Interesting Ed and Ethan podcast. I actually think they did an okay job of trying to explain FATCA as best as one can in layman’s terms. You have to skip over the first part where they discuss Blaze’s “friend” mayor Joe Fontana of London, Ontario (as of today now arrested on corruption charges).
In general we need more of this and that is why I wanted to give it honorable mention. I would also send a message to them indicating your interest in the topic and some of your own thoughts. Hopefully they will cover the issue again in the future.
Hmm.. maybe the speaker will come in here to check on the comments, so here’s my suggestion:
The analogy with the brokers was not very clear. What really happened is that the CFTC sued all of the foreign brokers that took on US Clients. As a result, the brokers were forced to ditch all of their US Clients, similar to the banking situation in Europe. To this day, it seems that if a broker DOESN’T put the words “WE DO NOT ACCEPT US CLIENTS”, the CFTC will sue them.
What’s really a better example of companies not wanting to do business with the US is the HUGE outflow of money from the US since FATCA was first brought up.
Show 31 at about 9:30. Not the strongest coverage of FATCA, but it’s something. I’ve always supported the belief that “if you throw enough sh*t against the wall, some of it will stick”.
They also made an incorrect jab at Wesley Snipes. When I heard what they said, I went checking. Turns out his tax adviser was recommending schemes to get back illegal refunds. I couldn’t find anything about “making money overseas and not wanting to pay taxes.” Kind of brazen if you ask me: the guy is already making a lot with his movies and then wants to get some free money from the IRS.
Just stumbled across this today and wanted to thank IBS for posting our show and also geeez for pointing out our errors. We like to say that we still have our training wheels on and likely will for many many years to come but we’re trying to be mindful of the missteps we do make and again, I do sincerely thank you for providing your critique.
Specifically in regard to the CFTC, there are indeed many foreign brokers today that will accept American clients but only so long as they can bear the costs of operating as though they operate in the United States. The common solution seems to have been to create subsidiary companies bearing the same namesake but separated almost entirely from their original brokerages overseas. This has resulted in a massive decrease in the choice that retail foreign exchange traders have available to them.
All that said, yes this could have been much clearer. 🙂
Thanks again!
Ethan, thanks for coming back into the discussion. But most of all, thanks for bringing up the issue! And yeah, I agree with you, trading forex is fun. The downside for US traders is that they are FORCED to deal with US brokers, and 2-3 of them failed like MF, PFG Best taking customer money with them.