The American Dream (An animated history of banking)

The banks have created a system whereby everyone has to borrow to keep up with the inflation (caused by their lending practices), but there is never enough money in the economy to pay back the debt plus interest. It’s like a board game where every round, one of the players must go bankrupt, and the bank takes their real assets. It’s a great game for the banks, but a fraudulent contract at the root. See “The American Dream” for an excellent and entertaining video on how this all works:

Viewer discretion is advised

This is not a children’s cartoon and deals with themes that may be above the understanding of younger children. The film has some moderately strong language and cartoon violence, which is a shame as it should be shown in Senior/high schools.

What is wrong with this picture?

George Orwell lived here and now there is a surveillance camera on it!!

Friends of Assange Strike Back

A group of internet activists or “Hacktivists” have organised denial of service attacks upon various corporate websites of groups which they feel are or have been acting against Julian Assange and the freedom of wiki-leaks

BBC News website article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539

Wikileaks suffer denial of service attack anyone surprised?

Hi
Freedom of speech is under pressure again,  I have found a couple of IP addresses for wikileaks – US cables site but things are changing quickly so try:

Tweets by wikileaks

for updates or

http://213.251.145.96/

which was working  at 10:12 am GMT 03-12-2010

Electronic Privacy Information Centre(EPIC) Submits Comments to Council of Europe on Profiling

On September 14, 2010 Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) submitted comments regarding a proposed appendix to the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing Personal Data in the Context of Profiling. Better known as the Privacy Convention, the measure was adopted by the Council of Europe in June 2010 by the Consultative Committee of the Convention 108 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data. The convention’s primary purpose is to strengthen data protection.

In its comments, EPIC urged the Committee to strengthen the legal protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal information in the context of profiling. EPIC addressed three issues from the draft recommendation that raised concern, including the absence of a definition for “Privacy Enhancing Technology” and the omission of “sex” as part of the definition of “Sensitive Data,” and the lack of a research framework to monitor profiling from the private and public sector. EPIC stated that individuals must be able to freely

exchange information without risk that improper profiles will be established and concluded that failure to protect the fundamental right of privacy thus adversely impacts the free flow of information.

EPIC strongly supports Council of Europe Convention 108, and has launched a campaign urging the United States Government to support the Council of Europe Privacy Convention. On January 28, 2010, twenty-nine members of the EPIC Advisory Board wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to urge that the United States begin the process of ratification of Council of Europe Convention 108.

As an advocate for the Madrid Privacy Declaration, EPIC acknowledged in its comments, that States must establish a comprehensive legal framework for privacy protection and an independent data protection authority that

aids in assessing any adverse effect in individual privacy. The Madrid Declaration reminds the European Union member countries and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries of their obligations to protect the civil rights of their citizens under national constitutions and laws.

Epic news letter 01/10/10

Contact

http://www.epic.org

Send EPIC_news mailing list submissions to join up at

epic_news@mailman.epic.org

Ukrainian Church Leads Protests Against Identification Numbers

Tax codes for citizens threaten the independence of the Ukraine, considers The head of the Ukrainian orthodox church of the Moscow Patriarchy metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan. He has urged deputies of the Supreme Rada (Parliament) to consider within the new personal Tax codes for Ukrainians  to allow citizens  to carry out  payments without identification numbers, informs “Interfax”.

Metropolitan Vladimir has stated position of the Church on the official web site with the reference to the president of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych, prime minister Nikolay Azarov, the chairman of the Supreme Rada Vladimir Litvinu and the heads of opposition parties.

The church sets out that it is defending human rights, understanding the concerns that many followers do not accept identification numbers. “Introducing codification of people from the moment of  birth with the unique unified document of the individual – an electronic card, through which the state actually authorises electronic shadowing and  control in all areas of human life”, – head of Ukrainian Church has noted in his circulation.

He has expressed opinion that there can be a loss of independence of Ukraine: “As the project of the Tax code of Ukraine is developed according to not only international standards, but also requirements which provide  information transfer of personal character to other states and the international organisations can happen such that not only each person will lose a personal liberty, but also our state independence”.

Metropolitan Vladimir asks deputies “to provide the creation of constitutional laws for citizens who  have refused acceptance of identification numbers, by entering into the project of the Tax code of Ukraine special legislative instructions which would provide an alternative form of account for taxpayers, and also provide the possibility of citizens to carry out any payments without identification number”.

[ The request] “expressed an obligation to the State tax administration on behalf of its local tax inspections, to bring –  on the basis of statements from citizens – a mark in their passports providing the possibility to carry out payments without an identification number and to cancel identification numbers of citizens which have refused them.

In July, 2009 a  group of deputies from the two factions of the Ukraine parliament developed and  registered the project of the “Tax code of Ukraine” which unifies legislation in the sphere of taxation in the Supreme Rada and will try to set it in to law for a long time.

Further To End of Private Banking – Can’t a man get a little privacy?

While the World Economic Forum has taken up pages of the world’s leading business press another far less reported conference took place in San Antonio, Texas. Hosted by the American Bar Association, the conference laid out the plans of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in their ongoing battle against privacy and competitive taxation.

The consensus is truly worrying: the UBS and Swiss Financial Markets Association’s divulging of private client information to the USA (which has since been ruled illegal by the Swiss courts and about which I have written here before), Tax Information Exchange Agreements, blacklists and economic blackmail are all just the start of this concerted effort to stop individuals benefiting from employing competitive jurisdictions for business and investment.

Some items of note were the new “Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre”.

