Sometimes we need to remind ourselves why socialist big government is bad, why the welfare state is collapsing, and therefore why we need to take charge of our lives and go offshore. In the spirit of the tax protest Tea Parties in the USA, we enjoyed this piece by Vera Verba.

A man stops his car to let drivers from a parking lot enter the street. That sounds polite, doesn’t it? And if he were to let a dozen cars in front of him, that sounds impressively polite. But… What about the people who are behind him, all of whom are delayed? Is this man being polite to them?

Obviously, he is not. The people behind him are getting a raw deal. He is abusing them.

This man may never glance in his rear-view mirror and may drive away feeling like a saint, but he is not – he forced other people to pay for his good feelings. They are his victims, and, whether seen or not, they matter.

This same trick is played out endlessly. Politicians are famous for hiding the victims and exaggerating the benefits, leading to emotional news coverage glorifying them and portraying anyone who objects as cold, heartless and cruel. The great quote on this comes from the economist and scholar, Thomas Sowell:

The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people’s money away quietly and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.

Keep this concept in mind. A large number of the things people claim as evidence of their great compassion are actually things paid for by others. And they do not want the victims to be brought into view. It may fall to you, to speak up for those who were victimized by the “good deeds” of others. If the publicly-righteous refuse to see or acknowledge their victims, these people are not compassionate, but malicious – punishing others for their false self-esteem.

Victims are not to be ignored. Remember this.

The above piece is extracted with permission from Individual Virtue, the newsletter of Vera Verba. To see more like this or to subscribe free to the newsletter, click here.

We’ve talked plenty about how governments use fear to control the masses. Peter Macfarlane, joint editor of The Q Wealth Report and offshore banking and asset protection consultant, talks here about the latest example – the wave of fear sweeping the world – the Swine Flu Pandemic.

I could hardly believe the news about swine flu ‘pandemic’ today. But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised, should I? The last few entries here at the Q Wealth blog focused on how governments, politicians and major corporations (like drug companies, ahem) seek to control the masses using fear. We have talked about the fear of Islamic terrorism in the UK, and of right wing terrorists having tea parties in the USA. Here, with the fear of a swine flu pandemic, we have another prime example of this ‘fear factor’ being used to control the masses.

What surprised me the most was a White House spokesperson on TV announcing that a State of Emergency had been declared in the USA. 11 cases of the supposedly deadly Swine Flu from Mexico had been identified in the USA. Then, came a little tidbit of information that was almost lost in the news hype. Of those 11 cases, only one needed hospital treatment… and that one person had made a full recovery. Really? Ten people home with flu is a national emergency?

Since I watched that TV interview the number of cases in the USA has risen to twenty, reports Reuters.

Mexico did not raise its death count over the weekend, but there were worries that fatalities could surface elsewhere.

“I do fear that we will have deaths,” the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat said. She told reporters officials were preparing for the illness’ possible spread beyond the 20 cases confirmed in the United States.

Let’s examine that. Since the epidemic as announced in Mexico, the death count has not risen. Indeed, in another Reuters article that is entitled World Flu Epidemic Fear Rises, it is reported that actually most of the people affected in Mexico have been given a ‘clean bill of health.’ Why that good news should give rise to fear, I don’t know.

20 people are ill in the USA. Yet government officials are raising the fear factor by talking of deaths.

The factas as I see it: Apparently, there is some quite nasty flu going around. It doesn’t respond to treatment, but then again neither do most flus. There is, in fact, no cure for flu and never has been. Just like centuries ago, if you have flu you have to sweat it out, and let your immune system do the work. Some people have weak immune systems, and they can die from flu. It is not out of the ordinary. Fortunately, there are a lot of easy steps we can take to boost our own immune systems… like eating a balanced diet, getting enough sleep, and reducing stress. We can also take steps to avoid contagious diseases like flu, and the advice being put out by the powers that be is fine in this regard. These are all things we know anyway, but it doesn’t hurt repeating them.

In fact, somebody actually took the time to research it better than I did. According to an article at Rotting Nation entitled Swine Flu Fearmongering Center for Disease Control figures show 36,000 people die every year from regular flu in the United States alone. Maybe 81 in Mexico is really not such a high number? And there is even a video going around on Youtube of TV commercials warning of a Swine flu epidemic from 1976.

The point of this article, however, is not the flu. It is the fear factor. The fear factor that governments are using to control the masses.

The Mexican health services have, according to reports, been aware of this strain of flu for several weeks, and have been criticized for taking action too late. Actually, their action was precipitated by the USA. In other words, the Mexican government appear to have been forced into action by the United States government. The measures being imposed in Mexico now are draconian, to say the least. Unfortunately, the Mexican government tend to do pretty much what the USA tells them to do.

