity terrorist use.
At the same time proponents argued this would curb money laundering.
But there is a real question whether any of these specious arguments are true. And there is a 30-year old US federal law that proves just how costly and ineffective this sledgehammer approach is.
Writing in the November issue of Reason magazine (see LINK below) John Berlau recounts in detail the history of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970. In many ways the BSA was an earlier version of the PATRIOT Act. It all but repealed 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures so far as bank records were concerned.
Aside from the supposed curbing of criminal financial activity, how has the BSA operated on a practical level? It has required massive paperwork.
Even before the PATRIOT Act, under the BSA banks sent more than 12 million transaction reports to the government in 2000 alone. One expert estimates that banks file more than 100,000 reports on innocent customers for every money laundering conviction. Review of these millions of reports are now backed up for over two years.
It is estimated that US$856.6 billion was laundered world wide in 2002. The total will grow at an annual rate of 2.7% to reach US$926.6 billion by 2006. Large institutions will spend a total of US$845 million and mid-tier firms a total of US$2.2 billion on anti-ML programs up to 2005. Small sized financial institutions will spend an aggregate of US$7.9 billion. You pay the bill for all this in increased fees.
Meanwhile the government is using its so-called "anti-terror" and "anti-money laundering" laws to chase tax evasion and a host of other alleged crimes, all without the normal legal rights and safeguards that were supposed to be guaranteed by American law.
Does anybody care?
That's way that it looks from here. BOB BAUMAN, Editor
PS If you are concerned about financial privacy here's one way I recommend to protect yourself. To find out how; click here:
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/SVS/WSVSD405/
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COMMENT LINKS:
* Show Us Your Money. Reason magazine, Nov. 2003.
LINK: http://www.reason.com/0311/fe.jb.show.shtml
* How well do banks need to "know your customer"? LINK:
http://www.banktech.com/story/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16401323
* Patriot Act: Car dealers shouldn't be citizen soldiers.
LINK: http://www.reason.com/hod/jb120503.shtml
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* OFFSHORE *
OFFSHORE BANKS DOUBLE DEPOSITS
$1.8 trillion is double 1990 amount; US banks are leading offshore
users. LINK:
http://www.forbes.com/home_asia/newswire/2003/12/07/rtr1172127.html
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U.K. STRANGLING OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTERS
LONDON: Finally, an honest assessment of how British Labour is killing
offshore UK territories as tax and asset havens. Read it and weep. LINK:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/07/nbook07.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/07/ixhome.html#2
* Derek Sambrook, Sovereign Society Council of Experts member,
comments on the destruction of the UK's offshore financial centres.
LINK: http://www.trustserv.com/Offshore Pilot - Current Issue.htm
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EX-PRESIDENT OF NICARAGUA GETS 20 YEAR SENTENCE
MANAGUA: Used PANAMA bank accounts to launder money. LINK:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nicaragua-Former-President.html
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LAST OUTPOST FOR ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP
St. Kitts & Nevis increases due diligence fee.
LINKS: http://www.henleyglobal.com/stkittsnevis.htm
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sc.html
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SLOVAK FLAT TAX WILL TAKE EFFECT
Flat tax of 19% on all earned income.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=14343
Dan MITCHELL explains the new CR corporate flat tax. LINK:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20031128-080101-2672r.htm
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* WEALTH *
DOLLAR SLIDES; GOLD GOES UP
Dollar drops to record against euro, 11-year low versus pound. LINK:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=71000001&refer=home&sid=aj.DsJaeI8N0
* The not-so-mighty dollar. The Economist. LINK:
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2266274
* US dollar may face renewed pressure. Financial Times. LINK:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493784959
* The Madness of George II. Bill Bonner.
LINK: http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner10.html
* The consequences of a dollar standard. von Mises Institute.
LINK: http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1384
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AMERICAN INVESTORS GO GLOBAL
As dollars ship out, foreign cash heads home. LINK:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493796473
* After Gains, Foreign Stocks May Still Be Cheap. NY Times.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/business/yourmoney/07fore.html
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DR. DOOM SEES ASIAN INVESTMENT STAR RISING
ZURICH: Faber does not think Swiss future looks good. LINK:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=4471786
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* PRIVACY & RIGHTS *
SCREW THE WELFARE STATE
Sovereign Society Council fo Experts member, Pierre Lemieux,
lays bear the fallacy of the modern welfare state.
LINK: http://www.quebecoislibre.org/031206-5.htm
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BUSH ADMINISTRATION HYPES TERROR FIGURES
WASHINGTON: Thousands arrested, very few convicted.
LINK: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031207-101622-3249r
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BEWARE FRAUDULENT BANK WEB SITES
HONG KONG: HSBC uncovers a fraudulent Web site, gives warning.
LINK: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2003/12/07/2003078684
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER. *
Bob Bauman, Editor * Daniel Aponte, Jr. Research Asst.
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