by Peter Macfarlane

Yesterday, 30th November 2011, something very significant happened that I would like to inform you about. It was briefly reported in the mainstream media, but was not analyzed correctly.

Lots of people have asked me recently if the Euro was going to collapse. Yesterday the answer to this question became very clear to me. I can now confidently make predictions. Is the Euro going to collapse? The answer is both yes and no. Allow me to explain…

Regular readers will know that I frequently refer you to the big picture, telling you to forget about the noise of the daily ups and downs reported on TV and in the press. The big picture is very grim when viewed in conventional terms, though it also opens up the greatest wealth-creating opportunities in generations. We are living in a very exciting time with a real change in power taking place. More on this later and here at the Q Wealth site.

DICTATORSHIPS IN EUROPE, SUSPENSION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IN THE USA

Against my own advice to follow the big picture and avoid being distracted by day-to-day news, I got caught up in following the recent Euro crisis. Granted, it has certainly been quite spectacular.  Italy’s and Greece’s democratically elected governments have been replaced by technocrats.  The amazing thing is that most people don’t appreciate the severity of two EU governments effectively being replaced by dictatorships controlled from outside those countries. (Spain’s decisive change in government is more positive, the result of a landslide general election, and generally makes me more positive on Spain’s future.)

In the same way, most people don’t seem to appreciate the significance of Senator John McCain introducing an amendment on Tuesday that allows the American army to arrest and intern American citizens forever without the right to trial. Call me old fashioned, but the mere fact that such a proposal could even be debated in the US Senate shocks me on one level… never mind the fact that it could actually pass. When I grew up, this was something we would have expected of the Soviet Union, not the USA. I think it was James Madison, the primary author of the US constitution, who said “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy”.

On a practical level, however, this news of the suspension of basic civil rights in the USA doesn’t shock me at all. It reminds me why I vowed several years ago never to set foot on US territory again while the current system of US government (Democrat-Republican) remains, because I really don’t consider it safe. But I digress. I was supposed to be writing about economics. Back to the story.

All this theatre distracted me from my own insight. I can now confidently say that the Euro will not appear to collapse. It will continue to exist in some form or another. Why? Because the Federal Reserve will not let the euro collapse. To do so would trigger a dollar collapse. Yesteday’s news makes this very clear, and also exposes the usual suspects who play along with the US and Europe (regrettably including Switzerland, but notably not including Australia).

Here are some selected quotes from Bloomberg and The Street (here and here) published yesterday, that tell the story:

The Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, Swiss National Bank, Bank of Canada and Bank of England have joined together to make more dollars available at cheaper prices in an effort to ease liquidity strains in financial markets.

Central banks agreed to establish temporary bilateral currency swap arrangements “so that liquidity can be provided in each jurisdiction in any of their currencies should market conditions so warrant,” the Fed said today in a press release, calling the agreement a “contingency measure.”

Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., called the bilateral arrangements “a novel step and a curious feature of today’s announcement” that “are apparently being set up as a backup plan in the event of a worsening in global financial conditions.”

So rather than European operations of Citigroup Inc. or Morgan Stanley seeking euros from the ECB, the Fed could contribute to euro liquidity by doling out loans to those institutions in the U.S.

Europe isn’t facing a liquidity crisis. The world is facing a structural solvency crisis in which businesses, governments and individuals have all borrowed money — and made promises — that cannot be repaid unless more money is printed (or, more specifically, until more credit is issued).

This actually strikes me as more than a little ‘curious.’ So now the Fed is going to start bailing out American banks with Euros???!!!

It doesn’t make a lot of sense… unless you go back to my original stealth devaluation premise, described in this Q Wealth article from November 2010 as well as earlier articles.

NO, THE EURO WILL NOT COLLAPSE

I take yesterday’s news as a clear signal that the euro is not going away any time soon. It will probably maintain approximately its current exchange rate against the dollar, give or take a few points. It is even likely to gain a bit, since this new multi-currency form of quantitative easing is clearly based on printing more dollars, not euros. So looked at from this point of view, I say the euro is not going to collapse.