I should stress that we at Q Wealth are not conspiracy theorists. For the record I don’t think this is all a test run from some one world government, or that swine flu was deliberately created in a lab, or even that the fear is being deliberately propogated by the drug companies that manufacture flu vaccines.  But pf course the mainstream media is trying to increase ratings by using fear. And politicians are trying to benefit from this wave of publicity.

The fear factor is very effective at getting people to do things. Maybe one could, at a push, justify the use of fear to persuade people to do things that are in their best interests. You would have to take the view that people are too stupid to look after themselves, and that they need the government to protect them. That is not a view we subscribe to – quite the opposite in fact. We and our individual, freedom-loving readers believe that the best person to protect you is yourself.

Flu vaccines are highly controversial. I take vaccines for most things, but not to flu. After one year when we vaccinated our two kids against influenza and they had flu most of the winter, we stopped giving our kids flu vaccines even though the government tells us it would be good for us. Anecdotal evidence from other friends around the world, including friends who are medical professionals, seems to suggest the same. Flu vaccines don’t work. This of course is a personal decision with no scientific basis – but we must all exercise the rights to take decisions for our families.

The sad thing about the use of the fear factor is it is so destructive in other areas. In this case, how much heartache and stress is it causing? Even a circular I received about this flu from the US embassy a couple of days ago urged me, amongst other things, to ‘manage my stress’ as a means of boosting the immune system and warding off the flu. So how much stress are they causing by panicking the whole world?

I don’t claim to completely understand the world we live in. I know there are lots of factors at play, things going on behind the scenes in the corridors of power that we don’t know about. I don’t know why they are doing this to us. But there is no question that the government is out to control us. While we are all distracted by the flu pandemic, who knows what unpopular measures our ‘leaders’ will be hard at work on? Well there’s one I can tell you about right away – a new UK bill to boost government surveillance.

The only thing to do is to soldier on, and live the Sovereign Individual lifestyle we talk about so much. Health is the most important part of Wealth. (Our definition of Wealth, including how it includes health, can be found here). Only you can protect your health. Only you can protect your wealth and your monetary assets. Only by being aware of means of mass control, will you have the ability to keep your freedom, your liberty, and your wealth.

Fortunately, Q Wealth Report is here to help you achieve freedom, wealth and privacy. If you haven’t yet read our free five part course “Secrets of the Super Rich” I urge you to do so today. It’s free of charge and delivered by e-mail. This course will open your eyes to new ways you can achieve personal and financial freedom, and avoid mass control by governments. It will start you on a road of discovery that will leave you in full control of your life so you do not have to live in fear or under stress. Sign up for it today!

It was only yesterday, in our article Finger on the Pulse for Freedom, Wealth and Privacy that we wrote about how dissatisfied people all over the world have become with the system as we know it – but how you as an individual or family unit can still opt out pretty easily using the information presented by The Q Wealth Report. The numerous Tax Day Tea Party protests across the USA this week were further evidence of this grass roots campaign of taxpayers and citizens who want out.

Here at Q Wealth Report we are a firmly internationalist publication. Left or right in American politics doesn’t interest us. The US administration leads the world at repressing its citizens… no matter who is in power. The UK government follows suit – as described in yesterday’s article. (About spy chief Stella Rimington’s comments on how the UK government has been using fear to take away civil liberties.)

There were plenty of examples of government repression during the Bush era. Like illegal wiretapping of phone calls of ordinary Americans. Like internment without trial Guantanamo Bay, in blatant disrespect of the American values, morals and Constitution that this writer deeply respects.

But these just pale away in comparison to the biggest example of US government repression – the real scam against the American people. Yes, this repression is directed against the American people themselves – by instilling mass fear in them as a means of mass control – of taking away the civil rights of this same American people. The Freedom Alliance website, a right-wing think tank dedicated to ranting on Fox News and giving free steak dinners to retired members of the military, has a nicer-sounding way of describing this phenomena:  “The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance.” The solution? Let’s support our troops, blah blah blah. As if the military doesn’t cost the American people enough already…!

How about “the price of staying in the United States is Loss of Liberty?” We really wonder what Retired Colonel Oliver North, the leading light behind the Freedom Alliance, would think of that one? We will e-mail him and ask once we have published this and he is welcome to post a comment below. He might very well agree with us … and we find ourselves in the position of agreeing 100% with his recent sentiments on a recently leaked US government report on the Terrorist Risk from right-wing extremists that is available for download in pdf format at the Freedom Alliance website.

