Finally, one country seems to have relocated its testicles and is calling America’s bluff on FATCA reciprocity:
http://rt.com/politics/160764-russian-banks-fatca-ban/
Whatever else one might make of recent events involving Russia, the nation deserves praise for tossing the FATCA live grenade squarely back into the laps of its authors. Russia realizes full well that there will never be reciprocity in any FATCA IGA and that there is thus no reason to surrender Russian sovereignty and to share private banking information with the IRS. There is also increasingly less to fear from the American threat of FATCA sanctions as Russia rapidly expands multilateral trading agreements which bypass the increasingly unfriendly and toxic U.S. dollar. If anything, FATCA is serving as an unintended, yet effective catalyst for a major realignment of global trading currencies which should have occurred years ago.
If only Canada’s pathetic Conservative government would have shown half the intelligence, foresight and resolve of the Russians and refused to capitulate to FATCA’s hollow threats and even hollower promises.
So it looks like the US has a trade deficit of $1-$2b / month with Russia.
In a real sense there is no such thing as a trade deficit. There has to be a reverse flow of asset purchases (treasures most likely) with the dollars they have.
We really need China to go this way where the deficit is much larger ($20-30b / month).
I am at a loss to see where the money goes. They can purchase grandfathered treasures. At least one company has compiled a list of the securities.
Very exciting.
Russia has the fire power to defend itself against the US, therefore, will not be “bullied” by them. There was an article out showing Putin Slamming Obama. I was recently in the USA at an electronics show and chatted with many Americans. The reply to me when I explained Fatca in clear detail, was “you must be kidding?” Another reply was “we are doing this to our own people?” They fully agreed that illegal aliens in the USA have more benefits than an expat. Nice huh? These US lawmakers have no idea of what is going to happen to the USA. Unfortunately, the fall of the US will effect Canada negatively. Canada will survive the failure of the US, we’ve done it before. We have learned that our neighbor to the south is not as friendly as we thought. When the USA falls, we will then, find out who our friends are……..
Guess we’d better start brushing up on the national anthem lyrics.
http://youtu.be/91kdwxFsthI
Actually though I’m happy that Russia has the guts to stand up to this bullying.
Russian banks should just dump US treasuries and buy Russian or other foreign bonds.
This is good news and one can only hope that China takes a similar view.
It is painful for me to admit Russia is right on anything, but it is clearly a question of right and wrong and we are on the wrong side with our support of taxing our citizens on their worldwide incomes.
I wish we’d wake up and repeal this unworkable law, showing the world that we are the moral country and the old KGB Apparachek is wrong. It is painful indeed to know Putin and Company has the high moral ground and our government is in the gutter looking for other peoples money to spend on our own Welfare Cheats and Green Project slime balls.
Lawmakers warn Russian banks against giving up data under US FATCA
Source Russia Today
“The head of the Lower House financial markets committee said that until Russia passes a law, any report to US tax authorities about a client accounts in Russian banks would be considered a violation of bank secrecy.
MP Natalya Burykina (United Russia) added that bank employees who permit it could face criminal prosecution. She also said that if the United States applies sanctions to Russian banks for refusing to comply with the requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Russia would reciprocate with similar sanctions.
Under current Russian law, the illegal collection of data that falls under the definition of commercial, tax or bank secrets is punished by fines of up to 80,000 rubles (about $2,285), or up to two years behind bars. Illegal disclosure or use of such information without the consent of its owner can be punished by up to 200,000 rubles in fines ($5700), a prison term of up to 3 years, and a 30-year ban on occupying certain official or commercial posts.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was passed in the United States in 2010 and will come into force on July 1 this year. It requires foreign financial institutions to report to the US tax authorities about their American clients and even persons who are connected with US citizens or suspected of being such. The non-compliant banks outside the US can face punishment – US entities making payments to such institutions are required to withhold 30% of the gross sum.
Russia has already prepared a bill that would regulate relations between Russian banks and their US counterparts. The draft was approved by the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank, but in mid-May this year the Lower House sent it back for reworking, saying that passing such legislation required a two-sided treaty between Russia and the US that would specify the obligations of both parties and the responsibility to failing to observe these obligations.
MP Anatoly Aksakov (Fair Russia) told reporters that the bill would be finished before June 1 and it will include both the type and amount of information that Russian banks can send to US authorities and the requirement that the information transfer must be performed only on condition of the client’s consent.