One could certainly argue that America is bailing out Europe on one level. But I don’t really buy that either. America desperately needs to devalue the dollar as being the only hope of ever repaying debts. America is not in a better shape than Europe. The European crisis is nothing more than a distraction from a much bigger problem.

YES, THE EURO WILL COLLAPSE

On the other hand, in reality the euro already has collapsed, and it has a lot further to go. Looked at it from this point of view my answer is ‘yes, sure, the Euro will collapse.’ It’s just that the US and Canadian dollars, the yen, the pound sterling and the Swiss Franc are all going down the toilet too, in a co-ordinated global effort, at much the same speed. The central bankers are just hoping that the population won’t notice.

Of course, people are beginning to notice that something is wrong – very wrong. Grass roots citizen movements like the Tea Parties and the the ‘Occupy’ movements effectively share the same goal: to change a system of government that has become thoroughly corrupt, dysfunctional and despotic.

DECISIVELY CLOSER TO ONE GLOBAL CURRENCY

Yesterday we moved decisively closer to one, global currency, with the governments of major western economies all making this concerted move. Let’s look at how the euro came into existence, and consider the parallels with what we are seeing today wit the US, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, UK and the EU… According to Wikipedia:

In 1971, US President Richard Nixon removed the gold backing from the US dollar, causing a collapse in the Bretton Woods system that managed to affect all of the world’s major currencies. The widespread currency floats and devaluations set back aspirations for European monetary union. However in March 1979 the European Monetary System (EMS) was created, fixing exchange rates onto the European Currency Unit (ECU), an accounting currency, in order to stabilise exchange rates and counter inflation. It also created the European Monetary Cooperation Fund (EMCF).

That last organization sounds suspiciously similar to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF). Anyway, time passed, and internal bickering in Europe continued. Fast forward to 1999.

The currency was introduced in non-physical form (traveller’s cheques, electronic transfers, banking, etc.) at midnight on 1 January 1999, when the national currencies of participating countries (the Eurozone) ceased to exist independently in that their exchange rates were locked at fixed rates against each other, effectively making them mere non-decimal subdivisions of the euro.

It was not until several years later that the euro as we now know it came into being. Still, a lot of people don’t want to give up the old currencies. As an aside, for example, I found this interesting:

Efforts to secure the return of German coins continue. In 2005, Deutsche Telekom modified 50,000 pay phones to take Deutsche Mark coins, at least on a temporary basis. Callers were allowed to use DM coins, at least initially, with the Mark pegged to equal one euro, almost twice the usual rate.

I suggest you take time to reflect on this precedent. I don’t have all the answers, but we do seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where the US dollar, the euro, the pound and other currencies become ‘mere non-decimal subdivisions’ of a global currency unit. These things take time and are not immediately obvious. You should, however, be very scared by this prospect.

WHO ARE THESE CENTRAL BANKERS?

And who are these Central Bankers? Are they pawns of the Morgans, the Rothschilds, the Queen, the church, the Obamas, the corporatists, the globalists, creatures from Jekyll Island…?

I really don’t care. If someone tries to mug me on the street my instinct will be either to defend myself, or to make a pragmatic, fast decision that it’s smarter to comply with the attacker’s demands. But I certainly won’t be worrying about the pedigree of the attacker. The same applies here.

All I can say, is these people clearly have the support of all branches and forms of all major governments. That’s right, those nice people like Senator McCain who want the right to lock you in jail and throw away the key, without having to worry about trifling details like the facts of the case. “Facts,” says McCain, “are stubborn things.”

HOW LONG CAN YOU REMAIN LEGAL?

The time has certainly come – as if you are being mugged – to panic, then quickly and calmly to do whatever is necessary save yourself and your family. If you can’t physically move yourself directly out of danger fast, the safest course of action is to keep up all appearances of complying with the attacker’s demands. That way you can stealthily move assets and family members out of harm’s way.

Where possible, you should not just maintain the appearance of compliance. You should actually be compliant. That is still possible, just. In The Q Wealth Report, we frequently give you details of compliant offshore banking and investment structures.

