Interesting article from the BBC today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/19172065
Apparently the US claims jurisdiction over almost all banking transactions worldwide, because if a transaction is translated into US dollars, even for just a second (which apparently many unfortunately are), a US court has ruled that that is sufficient for the transaction to fall under US jurisdiction.
Other issues covered include Dodd-Frank, Standard Chartered bank, US anti-corruption laws claiming global jurisdiction, agressive US extradition requests (especially in the UK with its one-way extradition treaty with the US) and so on. The article doesn’t directly mention FATCA unfortunately, though it does mention the one-sided and completely unreciprocal US approach to regulating financial services.
This is an impetus to begin doing transactions in another currency–I’d prefer hard currency, gold and silver. The more the United States insists on this bullshit view of jurisdiction, the sooner the world will reject the US dollar, and the sooner the United States economy will collapse–as the dollar becomes a useless relic which drops to its intrinsic value.
I think I said this before, but why don’t the Europeans construct their own wire transfer system to rival those dominated by the US?
Floating currency is ok, as long as the government issuing it can balance its budget.
“The more the United States insists on this bullshit view of jurisdiction, the sooner the world will reject the US dollar”
Yes, exactly what I was going to say. The U.S. government is only hastening the transition away from the USD as the word’s reserve currency.
A relevant post: Notice who forgot to donate to the US protection racket? In this case, to Chuck Schumer. Yep, Standard Chartered http://www.zerohedge.com/news/confused-why-so-many-foreign-banks-are-suddenly-being-charged-us-heres-why
@ Petros
I know this is not the place for this item. Would you possibly place it in another thread.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/nosehillgentlemen+Kalamazoo+police+officer+letter/7054368/story.html
Peter, the US would then say that gold and silver are based in USD. Sure, you can find quotes in other currencies, but I believe it all falls back to the dollar.
The world is already under US law!! I posted the case from a long-time back where Deutche Telecom was fine some massive amount for corruption in Eastern Europe, when there wasn’t one US Person involved. DT trades on the NYSE and some of the bribes were paid in US Dollars, and that was justification enough for them. I personally dislike corruption, but I also don’t like opportunistic money grabs either, which I also see as just a little more self-riteous form of corruption.
@Geeeez, oh, how right you are about gold and silver. It wouldn’t however stop the US dollar from devaluation. Then, when the US loses its ability to print the world’s reserve currency, its ability to control the rest of the world will be greatly diminished.
@hazy 2,
I think it is an excellent place for that story — I don’t want US gun laws in Canada. More of ‘ruling the world’.
*The physics and physiology of firing a gun is the same whether shooting at a target or a person, the mental set must be completely different, specially for a person who is not trained or prepared for the possibility.
for the record I qualified as a marksmen with a 38-caliber sidearm, in case of assignment to a combat zone.
the idea that civilians in a crowded venue could shoot accurately without wounding innocents is implausible.
Even the police who train and work with the possibility who using their weapon receive extensive psychological follow-up after they have shot someone. Who will provide the care for the civilians?
@Michael, I kind of smelled that one too when RBC was accused of wrongdoing by US regulators back in April. RBC rejected all accusations along with the US’s offer to ‘settle’, claiming:
‘All the trades were properly disclosed and documented and given that the regulator never raised any concerns at the time, “it is absurd to now claim these trades were either fictitious or wash sales.’
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/04/02/rbc-sued-by-u-s-regulators-over-trades-worth-hundreds-of-millions/
Further to my comment, and it is purely speculation on my part, but it seems to me that there are a lot of grey areas in law where the US can give its tacit approval to something and then scream ‘gotcha’ later if it means they can extract a penalty. FBAR is a prime example.
I think it’s funny actually that the British especially the BBC was all excited that the FCC was investigating Rupert Murdoch and News Corp over activities that never touched US soil, which could have led to yanking some broadcasting licenses over his “phone hacking” allegations, but when the US starts investigating a UK bank, all of the sudden the shoe is on the other foot, and it’s the worst thing in the world.
I know you guys all have a bias against the US, and the BBC has been shown over and over again to be anti-American, so I shouldn’t expect anything less I guess.