Author Archives: Petros
The US trade deficit: Was it caused by greedy companies or greedy government?
Roger Conklin provides insight that few today have about the United States trade deficit. Today, in a comment, he displays the remarkable depth of his knowledge and the compelling force of his narrative:
Eduardo Saverin: Citizen of the World
I’ve been in contact with a columnist who asked me what I thought about Eduardo Saverin’s expatriation. I respond as follows:
Eduardo Saverin has exercised his unalienable right to renounce his US citizenship. This right is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution, the Expatriation Act of 1868, the Freedom of Emigration in East-West Trade, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which for its part declares (Article 15, 2):
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Yet for exercising a fundamental right, some in the media have vilified Eduardo Saverin. I suppose because he is rich, and the rich today, because of class warfare, are open targets of abuse and defamation. But I understand why Saverin expatriated. I am not rich, but I sympathize, nay I identify with his desire to shed US citizenship. I have done it too.
From the Soldiers’ Tower at the University of Toronto
To the glorious memory
Of members of this university
Who fell in the Great War
1914-1918
Take these men for your ensamples
Like them remember that prosperity can be only for the free
That freedom is the sure possession of those alone
Who have the courage to defend it
The United States taxes foreigners via deficit spending
This is a cross post from the Righteous Investor.
Americans keep repeating the meme that Federal deficit spending is borrowing from the next generation. This is not entirely true. Deficit spending creates more debt, and debt creates a larger money supply, and a larger money supply is the quintessential definition of inflation. Inflation soon results in increased prices for everything.
Henry Hazlett wrote in his important primer, Economics in one lesson (pdf), p. 19-20 (emphasis mine):
Everything we get, outside of the free gifts of nature, must in some way be paid for. The world is full of socalled economists who in turn are full of schemes for getting something for nothing. They tell us that the government can spend and spend without taxing at all; that it can continue to pile up debt without ever paying it off, because “we owe it to ourselves/’ We shall return to such extraordinary doctrines at a later point. Here I am afraid that we shall have to be dogmatic, and point out that such pleasant dreams in the past have always been shattered by national insolvency or a runaway inflation. Here we shall have to say simply that all government expenditures must eventually be paid out of the proceeds of taxation; that to put off the evil day merely increases the problem, and that inflation itself is merely a form, and a particularly vicious form, of taxation.
Feeding the Trolls at McClatchy
Roger sent me an early morning email, saying that my name made into the Miami Herald, and I immediately began to comment at the McClatchy site: IRS crackdown on foreign assets leading many to renounce U.S. citizenship.
There I’ve had a numerous interactions with commenters. Here is what has appeared thus far:
Petros wrote
Hi! My name is Peter W. Dunn, and I am a blogger at the Isaac Brock Society. I am the one mentioned in this article. I don’t know why the moderator took down my original comment, perhaps because I included a link to our blog, where people can get information about why Americans abroad are renouncing their citizenship. I am sorry that I have to go to such lengths to have free speech. But I think that it is the least you can do, since you have mentioned my name in the article, that you give me an opportunity to respond to the article.
Response to Matias Ramos: The One Percent Deports Itself
Here is the link to Matias Ramos blog post at the Institute for Policy Studies, The One Percent Deports Itself. He did not respond to my earlier comment, so I’ve written an e-mail in hopes to get some kind of concession.
Dear Mr. Ramos:
I commented at your blog. I took exception to your portrayal of those who relinquish their citizenship as the 1% deporting themselves. This is incorrect and a clear mischaracterization of the facts. I know many people who have renounced in the last couple of years. These are not wealthy people–indeed, some of them are even what you would call lower middle class.
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Customer Satisfaction at all-time high, says IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman
At the Isaac Brock Society we are the masters of parody and satire. But nothing is truly funnier than when real life imitates the Onion:
Customer Satisfaction Survey of Taxpayers at an All-Time High, Says IRS Commissioner
Nicolas Santa still in federal custody
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (BSP) Nicolas (Claus) Santa, Bishop of Myra, has been in federal custody since his arrest at the North Pole on Christmas Eve, 2011. Fish and Wildlife agents apprehended him and seized several tons of exotic woods forbidden by the Lacey act. Santa has been charged with multiple counts of money laundering, illegal exportation of currency, illegally importing into the United States toys made of contraband–rare woods, ivory and other banned substances, as well as violating slave labor and child labor laws. A grand jury has also indicted Santa on 190 counts of criminal failure to file the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR). For those charges alone, Santa risks a sentence of 950 years in prison and fines equal to 300% of his wealth. Santa was laundering money from his illegal trafficking in toys.
Question about Visa Waiver Program (ESTA)
A reader, Alex, has a question regarding the Visa Waiver Program (ESTA):
Does anyone have experience or information about people with ESTA citizenships (countries who are in the visa waiver program) who renounced and then wanted to return to visit USA as a tourist?