Tax departments from Australia, Canada, Japan and the UK are ganging up with the US IRS to conduct what the IRS calls “holistic taxpayer analysis“. This rather flowery name hides what can only be described as multi-lateral state sponsored invasion of privacy and entails a thorough scrutinizing of all personal and business holdings and interests of the individual in each and every jurisdiction simultaneously. This coincides with the opening of 11 new international IRS offices around the world, with Switzerland and Panama already earmarked as 2 countries to get their very own branch of the US tax office!

The UBS saga began primarily with a tip off from a disgruntled former UBS employer, Bradley Birkenfeld. I imagine the proximity of these new IRS offices is to encourage just that sort of behaviour. Some food for thought, however, for anyone who feels they would like to pop in and have a chat with their new local IRS branch: Birkenfeld has been sentenced last month to over 3 years imprisonment for his help.

I have written before that a swiss banker that I know, no longer takes US citizens as clients as it is too much effort. Well, new legislation which is being enacted currently by the US government with the wonderful acronym of FATCAT, seems designed to spread this sentiment by making it totally cost prohibitive for almost all foreign banks to hold US owned accounts, Though the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Reporting Act (FATCAT) which should enter in to US law in the next few weeks, may also have the unwanted effect of stopping or curtailing foreign investment in to the US markets as compliance cost rise for international brokers and investment groups, One could argue this could be counter productive however much extra tax revenue is raised, as the US economy struggles out of recession and the Dollar remains weak, is a further drop in demand for the currency, US stocks or treasury products what is wanted or needed by the US taxpayer, sovereign wealth funds or international investors alike??

John Fry.

John is the Business Development Director of Formcos-Russia a unique trust company offering trust and tax planning services internationally from Moscow.

www.no2id.net

A quick post for a campaign which really is worth the effort if you are a UK resident and like to travel….
————————————————————————————————–

A British Passport is a symbol of freedom, freedom to travel the world, And of citizenship of a free country. Not for much longer if the home office gets it’s way.

From 2011-2012 it plans a new condition of applying for a passport that you also agree to be listed on the ID database. If you refuse…. No passport. No travel.

The home secretary says this is “entirely voluntary”. But you will have no choice if you want a passport.

The ID database will record much more about you than is on a passport now. it will know where you live, your national insurance number, and more. It will link to other official records about you, as they accumulate over your lifetime. You will have to keep the information up to date, by law.

It is deceptive to say an ID card is just another piece of plastic.

The ID database forms the core of Whitehall plans to keep more and more information about everyone. It is a massive change in the way we live.

NO2ID is a non-partisan campaign against the state control of personal identity. visit their website and help put an end to a disastrous policy before it can do serious damage to our liberty. Or your next UK passport could own you

http://no2id.net

UBS & The USA & Swiss Banking Secrecy

So the USA gave 40 months of prison time to the guy who gave up UBS… he was partly responsible for 12 convictions (so far) and payments of over 800 million dollars in fines, taxes and interest – he will sleep well in his cell knowing he did the right thing.

Bloomberg had a roll call of the convicted and their sentences, several of the non US citizens have been “declared fugitive”. I will add a link at the bottom of the post.

A Swiss court has now ruled that the handing over of confidential UBS bank details to United States investigators by the Swiss authorities last year was illegal and against the Swiss Constitution. The federal court said the Swiss Financial and Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) abused its power when it ordered that details of 285 account holders suspected of tax evasion in the US be sent to Washington.
Though this won’t help the convicted or the hundreds of others not convicted, who after all paid good money for the privacy and expertise of UBS, it will potentially now lead to a myriad of claims against them.
Carlo Lombardini, expert on banking law in Geneva, came out in favour of the court ruling because it helped to reassure clients. “It proves that the justice system in Switzerland works” he said, well, if that is how it works I leave it up to you to decide whether you need that service.

Saga in Brief:
A Swiss bank that makes more money in the USA than at home is threatened with the loss of its US banking licence.
A weak government who didn’t want to lose face with Obama’s USA batted the decision around until it fell to someone deniable who gave in to the IRS.

4,750 US citizen’s details so far given up to the US authorities.

Swiss Privacy?

The economy of Switzerland is one that relies on the prestige and privacy of their financial institutions. A Swiss banker friend said that the Swiss in general, not just the banks want the whole thing to die away, his bank are not taking on any new US clients and are keen to move the existing clients into trust structures which offer better protection and privacy.

Besides as my Swiss friend says there is now far more potential in offering his services to the Russians, Indians and Chinese!

Business Week Article

German government warns against using MS Explorer

Taken from BBC news website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8463516.stm

At last, a Government body speaks out against the lack of security in one of the world’s most used web browsers. Anyone who has struggled through the XP years knows only too well how many patches, service packs and interminably slow and usually inconvenient software updates there were (“would you like to restart your PC now?”). Internet Exporer is the default browser with all Microsoft Operating Systems (MSOS) which is frankly the only reason it is so widely used, and it can’t actually be removed from your Microsoft machine as it is employed by the operating system itself. Microsoft have now said that if you set your security zone to the highest possible level it will fix the problem, that is debatable but what is sure is that it will block nearly all images and all but MS approved websites, taking the fun out of surfing. And with more niggling questions from the program asking “are you sure you want to do that?” .

Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari are all very usable and free to download.

If Any Search Engine specialists out there reading this, do you have any idea why a website ranked top in Google for several specialist terms can’t be found by Bing at all, even if I search it by website name? I have submitted the website myself to them twice over the past 3 months but still nothing, maybe I should think about PPC, or then again, maybe not……