Yearly Archives: 2013

The Communist Romania Exit Tax

"In order to receive a visa for permanent non-citizen residence in the U.S., I had to pay a tax for all the government benefits I had received in my first twenty years of life, schooling, medical care, subsidized concrete block housing, pot-holed road use, constant police surveillance, and other 'services' I was not even aware existed or received. I was worried since I had no penny to my name and I knew I would not be able to leave without paying. The final figure was provided to me after months of deliberation and computation by the communist party apparatchiks – my freedom was worth exactly $160 U.S. dollars. I owned a Japanese boom box which I sold quickly for $160." Continue reading →

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Should You Renounce Your U.S. Citizenship?

"In the case of Saverin, he was already living in Singapore and did not have deep ties to the U.S. because he hadn’t been here very long. In his case, the financial benefits were clear: he would’ve paid a 35% federal tax rate in the U.S. in addition to 15% on capital gains, while in Singapore his tax rate would be 20% at most and no capital gains tax. So how would your tax burden stack up? If you earn $1 million a year, that’s almost $396,000 you’re keeping in your pocket (based on the top 39.6% income tax rate) if you said goodbye to the U.S. and took up residency in a place like Monaco, which doesn’t tax income at all." Continue reading →

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Scotland’s independence could see descendants worldwide eligible for passport

"Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond told ONE News he would want to offer citizenship to an independent Scotland to as many descendants as possible. The offer could also allow citizens to live and work anywhere in the European Union. 'I think like Ireland, Scotland would want to use its global reach in the most effective way and make that sort of inclusive statement,' said Salmond. Salmond's Scottish National Party swept to power on the back of a promise to hold a referendum on independence. 'Scotland's a country of five and quarter million people, we have a reach internationally, across the world we'd want maximum entitlement to citizenship,' said Salmond." Continue reading →

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The Italian Patient: Resisting Berlusconi’s Charms

"Other populists are also gathering votes in the race to the finish line. One of them is Beppe Grillo of the protest movement 'Movimento 5 Stelle.' Grillo travels around the country on a 'tsunami tour,' hates Merkel, doesn't want to repay a cent of debt and is seriously calling upon Al-Qaida to bomb the parliament in Rome, saying that he would even provide the terrorists with the necessary coordinates. Polls estimate that Grillo has the potential to capture 20 percent of the vote. He could become the third-strongest force by securing the support of the sizable number of undecided Italians who are weary of politics." Continue reading →

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Chief Greek Statistician Threatened with Jail For Revealing True Size of Deficit

"At a time when the rest of the world was furious that Greece had artificially improved the country's budget statistics, Greek prosecutors are accusing Georgiou of doing the opposite. Prosecutors acted after a 15-month investigation into allegations made by a former ELSTAT board member. If found guilty, Georgiou faces five to 10 years in prison. Some argue that the technocrat Georgiou was serving his former superiors at the IMF and the European statistics agency Eurostat, which is led by a German. This theory holds that Greece was to be brought to its knees by imposing harsh austerity measures based on bloated deficit figures." Continue reading →

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How A Rookie Excel Error Led JPMorgan To Misreport Its Risk For Years

"If this glaringly amateur error was present in America's largest bank by assets, and one which proudly boasts a 'fortress balance sheet', an error which just so happens feeds into countless other input cells driven by the firm's VaR calculation, leading to capital allocation, trading, and overall executive decisions many of which have a direct impact on the firm's exposure to $72 trillion in over the counter derivatives, what can one say about the thousands of other banks, which are not as closely 'supervised' by the Federal Reserve as JPMorgan is (supposedly)." Continue reading →

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TARP: The bailout success story that wasn’t

"The idea that TARP is somehow a wash because a few banks repaid the bailouts with interest is misleading. The reality is that bailed-out firms essentially wrote off their losses on taxes. As of Dec. 30, TARP was still owed $67.3 billion, including $27 billion in realized losses — which is to say, that money is gone and is never coming back. Now, TARP is losing money as it tries to exit the programs. A new report by SNL Financial shows the Treasury Department is taking a beating in auctions of the Capital Purchase Program, one of the pipelines through which bailout money flowed." Continue reading →

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America’s Housing “Recovery”: Wall St. Buying Homes to Rent Back to Their Former Owners

"The Blackstone group, the biggest player in the new REO to rental market, has spent $2.5 billion in the last year purchasing 16,000 homes, a number that amounts to over $100 million per week. Property records show that many of the homes Blackstone has acquired in Fulton County over the last few months were purchased on the courthouse steps at the monthly foreclosure auction, or through short sales—when a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on a loan. The vast majority of these homes are not empty, but occupied by homeowners who fell behind during the great recession." Continue reading →

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Renters to thank for healthier housing market

"Shares of the biggest U.S. builders including Lennar Homes (LEN) and Toll Brothers (TOL) have soared during the past year, but investors appear more excited about renters than a return of homeowners. To date, construction of multi-family units destined for the rental market rose by 150% over the two years ending in the third quarter of 2012. That's by far higher than the 50% rise of newly constructed multi-family homes for sale, and a 30% increase of single-family starts also for sale, according to Capital Economics." Continue reading →

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