However, you should keep in mind that one day soon, the time might come when it is impossible to remain compliant. Hidden currency and exchange controls like FATCA are hastening this day. When that day finally arrives, you will be forced to make possibly the most difficult decision of your life – do you break the law, or do you allow the government to pillage your assets? If you are not very careful, you might end up doing both.

PROTECTING YOURSELF WITH A SECOND CITIZENSHIP

There are ways to protect yourself. Obtaining a second foreign passport for you and your family is one of the best. This will give you the option of renouncing your existing citizenship later. It’s very relevant for US citizens now, but could also be relevant for citizens of other countries that, out of desperation, will try to follow the US lead and tax even their non-resident citizens on worldwide income. FATCA will put the information required to do this at their fingertips.

Look at the example of Uruguay. Uruguay long taxed its residents only on domestic income. But last year, they suddenly announced that forthwith, Uruguayan residents would also be taxed on income from overseas investments. To paraphrase the President, he said the only reason they hadn’t taxed overseas income before was that they didn’t have the means to do so. The signing of a series of tax information exchange agreements, ironically under the pressure of the OECD who considered Uruguay a tax haven, had changed this – now, with these treaties, they did have access to information on the overseas holdings of Uruguayans. So they started taxing.

The UK, Canada, France or Australia could turn around and do the same thing tomorrow – and in the current climate, rich tax exiles would undoubtedly be a politically popular target.

You’ll find more information on second passports here and in almost every issue of The Q Wealth Report.
BUY PHYSICAL GOLD

Gold already shot up yesterday on the news of the new multi-currency QE program. Physical gold stored in a safe, offshore jurisdiction is undoubtedly one safe store of value. As I said in my original stealth devaluation articles, those who look at gold as their base reference currency, rather than as a simple investment, will see the real crash of the euro, the dollar, the pound et al.

Don’t be fooled into buying things like the Gold ETF. Find out why in our Free Gold Report.

OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNTS TO AVOID THE GLOBAL STEALTH-DEVAULATION CONSPIRACY

As bad as government-issued fiat money is, you’ll probably need to keep some in the short term at least. For this reason, we recommend opening a multi-currency bank account somewhere offshore (that is, outside your home country and its immediate sphere of influence). This way you can keep money out of the big currencies, in the money of nations that are not participating in the global stealth devaluation conspiracy.

This will give you access, for example, to offshore credit and debit cards that work across the board – always provided plastic payment cards continue to be accepted, bearing in mind that emergency currency controls could cut them off at any time.

Further information on the practicalities of how to open an offshore multi-currency bank account, including anonymous numbered accounts (yes – they still exist!) and offshore corporate bank accounts, is available in Q Wealth’s Practical Offshore Banking Guide. The 2011 edition is currently available for download in our Members’ Area, and will be replaced before the end of the year with the drastically updated 2012 edition.

READ Q WEALTH REPORT

There’s a lot more I could say about practical strategies for protecting your assets, but I’ll save that for the articles my colleagues and I write regularly in The Q Wealth Report and our series of exclusive special reports. You might also be interested in attending BFI’s Asset Protection event in the Bahamas in January, where a host of experts will be discussing this subject.

If you’re not ready to make a monetary commitment yet, please consider signing up for our free newsletter and/or free sample reports on important topics that are available at this site. Remember there is no obligation, you are free to unsubscribe at any time, and we will not pass your e-mail address to any third parties.

To conclude on a positive note, as I said at the beginning, the crisis we are just entering now will result in huge transfers of wealth, more than we have seen in our lifetimes. Those who keep their savings in fiat money will lose most of it. Those who invest their fiat money smartly and quickly, while it still buys things that are of value, stand to make almost obscene profits. Which side will you be on? Are you with us or with the government?

“The Dethroning of the US Dollar could happen sooner than you think,” says Keith Fitz-Gerald in a recently published article. The implications of this for asset protection purposes are huge – now is the time to diversify out of the collapsing dollar, and protect your wealth and assets through the use of offshore corporate banking structures.

By Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director Money Morning/The Money
Map Report

By now virtually every investor has heard the argument that the U.S.
dollar is slated to lose its status as the global reserve currency. And that’s
good – as far as it goes.

