"Earlier this year, a number of lawmakers in Maryland vowed to reform the way speed cameras were operated in the state. Officials were rocked by the revelation that more than 5 percent of photo ticket recipients in Baltimore were likely innocent with lax oversight and faulty photo radar equipment to blame for the bogus citations. On Monday, the state Senate voted 46-1 to cover up future errors." Continue reading →
"Big depositors- many of them Russian — face losses of up to 40 percent as the result of a so-called 'bail-in' to back 10 billion euros in EU financial aid to stabilize the Cypriot banking system. 'It's worth trying, it's not going to be easy, its not going to be a one-off, 24-hour court case, but the nature of the action itself sounds like expropriation,' said Andrey Goltsblat, at law firm Goltsblat BLP. There could be a basis to sue either Cyprus or individual banks, say lawyers who have been contacted by current and prospective clients seeking redress. 'People are just frustrated and ... are trying to find a way to get their money off Cyprus,' said Goltsblat." Continue reading →
"I’ve discovered the motivations for our expatriation clients to take this step are more nuanced than mere tax avoidance. A case in point is the overwhelming compliance burden U.S. taxpayers living overseas face. The information reporting regime they face is complex, overlapping, and constantly evolving. Even minor violations are subject to draconian penalties. What’s more, U.S. laws force foreign banks and other financial institutions to enforce U.S. tax and reporting rules with respect to their U.S. clients. In many cases, it’s easier for foreign banks to 'fire' U.S. clients than deal with this risk." Continue reading →
"'Creative writing,' is how one East Orange police lieutenant described a typical day on the job. In order to tally a high number of tickets he might break up a fight just over the Newark border and report it occurred in East Orange, issue jaywalking tickets or cite a parent who has double-parked outside an elementary school to run in to pick up her child. Seven members of the East Orange Police Department said during in-person interviews that in the past two years, and most aggressively in recent months, the chief has instituted a quota system, demanding more summonses, arrests, pedestrian and motorist stops with little justification." Continue reading →
"Most Americans would not be directly affected if North Dakota decided to seize citizens' money in order to pay its bills, but all Americans would be deeply disturbed by such an action. The principle of the matter couldn't be clearer; outright theft is wrong. But it'd probably be fear, not principle, that would have people heading for their banks in droves to withdraw cash as fast as possible. People not living in Europe should not kid themselves into thinking that this is just a European problem. With a fractional reserve banking system, it doesn't take a majority of bank depositors to decide to withdraw their cash to put their banks out of business." Continue reading →
"Swiss citizens who live abroad have made their displeasure with their home country known regarding its planned implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The U.S. law has been agreed to by Switzerland and is set to go into effect in 2014. Some 76,000 Swiss citizens who currently reside in the U.S. are being told they cannot hold Swiss bank accounts, or are now being charged higher fees, according to the OSA." Continue reading →
"Inflicting losses on banks' shareholders, bondholders and even large depositors should become the 17-country eurozone's default approach for dealing with ailing lenders, a top European official said Monday. Banks' owners and investors must be held responsible 'before looking at public money or any other instrument coming from the public side,' said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the Eurogroup gatherings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers. The bailout program for Cyprus marks the first time in Europe's three-year-old debt crisis that large deposit holders — wealthy savers, business people or institutions — will be forced to take losses." Continue reading →
"Standing in front of a cash machine on a street corner in Nicosia, Andreas Christou could hardly contain his fury. 'My money is in there and they won’t let me take it out!' he said, a few moments after withdrawing a paltry €100 – the maximum allowable after a draconian new capital control measure was introduced on Sunday. The 52-year-old businessman holds an account with Laiki Bank, the hardest hit of Cyprus’s debt-laden lenders. It will now effectively be dissolved under the terms of a deal brokered between international creditors and Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, during marathon talks in Brussels." Continue reading →
"Struggling European economies are investing big money in stealth speed camera technology designed to mail tickets to motorists who have no way of knowing they are being watched. Eurozone economies have been shrinking, with both France and Spain under heightened scrutiny for failure to meet deficit reduction targets set by the European Union. Ratings agency Standard and Poor's called the situation in Spain and France 'socially explosive' in a statement to Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung. Both countries are now deploying the next generation of speed cameras." Continue reading →
"What we are seeing, as in Greece, is the response to the effort to make the public responsible for the mistake of private banks. In Greece they forced the people to have wages cut, pensions cut, social services cut, public assets sold off, in order to cover the losses of banks. If they don’t stand with the people, there will be more political and social unrest and more discrediting of governments. What’s happening is governments are revealing that, even if they are democratically elected governments, they do not represent the people. They only represent a very few, very powerful folks. This of course destroys any confidence in democracy. That’s the biggest crisis.” Continue reading →