Panama Investor Blog

THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY- Must see video

This video is extremely powerful and left me numb for a long time after watching. This is what happened on Black Friday just  last week and is a sample of what the U.S., if not the entire world, may experience in the near future. The U.S. leadership is taking us straight down this road by devaluing our currency and when people can no longer buy the basics they will react even more insane and violent than when they are trying to buy cheap crap from China that they don't need. I encourage all of you to watch this and to take individual action to protect yourselves and your families from what you may have to experience some day. May God help us! Hat tip Ty b. For some important advice on what you can do to prepare, pay a visit to this interesting website.

 

What should you do with the coming currency controls?

Doug Casey has been very prophetic the last 20 years or so in forecasting what will happen to the U.S. and the world. I ran into Doug by reading one of his first books, "The international man" I found in a garage sale 20 years ago. He wrote it back in the late 70's and it is even more viable today than it was then. It is now a collectors item and sells for $474.93 on Amazon. Casey is now building a Safe Haven in Argentina, kind of along the lines of what I built here in Panama.

The International man was the book that set me on the very course I have taken in leaving the U.S. in 1995 and eventually settling down here in Panama. If I had not read that book I might still be back in the U.S. and Valle Escondido might still be a coffee farm.

This interview with Doug Casey is rather timely with last weeks post about the new law in the U.S. affecting offshore investments and banking. He is certain that currency controls are on the way by all governments and the window is closing for those who want to get their money into other forms of assets that are not so susceptible to government controls.

Here are some highlights, but you can read the whole article here....

L: Doug, we recently talked about getting assets out of your home country, especially the U.S., where to take them and what to do with them. In so doing, you touched on the inevitability of currency controls just ahead, especially for Americans. Can you tell us more about that?

Doug: Yes, I’m quite serious about what I said about “the grim reality of impending currency controls.” As the global economy continues to deteriorate, governments will have to appear to be “doing something.” It’s going to become very fashionable to institute some sort of foreign exchange control.

Why might that be? Because obviously, people who are taking their money out of the country are unpatriotic…

L: Those bastards.

Doug: That’s right. Jingoistic Americans naturally, but stupidly, see taking money out of the country as being unpatriotic. They don’t understand that it’s mainly those prudent people who will be able to supply the capital to rebuild a devastated economy later. Besides, getting money abroad is obviously something that only rich people would do… and of course, it’s time to eat the rich, as well. For those two reasons, there won’t be much resistance to controls. And the state gets to appear to be “doing something.”

And when they do, more people – at least those with any sense – will get scared and really try to get their money out, which will exacerbate the run to the exits. The bottom line is that if you want to get your money out, the time to do it is now. Beat the last-minute rush.

I don’t know what form the exchange controls are going to take, but there are two general possibilities: regulation and taxation.

The regulations might take the form of a rule prohibiting you from taking more than X-thousands of dollars abroad per year without special permission. No expensive vacations, no foreign asset purchases without state approval.

As for the taxation, if you want to, say, buy foreign stocks or real estate, you might have to pay an “Interest Equalization Tax” or some such. So, you could do it, but it’d cost you a lot of money to do it.

Something like either of these, or both, is definitely in the cards.

Disturbing new U.S. law aims to end individual foreign bank accounts

Thanks to my good friend Paul McBride for bringing this latest attack against freedom to my attention. I had posted some time earlier this year about this potential legislation, but was not aware it is now the law of the land. Here is his email from Paul and a copy of the new law in PDF at the end. The law is aimed at foreign bank account holders and those sending money outside the U.S.. This could affect peoples ability to buy homes outside the country. It will certainly affect their ability to have an account offshore. What banks wants to deal with this?

In answer to his question on what I think about this? It sucks!

Sam, in all the controversy surrounding the recently passed health care bill in the U.S., another piece of legislation was pushed through Congress (and signed by the President) that will have a far reaching impact on anyone thinking about buying real estate or investing overseas.
 
The name of the bill is the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2487) commonly known as the HIRE Act.  This is the jobs incentive bill that was signed by the President on March 18th amid little fanfare.
 
Relatively small by Washington standards (“just” an $18 billion stimulus package) the bill was drafted to provide incentives to employers to hire more people but contains some very disturbing language concerning the ownership and transference of money to any overseas account.  The truly galling part of the bill is that it attempts to require “foreign financial and non-financial institutions to withhold 30% of payments made to such institutions by U.S. individuals unless such institutions agree to disclose the identity of such individuals and report on the bank transactions”.  Think about this – the U.S. government is attempting to strong arm foreign financial and non-financial institutions (think banks and law firms) to either withhold 30% of the transactions in a U.S. individual’s account (and presumably remit this to the U.S. Treasury) or disclose the account details to the U.S..  The language of the bill addresses both bank accounts and any foreign trusts (ie- Private Interest Foundations).
 