What is apparently new is this new-found angst in the US government about the risk of revolution from the people who object to paying too much tax in the USA. After all, the USA was founded on a revolution caused by taxes! I loved these bits of this US government report for example:

Exploiting Economic Downturn…  Rightwing extremist chatter on the internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors and home foreclosures.

…

Historically, domestic right-wing extremists have feared, predicted and anticipated a cataclysmic economic collapse in the United States. Prominent anti-government conspiracy theorists have incorporated aspects of an impending economic collapse to intensify fear and paranoia among like-minded individuals…

Remember these are quotes from a report about Potential Terrorists. It appears that we weren’t far off with humorous punchline of our article about freedom-loving PTs or Perpetual Travelers here…

Seriously though… if things have got that bad – that the US government considers its own citizens who are concerned about the collapse in the US economy or ‘perceived (?!) job losses’ a terrorism risk – then things really look pretty bleak, don’t they?

We truly believe that for our American cousins, the price of staying in the USA is loss of liberty. It doesn’t make an iota of difference at this stage if the President is left or right wing. You can either stay there and get caught up in the chatter and distractions or the name-calling between Fox News and CNN… or you can spend your time more productively, making sure the things most precious to you are safely protected, well outside US jurisdiction, away from US dollars, in safe assets like physical gold bullion or real estate in a place you could actually see yourself living.

If you are free to leave, our message is that you can achieve a safer, healthier, less stressful life by joining the hundreds of thousands of smart Americans currently voting with their feet and their money. At QWealthReport.com you will find plenty of information to help you do this. If you can’t leave the USA just yet, at least it behoves you to start exploring alternatives: New ways of protecting your assets against increasing political and economic risk, ways of banking offshore, or ways of obtaining a second passport for example. Ultimately, freedom is a state of mind. By putting all this political wrangling aside you can be free.

Oh and for the record, we agree with Oliver North’s request that Obama quotes Senator Barry Goldwater’s words on the subject: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

To be continued…

Q Wealth Report is a leading, privately-published newsletter dedicated to Freedom, Wealth and Privacy.

by Peter Macfarlane, non-resident banking and asset protection expert and joint editor of The Q Wealth Report

“We’re disillusioned.” “Fed up with the way things are.” “Obama stands for oppression.”

Those are just a few of the many comments people send me every single day. People are out there desperately searching for the kind of material we publish about Freedom, Wealth and Privacy. Ever since we started offering our free five part Secrets of the Super Rich course by e-mail, we have also sent out an additional e-mail soliciting feedback from readers. Plus, as most readers of this blog will know, I encourage all paid subscribers to approach our office for free informal advice, consultations and referrals.

Please be assured that, although at times another member of staff will reply, I personally read each and every one of these comments. And any consultations about offshore banking, investing, asset protection and so on are channeled to me (other topics are handled by other members of the Q Wealth Experts panel)

We’ve been getting a lot of new subscribers recently. So you can imagine my workload. I’m sorry if you have contacted me and there has been a delay replying. But I love this work and I think it’s the only way to keep my finger on the pulse. If I were a politician I would call it “listening to the grass roots.”

And what a strong signal is coming from those grass roots these days! People want out. They want out of the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and many other places. But what they are opting out of is not so much the countries, but the system. And I use the singular intentionally even though I’m referring to many countries. The system has become totally oppressive. Fortunately, Q Wealth is dedicated to empowering individuals to regain control of their lives and escape the ratrace that is the first or developed world today.

‘They’ used 9-11 to take away our civil rights. Now ‘they’ have used the financial crisis to take away a lot of our financial rights and our very own money! Who do you think is paying for the huge bailouts going on now? You, of course, dear reader. You are taking on debt in the name of future generations. Your kids growing up in this system will either be burdened with debt for several generations, or the system will have to go bankrupt. I predict the latter.

Fortunately, the secret is out. You can opt out of the system. More and more people are voting with their feet, taking their pounds and dollars offshore where it can still buy something of value. They are still a tiny minority, but a very fast growing minority.

Some of us are more natural gamblers than others. Some are happy moving offshore on a shoestring budget, confident in their abilities to make money and create long term wealth… from a new offshore, tax-free base somewhere in paradise.

Although we’re originally from the UK, you won’t have missed the fact that we are pretty keen on Latin America these days. Your money goes further and the quality of life is better. Above all, there is less stress… and you can make money on the internet by managing your capital, or through active e-commerce businesses, or even manage onshore real estate portfolios from offshore with a big tax advantage over your competitors.

