Media and Blog Articles – part 2 of 11 (Year 2015)

1,837 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles – part 2 of 11 (Year 2015)”

1. Related to @2terrified2Sleep This is the tweet with the request:

   Jim Jatras posts in regards to a FOI data dump on FATCA IGA.

   https://twitter.com/JimJatras/status/654733052074045440

2. Fatca Crushes Minnows, the Sharks Do Better
   This poorly thought out law designed to monitor the big fish is directly affecting millions of “minnows.”
   http://www.wsj.com/articles/fatca-crushes-minnows-the-sharks-do-better-1444941380

3. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/10/14/new-law-makes-canadian-jews-second-class-citizens.html

   From Ginny, who says “Harper has created so many second class Canadian citizens now that it is almost easy to lose count?”

   Reminded me of this comment that relates to a comparison I gave to Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International (Canada).

   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/06/12/its-official-second-class-citizenship-goes-into-effect/comment-page-2/#comment-6245902

4. It might be fun to put it this way to some of those commenters over at the Star article, Calgary411:

   Everyone in Canada is deportable except those whom no other nation can claim.

5. Fatca Crushes Minnows, the Sharks Do Better
   October 16, 2015
   Anne Bilson From Sydney Australia leading this WSJ Opinion/Letters section
   http://www.wsj.com/articles/fatca-crushes-minnows-the-sharks-do-better-1444941380

6. One commenter correctly daid:
   the law clearly violates section 15 of the Charter which bans discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, national or ethnic origin, etc. It must be repealed or it will be another Harper law struck down by the courts. And here’s a thought. We are all in trouble when the government starts sorting out any individual or group for “special treatment”.

7. @2terrified2sleep
   Those docs reminded me of the joke what is black and white and read all over? They seem to have used black and white to redact. Some of the redaction is odd, including what seems to be the signed US-UK IGA except for the signature.
   Interesting things:
   p. 602, 604, 612 possible EU litigation risk on U.S.-U.K. IGA.
   p. 615, 624 U.K. unhappy with insurance provisions on citizens and wanted change (Understandably, can anyone make sense of the first two pages on insurance in Switzerland?).
   p. 767 TFSAs and RDSPs highlighted as an issue vaguely.
   p. 1075 Talks about lack of publicity around FATCA before mid-2013.
   p. 1117 Some actually used the word holiday as a password! That is probably the most shocking thing.
   I googled Manal Corwin and she left mid-2013 to join KPMG, from whence she had come to Treasury. Perfect timing to help the financially sophisticated get their affairs in order before the December 2013 cutoff.

8. http://www.c-span.org/video/?328772-1/discussion-birthright-citizenship

9. Ok…we already knew about the irs poor security but here it is again…http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/14/half_irs_servers_still_running_win_2003/ and every time I read it the madder I become!!!!!

10. @Calgary411

    This CBC Ideas podcast is worth a listen, as it relates to Bill C-24 and all the current bills created to divide Canadians. “When we act like this we are failing ourselves”, says your popular Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi:

    Go to “Do the right thing”:

    https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/doing-right-thing-naheed-nenshi/id151485663?i=353570027&mt=2

11. IRS Collecting $8 Billion from Offshore Tax Compliance Push

    http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/irs-collecting-8-billion-from-offshore-tax-compliance-push-76119-1.html

12. Thanks, bubblebustin.

    Right on — another reason to like Calgary’s Mayor. And, I do! He is smart, has a whole lot of common sense and is, I think, well grounded. I often smile at his sense of humour in dealing with very serious issues — he stands up for what he believes. He believes in people and that they will know to do the right thing. I like that.

13. Yes, Calgary411, your mayor seems like a very principled person. I’m almost reluctant to say it but he has what is an Obama-like charm, only he seems very rooted in humanitarianism.

    It wouldn’t surprise me if Naheed Nenshi went federal at some point. Very charismatic.

14. Now the Compliance-Industrial Complex is trying to scare the diaspora into thinking that keeping their savings anywhere besides the US is grossly unsafe because evil foreign governments might try to confiscate it …
    https://redfolder.co/expatriate-maintaining-necessary-ties-to-the-homeland/

    If you are a US citizen, one of the most important ties to maintain when you live abroad, regardless of your legal citizenship status, is maintaining a U.S. dollar account in the U.S. In short, it is not a safe financial move to “put all your eggs in one basket” by converting all of your U.S. dollars to a foreign currency.