What’s bad is that many of these investors have yet to latch onto the fact
that this could happen much sooner than many people realize and in a
manner that will catch most by surprise.

Let’s take a look at the three key reasons that this shift away from the U.S.
dollar happening – and sooner rather than later:

1. The Asian Region Currency Partnership: Japan, once the staunchest of
U.S. allies, is leading the charge to form a regional currency partnership
based on closer ties between itself, China and South Korea. Ostensibly
part of the second trilateral “leader’s meeting,” that happened earlier this
year, financial cooperation was front and center on the agenda (at Japan’s
invitation) as a means of coping with the ongoing global financial crisis
and with the subsequent resumption of worldwide financial growth. It was
also key to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
discussions that took place this past weekend – with the waning influence
of the U.S. economy again playing a key role in the discussion amongst
potential ASEAN trading block partners.

At a time when U.S. leaders are fooling only themselves by pretending
this country remains the key player in the health of the worldwide
economy, Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama didn’t
mince words following the trilateral meeting when making such comments
as “until now we have been too reliant on the United States” and “I would
like to develop policies that focus more on Asia” to press-corps attendees.

Having spent 20 years in the region, I can’t say I’m surprised by this
development. And you shouldn’t be, either. Between China, South Korea
and Japan, we’re talking about 16% of the world’s gross domestic product
(GDP) – a figure that’s growing almost daily, by the way.

There are obviously some significant challenges, given the cultural
sensitivities that remain in the region as a result of World War II. But even
those are being trumped by today’s serious global financial demands. After
the three-nations met, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao noted that “we
have agreed to seek common ground and shelve our differences.”

In a column written from my family home in Japan earlier this year, I
noted how important it is to “read between the lines” when investors are
attempting to decode English-language statements being made by officials
in Japan or China. It’s not what’s actually being said – at least, not as
Westerners hear it – that’s important. That’s actually been shifted a bit by
the translator. You really have to go back and make an effort to see just
what it was the official actually meant.

Granted, that’s not the easiest of exercises. But it does force you to really
look at what’s taking place – which will usually give you a much-more
accurate picture than if you just trust what’s said by the Western press.

So Wen Jiabao’s statement can be construed as it’s “time to get down to
business.”

2. When “Black Gold” is No Longer Quoted in Greenbacks: Middle
Eastern nations and members of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) finally couldn’t contain themselves any
longer and leaked information a few weeks back that they’re pursuing a
non-U.S. dollar trading basket as a replacement for the current U.S. dollar-
traded oil markets.

We’ve been forecasting this for some time. The difference this time around
is that the Middle Eastern nations are now all but openly in cahoots with
China, Russia, Japan and France – all of whom the United States continues
to blithely believe it can outmaneuver.

While the meetings have been held in secret, my sources in Hong Kong
and the Persian Gulf region suggest that the move is imminent and that the
establishment of an independent trading market is all that’s keeping us
from a day in which oil prices are no longer quoted in dollars. Oil will
instead trade in the combined basket using currencies from the nations I
just mentioned. Led by China and potentially – although this is a big leap -
tied in good measure to the yuan.

As a side note, this may at least partially explain the rise in gold prices as
enlightened traders begin to hedge the dollar’s ultimate demise. This
makes sense for two reasons: First, China uses oil in an incrementally
greater proportion than the United States because it remains less energy
efficient. That means that China will take in an increasingly larger
percentage of world supplies.

Second, gold is the only “currency” that is potentially liquid enough to
serve as a transitional store of value until the new currency basket arrives.  Pun absolutely intended.

Incidentally, you can expect Brazil and India to join the party shortly,
leaving the United States even further out in the cold. And while we’re at
it, my guess is that the new oil markets will be based in Shanghai, and not
in New York or Chicago.

Watch, too, as the United Kingdom is dragged – kicking and screaming -
to the euro because it will have no choice but to abandon the U.S. dollar.

3. U.S. Firms Are Already Adopting a China Focus: While ostensibly
supporting the recovery here, major U.S. companies are already looking at
what it will take to list their shares on China’s stock exchanges. Although
I’ve been following this story for at least two years, it’s received almost no
attention in the U.S. news media. When it does happen – and it will – this
will be one of the biggest wakeup calls yet for those Western investors
who refuse to acknowledge Asia’s economic ascendance.