But what if a foreign, sovereign country has laws against the disclosure of this information?  Well, the bill contemplates this as well.  Here’s the actual language from the bill:
 
‘‘(F) in any case in which any foreign law would (but
for a waiver described in clause (i)) prevent the reporting
of any information referred to in this subsection or subsection
(c) with respect to any United States account maintained
by such institution—
‘‘(i) to attempt to obtain a valid and effective
waiver of such law from each holder of such account,
and
‘‘(ii) if a waiver described in clause (i) is not
obtained from each such holder within a reasonable
period of time, to close such account.” (my emphasis)
 
In other words, under this legislation, a U.S. citizen having an account with a foreign institution will be required to waive the privacy protection afforded by local law.  If they fail to do this, the financial or non-financial institution is required to close the account.
 
And what information do they want.  Here again is the actual language of the bill:
 
‘‘(c) INFORMATION REQUIRED TO BE REPORTED ON UNITED
STATES ACCOUNTS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The agreement described in subsection
(b) shall require the foreign financial institution to report the
following with respect to each United States account maintained
by such institution:
‘‘(A) The name, address, and TIN of each account holder
which is a specified United States person and, in the case
of any account holder which is a United States owned
foreign entity, the name, address, and TIN of each substantial
United States owner of such entity.
‘‘(B) The account number.
‘‘(C) The account balance or value (determined at such
time and in such manner as the Secretary may provide).
‘‘(D) Except to the extent provided by the Secretary,
the gross receipts and gross withdrawals or payments from
the account (determined for such period and in such
manner as the Secretary may provide).
 
Keep in mind Sam, this is not proposed legislation.  This is already law.
 
There is much, much more in this bill.  I’ve attached a PDF file containing the language of the bill.  The important information can be seen if you scroll down to section on page 27 of the bill entitled:
 
TITLE V—OFFSET PROVISIONS
Subtitle A—Foreign Account Tax
Compliance
PART I—INCREASED DISCLOSURE OF
BENEFICIAL OWNERS
SEC. 501. REPORTING ON CERTAIN FOREIGN ACCOUNTS.
 
As we have suspected for some time, the U.S. government is closing the window for U.S. citizens to protect their assets by moving them offshore.  It won’t be long before it will be punitively expensive to move any amount of money overseas for any purpose.
 
I haven’t seen this legislation discussed anywhere on the Internet and I think it would be a good story for the blog.  Sadly, America is losing its freedoms and its citizens are standing meekly by while the noose of government control gets tighter and tighter.
 

Download HIRE Act of 3-18-10

Panama: Top Destination for Venezuelan Migrants

We have Hugo Chavez to thank for the increase in economic activity brought by the political refugees. I am amazed that over 65,000 Venezuelans now call Panama home. Next to Colombians, they have to be the largest group of foreign nationals in Panama. Panama benefits greatly by the instability of its neighbors. Panama is seen as a safe haven by most people in Latin America,

Source: Prensa.com
Monday, August 10, 2009

Venezuelan deposits at Panamanian banks summed $1.4 billion in April 2009.

When compared to the same period of 2008, deposits increased in almost $100 million, according to data from the Banking Superintendence.

"The Venezuelan community is estimated at 65.000 in Panama, and participates in diverse productive activities, mostly in transportation, restaurants, hotels, bars and services", reported Prensa.com.

Gold for bread

Those who have followed the horrible situation over the last 10 years in Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia, sympathize with those poor people who's leader Robert Mugabe has lead them down the road to hyperinflation and starvation. The once great country of Southern Rhodesia was hijacked by Mugabe and the most fertile lands owned and managed by white settlers were taken and divided up among those thugs who helped Mugabe into power. Now, the most prosperous and educated people of Africa are reduced to grubbing in the dirt for flakes of gold just to buy bread. Another example of forced redistribution, hyperinflation and in the end the only thing left standing is gold. And you can't eat it.

Check out this video

Galt's Gulch: Where is the Ultimate Safe Haven?

This short article from the Sovereign Society caught my eye because I had just written a new entry page for my website about the reason I built Valle Escondido (hidden Valley) that points out the reasons I chose Panama as my safe haven. Although Panama rank's 55 on the Heritage freedom ranking, there are many other reasons to consider that make it one of the best safe havens in the world.

From SS news letter
Our good friend and long-time associate Vernon Jacobs posed this question recently in his newsletter, The International Wealth Protection Monitor...
"Those of you who read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand probably recall that John Galt (the central character) persuaded the leading industrialists and other productive capitalists in the U.S. to go on strike and move to a hidden valley called Galt's Gulch where they would be free of a socialist government. Of course, there isn't any place in the USA where a lot of people could be free of government intrusions or the increasingly confiscatory income tax."

"Charles Adams, author of For Good or Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization stated that, "The list of notables who have fled their homeland to avoid heavy taxation would read like an international Who's Who. Flight is the number one device used by wealthy people to avoid heavy taxation.""

"If Galt's Gulch isn't in the USA, where might it be? The Heritage Foundation's Economic Freedom Index provides a ranking of economic freedom in 179 countries."

"The top two were in Hong King and Singapore, both of which are subject to the whims of the Chinese government, which is ranked at # 132. Australia was # 4 and New Zealand was # 5, with Ireland in between at # 3. The USA was # 6. Switzerland was # 9. Most of the Caribbean island nations were not listed, probably because they are part of the British Empire. In Central America, Panama is # 55, Belize is # 66 and Costa Rica is # 46."