Others will move offshore for purely ideological reasons. It’s about getting the government out of our hair. Escaping the culture of fear. Even many people who are in the system are disillusioned. I liked the recent comments of Dame Stella Rimmington, former head of the British Secret Service MI5 (the real life version of ‘M’ portrayed by Judi Dench in the Bond movies) who said of the terrorism threat: “It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I opted out of this rotten system a long time ago and you would never get me back. Offshore is more a state of mind than a place. A physical move, maybe a second passport, brings the most benefits. But you can start moving offshore, start creating that safety net or back-up plan, without leaving home – especially if your profession or business is portable. Now is the time. Don’t delay any longer, otherwise you will lose some of the advantage.  The word is out!

If you are looking for practical advice on Freedom, Wealth and Privacy, you have come to the right place. Here at The Q Wealth Report we don’t believe in scaring people. Like Dame Stella, we believe that we should all be prudent and recognize there are risks – and a lot of those risks have to do with the financial and political system that we cannot control. But rather than sitting crying to ourselves, or trying to swim against the current, let’s do something about it. That’s why you are here. Join us on the journey by subscribing to The Q Wealth Report today!

After all the hype about tax havens and offshore banking secrecy, the blacklist is no more. A BBC News Report announces that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has removed all four countries (Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uruguay) from its blacklist of tax havens.

“I’m pleased to say that those four jurisdictions have now made a full commitment to exchange information to the OECD standards,” said OECD chief Angel Gurria said speaking in Paris, as reported by the BBC. All four targeted countries have now agreed to adopt OECD standards.

Last week, the G20 leaders agreed in London to take sanctions against tax havens, using the OECD list as its basis. In their communique, they agreed “to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens“.

It appears that they now have no-one left to take action against, an apparent public relations victory against offshore bank secrecy and the international wealth management advice industry. However, as in most matters of international co-operation and the world of offshore banking and asset protection, there is a little more to this story than meets the eye!

With all the banking secrecy jurisdictions having in theory agreed to change their laws to co-operate on international fiscal matters, why bank offshore? It might appear that there is no future for those of us who believe that we should not be treated as criminals and that wealth we have earned through our own hard work should be allowed to grow unfettered by unnecessary and intrusive government regulations.

Peter Macfarlane’s article about the OECD, G20 and Much Ado About Nothing in the Offshore Banking World explains why this whole show is really nothing more than a publicity stunt by Messrs Brown, Obama and Sarkozy, and why the advice in the Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009 is still very much valid…

With that, we wish a very happy and peaceful weekend spent relaxing with loved ones to all our Q Wealth readers, wherever in the world they are. We too will be signing off and continuing to do business internationally to help the world’s entrepreneurs generate and create wealth.

by Peter Macfarlane, Offshore Banking expert for The Q Wealth Report

Strange as it may seem, given all the hype in the news recently, when I started to search on Google for the blacklist of non-co-operative tax havens and bank secrecy countries published recently by the OECD at the behest of the London G20 meeting, it was mighty hard to find the complete list! Even on the OECD site after visiting multiple pages, I found only a pdf file that by no means makes the blacklist clear.

I suppose I should not be surprised, however – for, as I wrote in my article G20 and OECD: Much Ado About Nothing this whole campaign is more about publicity, distractions and scare tactics than real action against tax havens. The list on the OECD site is obviously the result of a lot of political horsetrading – would you believe for example, after all the recent hype, that the OECD does not list Luxembourg and Switzerland as tax havens? And how on earth did Chile get on the list – did you ever hear anything about offshore banking in Chile? While Hong Kong, a major offshore financial hub,  escaped listing altogether, for fears of upsetting the Chinese.

Here, then, for the record is a complete list of non-cooperative tax havens as published by the OECD, for which I would like to thank the print edition of the Spanish newspaper El Pais dated April 4th, 2009. In fact, there are three lists: the blacklist (countries that ignore foreign fiscal authorities) a grey list (countries that supposedly lack fiscal transparency but have commited to change) and a third list, neither grey nor black, of countries that are “non-co-operative financial centres.”

THE BLACKLIST

Costa Rica, Philippines, Malaysia

THE GREY LIST (COUNTRIES THAT HAVE COMMITTED TO CHANGE)

Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrein, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey,  Isle of Man, Jersey, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Monserrat, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Niue, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, Vanuatu (Uruguay was oficially added to this list a few days later)

NON-COOPERATIVE FINANCIAL CENTRES

Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Chile, Guatemala, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland

by Peter Macfarlane, Offshore Banking Expert for The Q Wealth Report

To judge from my inbox, the grandstanding by G20 leaders and the OECD is having its desired effect. In fact, it has two aims:

1. Publicity that portrays Brown, Obama and Sarkozy in a positive light while distracting voters from all the problems at home, caused by bankers in their home countries.
2. Scaring people off investing money in tax haven banks (ie, those banks in countries where banking secrecy is written into the law).

