Asian banks review US ties,  August 21, 2012

Cost will rise when tough new rules on derivatives come into force

SINGAPORE: Asian banks are reviewing relationships with their US counterparts to avoid being caught by tough new American rules on derivatives trading that are about to come into force.

From the start of next year, non-US banks that annually deal in at least US$8bil worth of products such as interest rate swaps with American counterparties are expected to be subject to new derivatives rules in the Dodd-Frank Act.

In practice that means they will need to register as swap dealers with US regulators and abide by their rules on capital requirements and risk management, all of which adds to costs.

“If I have the choice, I just don’t want to deal with a US person’,” said a treasury manager at a regional Asian bank.

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With a weak economy, massive debt and high unemployment, are accusations against a small minority of being financially greedy the best means of improving the economy or even increasing political power?  The latest propaganda from the US government seems to lean in that direction:

“I’m a Romney girl, in a Romney world. Life is taxless. It’s fantastic,” sings the fictitious Miss Swiss
The Globe and Mail

Such talk may very well appeal to masses of poor people who are struggling to meet their daily needs in a weak economy.  They certainly have much more serious things to worry about than to question the propaganda being fed to them by their government.  Thus, they may not realize that “Miss Swiss” isn’t even Swiss, or that the video clip “I’m a Romney Girl” is not real.

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Our leader of the Canadian Cheekiness Movement (CCM) may be finding himself in some interesting company, namely Carl Watner, an American historian of libertarian studies and Voluntaryist, and Paul LePage, the governor of Maine. With a great deal of aplomb, Watner’s drawn parallels between the actions of the US government and Nazi Germany, Governor LePage in remarks he recently made about the IRS.

In his paper, Watner make references to regulations, including FATCA, that are ‘reminiscent of what Nazi Germany did to its citizens in the years before World War II’.

The Noose Continues to Tighten But No Government Lasts Forever

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At the Daily Reckoning, Byron King has offered a three article history of the Whiskey Rebellion:

The Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion, Part II: Enforcing the Wealth Tax
The Whiskey Rebellion, Part III: Ending the Rebellion

Synopsis

After the Revolutionary War, the United States suffered chronic problems of debt and lack of revenue.  Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, created a tax imposed upon whiskey at its source.  This greatly upset the distillers of Western Pennsylvania who began to abuse the tax collectors.  As a result of this, President Washington mustered the army, which was in disarray, and so he supplemented it with the Virginia and New Jersey militias.  The Western Pennsylvania militia, on their way to attack Pittsburgh was met by a delegation of Pittsburgh men with wagons full of beer, beef and other food.  The Western Pennsylvania militia feasted and disbanded before Washington arrived with the US forces.  Washington proclaimed amnesty and the Whiskey Rebellion became a footnote of history.

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