Earlier this month, Russia’s Financial Ombudsman Pavel Medvedev complained about the country’s banks’ refusal to work under the FATCA, saying that this undermined the international financial cooperation parts of which could be beneficial to the Russian state. Medvedev was commenting on the President’s order to develop a working scheme allowing enforcement of the ban on civil servants’ and officials’ foreign assets through cooperation with foreign banks. As Russian banks had earlier refused to participate in the US FATCA project, the Russian authorities should not now count on cooperation from the West, Medvedev noted. ”
http://rt.com/politics/160764-russian-banks-fatca-ban/
@Wilton Tidwell
Yes- it is painful to find out that our motherland was lying in so many ways. I also grew up with the most honourable image of America and its integrity and human values. But the lies really did start with the treatment of the indians didn’t it?
NRIs’ India MF play to get thin as US Fatca kicks in
Heavy compliance cost may render equity purchases in mother country not worth their while
“The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), that country’s new anti-tax evasion law, which takes effect in two months, is going to result in increased costs for fund houses here. So, some even contemplate not accepting any investments from non-resident Indians (NRIs) based in the US.”
http://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/nris-india-mf-play-to-get-thin-as-us-fatca-kicks-in-114042901169_1.html
just a quick message, some us homelanders are on your side.. hoping you all have the best and waiting for fatca/cbt etc to implode….
@tim,
Thanks for that!
@ tim
“Homelanders” should read history : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)
Resistance also served as part of Thoreau’s metaphor comparing the government to a machine: when the machine was producing injustice, it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be “a counter friction” (i.e., a resistance) “to stop the machine.”[2]
Pass it forward… 😉
Putin has just told Canada that ‘the Arctic is negotiable, Crimea is NOT’
Putin and China have just signed an agreement to sell oil and gas without using US dollars.
Russia is pushing back on FATCA.
Dare we say that Putin is doing right things and the US Admin is NOT?
The world is upside down when we cannot trust either the US govt or the Canadian govt but hear Putin say things OUR leaders SHOULD be saying!
Snowden didn’t flee to Russia for nothing. The photo in the link below is worth 1,000 words:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/bad-u-s-policy-pushes-russia-china-iran-closer-together.html
An unrelated but interesting article about the euphoria about fracking and US energy independence.
The Guardian: “Write-down of two-thirds of US shale oil explodes tracking myth”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/may/22/two-thirds-write-down-us-shale-oil-gas-explodes-fracking-myth
@From the Wilderness,
Energy independence? And what about potable water independence?
After the US contaminates all its groundwater through fracking https://lawaterkeeper.org/los-angeles-is-banning-fracking/ , they’ll be eyeing our water supplies and trying to divert and pollute the Great Lakes too http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fracking-water-threat-for-lake-ontario-feared-1.1063851 http://www.canadians.org/content/wisconsin-city-could-divert-water-lake-michigan-test-case-great-lakes-compact .
Most of the production of conventional oil reserves has peaked in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The US supply has been increasing, but it will never reach the ability to sustain itself.
In conventional reservoirs where the rock is porous and oil can flow through, the challenge was always to contain the oil and prevent a blowout with pressure. If there was too much pressure at the bottom of a 5000m well there was a danger of fracturing the rock. However, with nonporous rock such as tightsand or shale, it was necessary to create local cracks by forcing in fluid. The size of the crack is determined by the volume of water used. It is very difficult to force enough water to open up a crack of any distance., and by phsics the cracks propogate laterally rather than vertically.
Although “fracking” is a catchy word, the problems that have occurred are due to plain lousy drilling practices and lousy drilling companies.
What the real issue is that the supply of energy is significantly less than demand. Windmills are making the landscape look like something out of Madmax. The whitehouse is covered with solar panels and only creates 2000 watts on the best of days. France uses nuclear and its problems and Germany uses dirty brown lignite coal. Canada has its tar sands
So the search is on to get more oil. It’s being found in shale and tight sand, in the arctic, off of Cyprus. Near to pristine places and nearer to homes.
So, now the screw-ups are happening in places that are nearer to us and nearer to our hearts.
It’s shoddy practice that causes the problems. but it’s consumption that is the real driver.
@tim
Thanks. Nice to know that some people in the US understand what’s at stake here for all Americans. One thing though, if you’re on our side you can’t call yourself a homelander – that’s reserved for the sheeple.
FuriousAC; the Crimea has been under Russian influnce since the mid-16th Century. Far before the United States ever became a country. Those influences were the Cossack Incursions. In 1784, the Russian Empire annexed the Crimea. So as far as the rest of the world is concerned, Crimea has been Russian property since 1554 when the first fort was established by Cossack Hetman Dmytro Vyshnevetsky so that he could make raids into the Ukraine. Who is the US but a teen-age upstart trying to dictate foreign policy to the rest of the world?