Of course, we cannot afford to dismiss the new OECD blacklists out of hand. But neither should we panic. And above all we should not be rushed into decisions that could cause problems down the line. Strategy for building wealth offshore should be well thought out for the long term. If you are one of the many who are concerned that your tax and offshore banking arrangements may not stand up to new scrutiny, then you should be taking some action now to put things right – but not panicking. We are happy to refer our readers informally to appropriate professionals.

Tax evasion through offshore personal bank accounts really is a thing of the past. It’s been passe for years. It’s not a particularly attractive business for any tax haven bank because it has the potential to cause lots of problems for relatively little reward. There are so many ways you can legally protect your privacy without having to rely on bank secrecy. For those who are interested, I’ve written a more in-depth article on the subject of the G20, the OECD and Banking Secrecy here.

We never have and never will promote tax evasion in The Q Wealth Report. We believe in full compliance with all applicable laws. That is what we write about consistently, and we have done so for well over a decade. Our view is that offshore banking is just one essential part of an overall long term strategy. Most of the clients I deal with these days are not motivated so much by tax (although that is obviously one of their concerns.) Most people are going offshore these days motivated more by security, asset protection, and the much better opportunities that exist offshore to profit from the recession. You can work, invest, retire or live in the world’s best tax havens.

My clients detest instrusive, Big Brother style governments. They subscribe to the view that attempts to redistribute wealth will simply end up redistributing taxpayers, who are increasingly voting with their feet. Our belief is that it’s much better to be living legally tax-free in a low-cost, healthy, tropical paradise… earning your living or managing your investments over the internet from a secure country where banking service and secrecy still go hand in hand. Meanwhile you can watch on TV as things get worse and worse in G20 countries, rather than watching from your window!

I’ve always written that if you need to rely on banking secrecy to protect yourself, you might as well give up. By that I mean that if you want to protect your assets, you should hide them where they cannot be found. You should take care to avoid any and all paper trails leading to them. If nobody knows where to find your stash of cash, nobody will ask your offshore bank about you. That is true secrecy. If the taxman knows where your money is, it’s already too late.

I imagine some people will be reading this article as first time visitors to The Q Wealth blog, who are keen right now to know what banks and countries are safe to invest in. Well my basic advice is to wrap everything in secure offshore corporate structures (for example, Belize or Panamanian corporations). Do this through reputable professionals who respect security – not through internet merchants competing to provide the lowest price, who just want to sell you a stack of papers and then move on to the next case (until it is time to charge your annual renewal fee).

If you feel that your financial arrangements are not watertight, then now is a good time to start taking a look at them. Offshore banking is one important aspect of any overall financial privacy and asset protection structure – it is covered in our free e-book The Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009. Then, you should be looking at other wealth preservation and alternative investment strategies – for example, we have another free e-book covering Precious Metals Investments. Gold Bullion is one of the most secure, inflation-proof investments, and in the e-book we tell you how you can legally buy and store it offshore. Oh, and did I mention that there is absolutely no requirement to report gold bullion on your tax returns?

Then there are many other things you can do to protect your assets and help them grow. Consider second residency or even a second passport. By now we are getting more in to intangibles. Second passports can increase your security and flexibility. Then again, they could solve any OECD/G20 banking secrecy problems at a stroke! By changing your citizenship to a neutral country that does not tax its expatriates, you can give your asset portfolio and offshore bank account a new lease of privacy.

Of course, in this article we can only scratch the surface. The good news is that in our quarterly Q Wealth Report newsletter you will benefit from our first hand reporting and updating of news affecting your offshore investments. We don’t just get our information from the internet. I myself spent last week flying around Europe for a series of meetings with high level bankers and tax haven government officials, because I know the things they say off the record often mean more than the committments they make on the record.

As a subscriber to Q Wealth Report, not only do you obtain instant access to those two e-books plus a series of other special reports and white papers, but you will have access on an ongoing basis to this unique first-hand insight that I don’t believe you will find anywhere else. You will also have privileged access to our network of Q Wealth Experts. These are people located around the world who know and understand, live and breathe, freedom, wealth and privacy.

With the right team on your side, the latest OECD efforts really are “much ado about nothing.”