    While some foreign currencies are safer than others (Euro vs pesos in many Latin American countries – particularly those in political upheaval), it is undisputed fact that U.S. dollars are the benchmark for secure and stable savings. Further, it is best to keep those dollars IN the United States so they are out of reach of foreign governments. Although it is unlikely that your savings will be seized in, for example, London, the geopolitical climate is such that maintaining a U.S. dollar account in the U.S. is a prudent financial safety measure.

    There’s also this hilarious little bit, where the author decides that Almighty Government has the sole right to determine the “true” meaning of an ordinary English word:

    As we discussed in “Three essential things on becoming an expatriate” whether or not you are an “expatriate” as that term is defined by law has major consequences. While an increasing number of wealthy Americans do take the necessary legal steps to renounce their U.S. citizenship and thus, in legal terms, become true “expats”, an increasing number of U.S. citizens are also just simply living abroad – often for economic, health or other reasons. Many of those people also refer to themselves as “expats”.

15. Mayor Naheed Nenshi wasn’t afraid to ask re Bill C-24 — how did we let this happen? He believes in people and believes that they WILL do the right thing. He can tell the powerful stories of the 2013 flood over and over again and I will always have a tear in my eye. (Some though think he should mind his own business. He does get himself in trouble, but it is because he isn’t afraid to say what needs to be said — or at least that’s the way I see it.)

    http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/doing-the-right-thing-1.3247353

16. I like to check the Canadian Bankers Association’s web site for any changes to the FATCA customer info page once in a while. I see they’ve come out saying they’ve been forced into it:

    Do banks in Canada support the IGA?
    We understand that the U.S. government is attempting to reduce tax evasion, but we have publicly opposed FATCA as the wrong way to go about it. However, as the U.S. government has no intention of repealing FATCA, the CBA believes that entering into the IGA was the best approach under the circumstances.

    http://www.cba.ca/en/consumer-information/40-banking-basics/597-fatca-and-the-canada-us-intergovernmental-agreement-iga-information-for-clients-

17. @Eric
    That is hilarious.
    I do wonder if the whole argument about the benefits of protection comes about because Americans at home greatly overestimate the risks abroad. Recently I ran the term “American abroad” through a small database to find the phrases it was linked to in American English sources and about half the references seemed to involve the State Department warning that “Americans abroad” were at increased danger of terrorist attack. The other half seemed to be about fictional, really clueless Americans abroad. The overseas Indians’ organization names “Global Indians” who exemplify India abroad. Maybe ACA needs to do something similar to get over this very bad combination.

18. @bubblebustin,
    thanks for keeping tabs on the CBA. They’re a bunch of greedy weasels.

19. Eric, thanks for the amusing article.

    If grandma had given me US$10,000 on January 1, 2000 and I then put it into my no-interest checking account in the US and forgot about it, this is where I would be today against the Swiss Franc:
    Jan 1, 2000:
    US$10,000 = CHF 15’902

    Oct 16, 2015:
    US$10,000 = CHF 9’524

    The Swiss Franc has increased 67.0% in value against the USD over the past 15 3/4 years. It begs the question why someone would want to keep money in rubbery USDs?

20. @Eric: Amusing!

    I remain perplexed by the term homeland, which I have come to use also. When did this vaguely fascistic-sounding word come to be widely used? After 9/11?

    Anyway this article is also hugely ironic, because one of the dark forces menacing one’s money wherever it is (London or Brussels or Auckland or Sydney or …) is the Homeland itself!

21. Nice new tweet from Steven Jacobi @stejacobi

    https://twitter.com/stejacobi/status/655646535707967488

22. @Fred
    Yes, the word “Homeland” came in after 9/11. The naming of the Department of Homeland Security raised a few eyebrows among Americans because Homeland wasn’t a word Americans generally used before then.

23. @Fred, citizens of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact also considered their home to be the Homeland!!

24. @George
    Peggy Noonan, Reagan’s speechwriter, thought that it sounded too Teutonic and Nazi in a 2002 WSJ article subtitled “Homeland ain’t no American word.”

25. @Publius, thanks for that. It reinforces my use of the word which I use with disdain because it aptly describes what the usa has become.

    It IS the homeland.

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