I’m not talking about fringe companies here, either. I’m talking about
stalwarts like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), The Coca-Cola Co.
(NYSE: KO), and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), to name just a few.
In short, companies that U.S. investors view as American as apple pie are
pushing to be viewed as Asian as quickly as possible.

I originally thought this wouldn’t happen for five to seven years (which is
still faster than most investors believed possible). Instead, I give this shift
12 months to 24 months – at most – before we see the first listings.

The fallout from this will be considerable. The historic financial centers of
London and New York will take yet another step to the sideline as new
Asian markets emerge.

To some, this will sound like scary stuff. But uncertainty breeds
opportunity. And savvy investors will welcome the changes because there
will be a fascinating fallout that almost no one is talking about.

The emergence of Asia as a true global financial center will make it so
much easier to raise capital in that part of the world. All this new Asian
capital will likely lead to a new golden age of investing – certainly in Asia,
but also in the United States and Europe to the extent that companies that
pursue these listings will have newfound sources of capital to buttress
their balance sheets.

Not all companies will be regarded equally, however. For investors, the
best choices will be those companies that can immediately use the money
they raise through Chinese offerings to enhance their global operations,
increase worldwide sales, and cement their relationships with sources of
Asian capital.

So if there’s one key take away in all this, it’s this to paraphrase the words
of American writer Ruth E. Renkel: “Don’t fear shadows – they simply
mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.”

Note: Keith Fitz-Gerald  is the Chief Investment Strategist for Money Map Press LLC, as well as for Money Morning, a daily global investing news service with more than 500,000 daily readers in 30 countries. He is one of the world’s leading experts on global investing, particularly when it comes to Asia’s emergence as a global powerhouse. He contributed this article to Q Wealth Report.

by Peter Macfarlane

Last week, I wrote an upbeat article on the future of Swiss private and offshore banking, entitled “The Future of Swiss Banking Looks Better than Ever.” This article focused mainly on the recently averted US trade war with Switzerland, and how the IRS got the publicity it wanted to scare people into compliance. It appears that the deal between the IRS and Switzerland regarding UBS account holders has still not been fully resolved, dragging out the publicity machine still further.

But how is this strategy playing out in the rest of the world? Another much vaunted tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) is that which the UK has been negotiating with Liechtenstein. A press release put out by the HMRC (British tax authorities) states firmly that “Those who have been evading UK tax on assets held in Liechtenstein banks must now settle with us. There are no alternatives.”

Is that true? Not really. At any rate there is certainly no need to rush into any hasty decisions…  as the Press Release notes, “The Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) runs from 1 September 2009 to 31 March 2015.”

This oddly-named Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility even more oddly also offers “a special Bespoke Service, including an option for personalised treatment by a `discrete [sic] HMRC (UK Revenue and Customs) team to ensure consistency of treatment’” notes TJN. At least it sounds like private banking clients will be getting the VIP service and treatment they are accustomed to!

There are more details which actually make this TIEA extremely favorable to the taxpayer, that I won’t go into here but can certainly cover in-depth in a future article in The Q Wealth Report. The bottom line is that this agreement – even more so than the US-Switzerland example – is more words and political posturing than anything else.

Brits with undeclared holdings in Liechtenstein probably need not be unduly worried, though it is clearly time to start looking into alternatives. One good alternative beckons in Panama for example – the Panama Foundation laws are almost a carbon copy of the famed Liechtenstein Anstalt or Foundation, and there is no TIEA with the UK.

But Brits at least have the option for completely and legally eliminating income taxes at a stroke. And those with undeclared holdings in Liechtenstein have until 2015 to do it. I’m talking, of course, about simply following their money and retiring overseas.

Contrast that to the USA where the IRS is dedicating more and more resources to pursuing thousands non-resident US citizens whom, it believes, are not filing their taxes properly. Americans are left with only one option to legally eliminate US taxes for ever – and that is renunciation of citizenship. It’s a big step, but certainly an option that Americans now seem to be taking up in droves – the brain drain I’ve often talked about. I’m seeing lots of American clients who at least want to establish residency somewhere offshore with a view to keeping their options open. Smart Americans are leaving and taking their money with them.

