sound money

New Travel Accessory for Beijing: Gas Masks

"As I prepare for an upcoming trip to Beijing, both expat and Chinese friends have been sending me suggestions of the best gas mask to buy. An item considered rare or unnecessary as of late 2012 is now highly recommended for outdoor commutes during Beijing’s smoggiest days. But which mask should I use? In addition to buying face masks, people in China who can afford them are also picking up indoor air filters. Most office workers spend 80 percent of their time indoors, but Beijing’s poorly insulated buildings can’t fully keep the smog outside." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew Travel Accessory for Beijing: Gas Masks

CIA requested ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ rewrites, memo reveals

"A newly declassified CIA document suggests members of the US agency did help to shape the narrative of Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s recent film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. It has now emerged that the CIA did successfully pressure Boal to remove certain scenes from the Zero Dark Thirty script, some of which might have cast the agency in a negative light. Details emerged in a memo released under a US Freedom of Information Act request. It summarises five conference calls held in late 2011 for staff in the agency’s Office of Public Affairs 'to help promote an appropriate portrayal of the agency and the Bin Laden operation'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA requested ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ rewrites, memo reveals

Money Laundering Is Financial Thoughtcrime

"From President Roosevelt's 1933 seizure of personal gold to the Nazi confiscation of Jewish wealth to the recent deposit theft at Cyprus banks, asset plundering by governments has a long and colorful tradition. Protecting wealth from oppressive regimes continues to this day. Even as the money-laundering laws are said to exist for the fight against terrorism or drugs or gambling, the cashless utopia is simultaneously being thrust upon us as the monetary architecture of the future. Expect ever more increasing thoughtcrime enforcement as the international money flow tightens." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMoney Laundering Is Financial Thoughtcrime

Senator Rand Paul Introduces Bill to Repeal FATCA

"In a major game-changer, Senator Rand Paul (Republican of Kentucky) today introduced a bill to repeal mandates of the 'Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act' (FATCA) on financial institutions and individual American citizens as a 'violation of sovereign nations’ laws and privacy matters.' In a letter to his Senate colleagues, Dr. Paul pulled no punches about the destructive effects of the FATCA law and the unsupportable claims that FATCA is a legitimate tool to combat tax evasion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSenator Rand Paul Introduces Bill to Repeal FATCA

Banks in Singapore agonize over rich clients in tax evasion clampdown

"The Southeast Asian city-state has grown into the world's fourth-biggest offshore financial center but, with U.S. and European regulators on the hunt for tax cheats, the government is clamping down to forestall the kind of onslaught from foreign authorities that is now hitting Switzerland's banks. Before July 1, all financial institutions in Singapore must identify accounts they strongly suspect hold proceeds of fraudulent or wilful tax evasion and, where necessary, close them. After that, handling the proceeds of tax crimes will be a criminal offence under changes to the city-state's anti-money laundering law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBanks in Singapore agonize over rich clients in tax evasion clampdown

U.S. Demands Wells Fargo Records To Identify Tax Cheats Using Caribbean Havens

"Opening yet another front in their war against offshore tax evasion, U.S. enforcers have served a 'John Doe' summons on Wells Fargo Bank requiring it to turn over records that could identify any U.S. taxpayers who held accounts from 2004 through 2012 at CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited (FCIB), which operates in 18 Caribbean countries, including such notorious tax havens as the Cayman Islands. Wells Fargo provides correspondent bank services to FCIB, so Wells would have served as a conduit for transfers to and from FCIB accounts to U.S. accounts, corporations and individuals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Demands Wells Fargo Records To Identify Tax Cheats Using Caribbean Havens

More Botched Police Work Cheered

"John Baiata of NBC News reports with regard to the discovery of the women who were kidnapped in Cleveland and held captive for approximately 10 years. Cleveland police responded twice to the address where the 3 Ohio women were held - in 2000 and in 2004. Yet, as in Boston following the discovery of the Boston bomber by a citizen after a botched police search, the crowds cheered the police. From Reuters on the Ohio kidnap case: 'Cheers from the crowd erupted periodically as police cars entered the area.' My guess is that police states always come with cheering fans, until the police come for you." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMore Botched Police Work Cheered

Famous ‘Fantasy Island’ plane used to smuggle drugs into Oklahoma

"It was the centerpiece of the classic ’70s and early ’80s TV classic 'Fantasy Island.' But when the show was canceled, the plane went from 'famous' to 'notorious.' The production company unloaded the sea plane. It would later be used to smuggle drugs from Columbia into the United States. Years ago, OBN agents intercepted the aerial icon during a cocaine drop in S.E. Oklahoma. After years of secrecy, OBN revealed the unique drug bust on their Facebook page Monday morning." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFamous ‘Fantasy Island’ plane used to smuggle drugs into Oklahoma

A Solar-Powered Plane Travels Light

"In 2003, Piccard approached European companies to sponsor what has become a $148 million project and began assembling a team of 80 engineers and technicians plucked largely from Swiss universities. After seven years of tinkering, they arrived at a machine with a deceptively simple design: Solar Impulse—with its sleek, clean lines, white-gloss finish and rakishly angled 208-foot wings (bent to increase the plane's stability)—resembles what you might get had Steve Jobs reimagined a child's balsa-wood glider in giant form." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Solar-Powered Plane Travels Light

Starting an online store in Greece is no easy business

"It took 10 months, a fat bundle of paperwork, countless certificates, long hours of haggling with bureaucrats and overcoming myriad other inconceivable obstacles for one group of young entrepreneurs to open an online store. Antonopoulos and his partners spent hours collecting papers from tax offices, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the municipal service where the company is based, the health inspector’s office, the fire department and banks. At the health department, they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays, and, in the most surreal demand of all, stool samples." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStarting an online store in Greece is no easy business