Can Creditors Seize Your Offshore Assets?
We’ve long suggested that one of the key strategies you can use to gain resilience over your financial future is international diversification. Thanks to laws like the Foreign Account Tax…
Protect Yourself from Big Brother at the Border
Privacy is one of the few topics that Democrats and Republicans largely agree on. Their conclusion is that you shouldn’t have any. That’s especially true when it comes to searches…
Social Security Is a Ponzi Scheme (and You Have No Right to Benefits)
Modern old age pensions originated in Prussia (now part of Germany) in 1889, financed by a tax on wages. The first nationwide pension program arrived in the United States in 1935, when…
The End of Globalization as We Know it
Globalization – the interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide – ensures that countries can use whatever strengths they possess to their fullest advantage. Countries that are rich…
Is the Euro Doomed?
In 1991, a dozen European countries signed the Treaty on European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty. Among other provisions, the treaty called for a single European currency; the…
More Civil Forfeiture Follies
Regular readers know that we consistently critique civil forfeiture, a legal procedure under which property, rather than an individual, is accused of a crime. We’ve called it the “beast that…
Hackers Can Unfreeze Your Frozen Credit Records
Back in May 2017, credit bureau giant Equifax had virtually its entire database of consumer credit reports stolen by hackers – more than 148 million in all. The attack occurred…
Four Reasons Why Dollar Dominance Won’t Be Permanent
We periodically read missives to the effect that “the dollar is doomed.” And we’ve been reading them for many years. Consider this newsletter promotion from 1985. The headline was a…
Your Blueprint for an International Lifestyle
The demand for investment migration services –residency by investment (RBI) and citizenship by investment (CBI) – has soared in recent years. Industry insiders now estimate it to be a $25…
Congress Is Set to Unleash the IRS on American Taxpayers
Last week, we learned that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin had signed on to a slimmed-down version of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” Plan (BBBP). The BBBP, with its $2…
About that Missing $94.7 Trillion…
Back in 2019, we poked fun at the Department of Defense (DOD) for as we put it, “losing $21 trillion.” That sum represented what the Pentagon’s inspector general called “unsupported…
Making Sense of the Everything Meltdown
Last week, on a day the Dow Jones index fell more than 700 points, I ran into an old friend at a monthly dinner meeting I regularly attend. “I’m screwed,”…
The Weaponization of Citizenship … and How It Affects You
Last month, we wrote about the “weaponization” of the US dollar– Uncle Sam’s unofficial policy of holding the greenback as a hammer over the heads of its adversaries. But governments…
Uncle Sam Says It Can Confiscate … Everything
Last week, we welcomed the news that the Brennan Center for Justice had published a batch of formerly secret government documents dating back to the 1950s. The files relate to…
Who’s to Blame for Baby Formula Shortages?
We would not have guessed that in 2022, parents of the youngest Americans would need to cope with a predictable and completely unnecessary shortage – baby formula shortage. Shortages began…
Why Inflation Is Worse Today than the 1980s…and Possibly Ever
Last week, to almost no one’s surprise, the Labor Department announced yet another month of inflation worse than at any time since the 1980s. The March Consumer Price Index (CPI)…
This Is Why Internet Privacy Is Gone…
Over the years, we haven’t shied away from highlighting the threat to our privacy that our hyper-connected world poses. Whether it’s Big Brother spying on your smartphone, Google treating your…
What to Do When Your Country is “Cancelled”
It’s Wednesday evening, and I’m sitting on the porch of my cottage overlooking the Atlantic coast of Nevis. I’m here with my business partner Trey Wyatt to deal with matters…
Uncle Sam Invites You to Rat on Your Friends and Family for Cash
Want to earn some extra cash? It's easy…just participate in one of the many "paid informant" programs run by various US government agencies. Think your neighbor…or that brother-in-law you don't…
IRS Rolls Out Artificial Intelligence Tools for Enhanced Audits
A few months ago, I received an invitation to attend a lecture with the mind-numbing title, “The Transformation of Tax & Customs Law into the Digital World of Processes, Automation…
Could Inflation Break America?
In the early 1990s, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan reportedly said something to the effect that when inflation rises, “you’ll switch to something cheaper—more hamburger will show up in…
Are You Ready for Nuclear War?
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin shocked the world when he invaded Ukraine. While the situation remains very fluid, there are some important lessons to be learned from Putin’s…
Canada Reveals the “End Game” for Money
Canada Reveals the “End Game” for Money For most of human history, “money” was a physical commodity. Ancient peoples traded gold, silver, beads – even giant stone disks. When money…
Gold Comes Roaring Back (at Bitcoin’s Expense)
Gold Comes Roaring Back (at Bitcoin’s Expense) Just 15 months ago, pundits were predicting that bitcoin had matured into its own separate asset class from stocks, bonds, and other traditional…
The Looming Social Security and Medicare Crisis (and What to Do About It)
Many years ago, when I was a freshman in college, I took an entry-level course in psychology. One of the concepts we learned about was a phenomenon called “cognitive dissonance.”…
Greetings from Panama!
We’ve long maintained that a second residency is one of the easiest ways to internationalize yourself and a key Plan B strategy if conditions deteriorate in the country where you…
Are Puerto Rico’s Tax Benefits “Worth It”?
One of the American tax system’s many oddities is the way the country deals with US territories: Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Because…
The Rise of the Digital Nomad Visa
COVID-19 gave US citizens who travel internationally a wake-up call. Within a few months of the start of the pandemic in early 2020, the number of countries US citizens could…
Ransomware Malware Breach. Hacked Computer. Ransom Attack
Ransomware Hits Main Street
We first warned readers of the dangers of ransomware in 2007, comparing it to the kidnapping of your data. If you've been a victim of a ransomware attack, the first…
When Will the US Dollar Crash?
When I first started working with Mark in 2013, he handed me a big box and said, “Maybe you can use these…” It was filled with a few hundred promotional…