But it’s not nice to be stateless. So in order to renounce citizenship, or even just to keep their options open, US citizens need to be thinking about acquiring a second passport - whether it be via the slower and more secure route to a new citizenship through residence and naturalization, or the faster route of buying a second passport via economic citizenship programs.

Away from the USA and the UK, all around the world, tax havens targeted by the OECD and G20 summit in April amid a blaze of publicity seem to be getting back to business as normal. Belgium, hardly a low tax nation but another producer of fine chocolate – and one that perhaps surprisingly has substantial interests in managing non-resident bank accounts, just completed the hurdle of signing twelve TIEAs necessary to get off the blacklist. The last five countries they signed with? Singapore, the Seychelles, San Marino, the Isle of Man, and Monaco.

The cracks in the crackdown are beginning to show. A study recently published in Germany claims that “Tax is the price of civilization. Tax havens are the price of globalization.” Governments know that already and act accordingly. Just don’t expect them to admit it in public. And expect them to ramp up the use of scare tactics and bluffing to keep the populace under control.

Further reading: Writer Peter Macfarlane is a commentator, writer and consultant on offshore banking and asset protection matters. He offers a free personal e-mail consultation to all Q Wealth Members. If you are not yet a member, join today for instant access to Peter’s reports including the Practical Offshore Banking Guide, The Gold Report, and “Panama Foundations Demystified.”

“We are moving rapidly to a corporatist/fascist model” says Vera Verba for The Q Wealth Report

Things have begun declining rapidly in the US!

Obama’s health care takeover has a lot of normal Americans very angry. I now see and hear angry comments about this plan from non-political types at stores, on the street, etc. But, once these people show up at a meeting and complain, the elites slander them as carrying swastikas (Pelosi), being “funded by billionaires,” and having hidden racism and anger because there is now a black President.

These political elites evidently can’t handle dissent, and so, whoever opposes them is not only incorrect, they must be evil. Hence, we see things like this clip from the vile MSNBC:

We are moving rapidly to a corporatist/fascist model. Not only do we hear an abundance of “those who disagree with us are evil” comments, but the large institutions are lining up with Obama – even groups like the pharma lobby and AARP, whom you would expect to oppose such a system; one that controls pharma companies and will withhold treatment from old folks.

You may now expect the elites to get serious about undermining Talk Radio in the US.

The financial situation (currently in a Bailout Bubble) appears ready to fall apart again, and what happens this time is anyone’s guess.

In Production Versus Plunder, I was forced to conclude (against my initial inclinations) that Western Civilization is doomed. I said that there was a chance to avoid mass systemic collapse, but that it would be difficult. The hard thing (which I did not try to do in the book) is to predict when this happens. This week, it has begun to look more like years rather than decades. Was this just one bad week? I dunno.

So, it’s getting scary. (And there is an overflow of bad news from the EU as well.) I don’t have any specific predictions to throw at you, but the past week has not made me more optimistic.

Further reading: The writer is a member of the Q Wealth Panel of Experts as well as being author and publisher of many interesting books. If you are interested in more predictions about the Doom of Western Civilization, along with practical solutions to prosper from it, you might enjoy Dr Richard Cawte’s piece How to Prosper from the Coming Shift in Power that makes up the last part of our free five part course covering Offshore Banking, Asset Protection and Wealth Creation matters. You can obtain the free course by entering your e-mail address in the signup box above, or at this link: The Secrets of the Super Rich

PT privacy thinkers, wealth creators and offshore philosophers like us are constantly amazed by the bizarre and insane things happening in the world. We only need to turn on CNN, BBC or Fox News to be amazed.

Amazement, I believe, is a source of infinite richness. When we were children, we could easily be amazed at all the things the world had to offer. It’s something that we lose as we grow up, unfortunately. “I’ve seen it all before,” is a typical attitude.

The thing these days is that I am amazed not so much by what the world has to offer (a lot) but by how stupid some – dare I say most – of its inhabitants are.

Fortunately, readers of The Q Wealth Report can sit back with a certain smugness and quiet inner confidence because we know what’s going on. Well, sort of.

We can laugh, for example, about the swine flu saga, which officially passed off the radar a few days ago and is now a non-issue. I don’t normally have time for internet jokes but I saw a great internet floater yesterday with some real and photoshopped images of face masks making fun of the whole swine flu fiasco. I can send it to anyone who is interested.

But what was behind Swine flu? A huge transfer of wealth, that’s what. Some people lost (small Mexican restaurant owners), some people (those selling snake oil, vaccines, face masks and state health services for example) certainly gained. More than that, I don’t know. I don’t get in to conspiracy theories. Or as libertarian writer H.L. Mencken said,

“The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.”

On that note, here are a few more thoughts from Mencken for the weekend. Mencken, for those who don’t know him, was an American journalist and newspaper man known as the Sage of Baltimore. Wikipedia calls him “one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century.”

Mencken On Taxes

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

Mencken On Change

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth – that the error and the truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cure of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

Mencken On Democracy

[Democracy is] based upon propositions that are palpably not true and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true. They turn, in all the great emergencies of life, to the ancient promises, transparently false but immensely comforting, and of all those ancient promises there is none more comforting than the one to the effect that the lowly shall inherit the earth.

Mencken On God:

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money.

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

“Obama Plan Aims to Limit Use of Offshore Havens by Multinationals and the Wealthy” is the subheading of a Wall Street Journal article entitled Firms Face New Tax Curbs.

Hot on the heels of the crackdown on tax havens announced in the UK budget, President Obama today reveals what White House press officers are hyping as “a far-reaching crackdown on offshore tax avoidance and evasion, targeting many U.S.-based multinational corporations and wealthy individuals.”

Ironically this new attack does draw attention to the fact that there is a great benefit for American companies and wealthy individuals to going offshore completely legally. If you’ve been wondering whether all this “offshore stuff” is completely legal, here you have your answer!

The proposed changes, if they happen, will take place between 2011 and 2019. So how much money can you save by going offshore legally right now, starting with your 2009 tax bill, even if you have to make some changes over the coming decade?

As the article points out, however, the current tax system is actually very beneficial to American companies running business internationally. The pharmaceutical and technology industries are cited as particular beneficiaries, as are high net worth (HNW) individuals. Treasury and IRS officials acknowledge it has become much more commonplace in recent years for both businesses and  individuals to take advantage of low taxes as well as lack of transparency in many offshore tax havens.

So going offshore may not be politically correct, but it certainly is legal and beneficial… and morally the right thing to do as well, if you don’t approve of what the government does with taxpayers’ billions. In this situation I’m reminded of the famous tax case judged by Judge Learned Hand that I quoted in the Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009:

This decision became one of the bases of the US tax system at the IRS code.

Of course, it’s not an accident that the current tax system is very beneficial to American companies doing business overseas. The aim of previous governments that originally introduced this policy was to encourage American companies to do business overseas. Exports of goods and services were the mainstay of the American economy… until somewhere along the road the Chinese took over this role and the American economy became bloated by more and more money created out of thin air through dodgy banking transactions.

American technology firms like Microsoft or Google lead the world. Very likely if benefits like this had not been in place, they would not have decided to base themselves in the USA.

Obama, of course, knows this too… but he’s on the bandwagon at the moment trying to benefit from publicly cracking down against perceived abusers of the tax system.

Making it more difficult for these major pharmaceutical and technology firms to do business could be yet another disaster for the US economy. Microsoft alone has an economy bigger than many countries, and they are actually very well diversified geographically already. It would not take much to move their home base outside the USA, and I believe they would consider doing so in a flash if circumstances warranted it. Obama also doesn’t want to lose the likes of Microsoft and Google over a little publicity stunt, so he will have to take care.

Likewise, the High Net Worth investors who are sophisticated enough to be doing offshore are likely the ones who are actually creating wealth for the American economy. They are to be encouraged. If they leave the USA, the USA will be the loser, not the individuals.

So what will come of this? Frankly not much I believe. It is hype, designed to appeal to the masses, circulated by the mass media. To scare people off unsophisticated tax evasion tactics like having unreported personal offshore bank accounts … puehhlease!!!

People who read The Q Wealth Report know better than to believe the hype or break the law. We explain exactly how you can benefit from going offshore legally. We even offer a free five part course so if you are not yet amongst the super wealthy HNWs, you can become one. Module 1 of our free Secrets of the Super Rich course is about Offshore Banking. This one and the other four modules will allow you, in about ten minutes a day, to gain a new perspective of the world we live in – and the way you can prosper within it. We will show you ways you can legally create wealth offshore because of the recession – not in spite of it.

As I said at the beginning, this new attack does draw attention in no uncertain terms to the fact that there is a great benefit for American companies and wealthy individuals to going offshore completely legally. How much money can you save by going offshore legally right now, even if you have to make some changes over the coming decade? Start today with the Secrets of the Super Rich and The Q Wealth Report

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!

No, it’s NOT the beginning of the end for tax havens, but they will be slightly different… by Shannon Roxborough for The Q Wealth Report

Mistakenly viewed primarily as playgrounds of the ultra-rich, vehicles for tax evasion and shelters of the proceeds of criminal activity, the 40 some territories around the globe that are considered tax havens have been receiving some unwelcome attention lately.

It has, in fact, been a rough past year or so for the world’s low-tax and offshore centers. They are finding themselves increasingly in the crosshairs of the cash-strapped G-20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based bureaucracy run by high-tax nations such as the United States, UK, Germany and France.

Desperate to prop up their ailing economies, these countries are aggressively seeking to replace some of the trillions in taxpayer money that been used for stimulus packages and handed over to corporate interests in the form of bailouts.

In the latest escalation of the war on fiscal shelters, in their zeal to track down wealthy tax evaders, industrialized nations are intent on shredding privacy laws the world over. Half a dozen countries from Switzerland to Hong Kong have already caved to international pressure and threats of sanctions, agreeing to lift the veils of secrecy that have shrouded them for decades, and in some cases, centuries.

The momentum against tax havens started picking up speed last year thanks to U.S. Senator Carl Levin, a long-time foe of offshore tax havens, who insists they deprive government coffers of $100 billion in annual revenues and says “Tax havens are engaged in economic warfare against the United States and honest, hard-working Americans”—some argue that high total U.S. tax burden, which wipes out about half of most Americans’ incomes, is economic warfare.

The U.S. Congress last March began zeroing in on Swiss bank secrecy after UBS admitted helping American clients conceal assets from the government. The OECD recently blacklisted Switzerland and a number of other countries and jurisdictions because they “do not furnish banking information to tax authorities of other countries within the framework of income tax evasion.”

The truth is this political effort is not so much about snaring tax cheats as it is about the bigger picture: the long-term goal of destroying tax havens. Why? The answer is simple: tax-happy nations fear fiscal havens because they promote tax competition, financial privacy and fiscal sovereignty, all of which limit the ability of governments to act as monopolies.

Even with the stepped up efforts of their opponents, all is not lost. The growing coalition of world leaders may be softening some tax havens’ traditional codes of silence, causing the pillars of secrecy surrounding financial transactions to crumble, but most who use these sanctuaries to privately safeguard their assets, run their businesses and protect themselves and future generations have little to worry about (unless they happen to be on one of the clients lists that are being handed over to authorities).

Tax havens will continue to play a critical role in global finance for the foreseeable future. Besides, for those with real concerns about the security of their assets and holdings, there are many other privacy-conscious and tax-friendly places that manage to fly under the radar of financial watchdogs, providing the perks of tax havens without the scrutiny.

In the coming issue the Q Wealth Report, I’ll provide insights into one such place—a little-known lifestyle haven that doubles as an unlikely tax refuge.

Shannon Roxborough, editor and publisher of the global lifestyle magazine Borderless Living, is former correspondent with Money magazine. A widely-published writer and international consultant, he in an expert on living and retiring abroad and offshore planning. Visit www.BorderlessLiving.com.