In future articles I will discuss some of the opportunities that arose from these meetings, but in the meantime, if you have interest in 2^nd passport opportunities, anonymous merchant account services, or private offshore banking and money management services, please send me an email and we can schedule a call to discuss your personal situation.

For those of you not aware, I now host a weekly radio show every Monday from 3-4pm EST on the Overseas Radio Network.  My show title is, “Global Escape Hatch”.  On the show we will discuss various topics ranging from privacy issues, offshore banking, taxation, investments, economics and more.

This week on “Global Escape Hatch”, my guest was a good friend of mine, Roger Arnold.  Roger is the chief economist for ALM Advisors, Inc. – a CA money management firm specializing in income portfolios.  He is also an economics columnist for The Street and has previously hosted his own nationally syndicated radio show called, “The Roger Arnold Show” for 15 years.

On the show this week Roger and I discussed the current state of the world economy and where he thinks things are headed.  He has been very prescient in the past having predicted the housing market crash and the following stock market tumble.  Below you will find the interview from the radio show.

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Bobby – What do you think is the general direction for global economic activity?

Roger – The US and Europe will continue to slow with both heading into a recession.

Bobby – Where do you see interest rates heading over the next couple of years?

Roger – The long yields in Germany and the US will converge with Japan with 10 year sovereign yields at about 1%, 30 year sovereigns at 2%, and 30 year fixed mortgages in the US at 3%.

Bobby – What about oil and gold?

Roger – Oil and gold could drop by as much as 50% before the end of 2012 as the global recession takes hold – they won’t stay there long and will provide the buying opportunity of the decade if not longer, especially for gold.

Bobby – What about US equities?

Roger – The S&P500 could drop by 30-50% because of the steepness and depth of the recession.  It may catch investors and traders unprepared.

Bobby – What about the Euro, does it survive long term?

Roger – The Germans, Brussels and the ECB are now committed to it.  They are very late in the acting, but the ECB will commence a quantitative easing program similar to the US Fed’s this year.  Yes, I think the Euro survives.

Bobby – What do you think will be the impact of the ECB printing Euros on the global economy?

Roger – The greatest beneficiary of the ECB printing Euros will be the eastern member states; Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, etc.  The eastern states rely on exports to the US for about 3 times as much of their GDP as do the western member states – so a falling Euro is a real benefit to them.  It makes their goods less expensive in the US and boosts their exports.

Bobby – Who is hurt by the falling Euro and the ECB printing?

Roger – Two main areas hurt by it are Chinese exporters to the US and US exporters to Europe.  Chinese exports to the US will become relatively more expensive versus European exports.  Some manufacturers will even switch from China to Eastern Europe.

Bobby – Could China choose to float their currency to compete against a falling Euro?

Roger – Probably not, but maybe.  We are watching very closely.  If history repeats itself, China will become increasingly antagonistic toward foreign governments and investors causing investors to flee China.  It could be disastrous for them.

Bobby – It seems you are fairly gloom and doom for the short term at least.  With interest rates so low, US equities at risk, gold and oil setting up for a fall, where should someone place their money these days?  Maybe you can offer me and my readers 5 or 6 ideas on how to make money in this environment.

Roger – I have only one investment suggestion right now.  Cash.  Short term money market accounts and cold, hard cash.  Just sit and wait for the fall.  The global recession is already underway and it will cause a rush to safety, which means US or German treasury bonds.  Whether or not you feel these are good investments is irrelevant.  When there is a recession and fear in the marketplace, people are ‘risk-off’ and go to cash and treasuries.  Be patient and wait for the drop.  You will likely see ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ investment opportunities very soon.

Bobby – Thanks for your time Roger.

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There you have it folks.  I don’t necessarily agree with everything Roger is saying here, but he has been very good at predicting this type of thing and it is very possible he will be right this time.

The main point is that right now is a very difficult time to make a decent return on your investment.  As Roger told me, he is now focusing on a return of investment instead of a return on investment for his clients at ALM Advisors.

From my perspective, I wouldn’t recommend liquidating your entire portfolio, but I would certainly put in some automatic trailing stop losses or buy some protective puts as insurance.  In addition, you may want to consider keeping a lot of cash in various currencies like Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, or Norwegian kroners as a way to hedge your country risk.

If you are interested in joining me – and 40 other radio show hosts – on the Overseas Radio Network, please click the link below to register for your free trial subscription.

Overseas Radio Network – “Global Escape Hatch”

Call today for your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live well.

Two weeks ago to the day I received a call from a friend of mine in the US.  Dave runs a motorcycle performance shop in North Carolina and called me to chat about business.  In the conversation he mentioned that he would be in Milan, Italy the next week and wondered if I was available.

Four days later I was on a flight to Milan and going to the EICMA International Motorcycle Exhibition with Dave and a few of his local Italian friends.  I won’t bore you with the details, but last week was a well deserved break filled with great Italian food, motorcycles, and supermodels.  We even managed to talk a little business.

I hope you enjoyed last week’s interview with Paul Rosenberg.  This was certainly different than my normal routine, but after reading his book, I just knew he was a perfect fit for this audience. 

Paul is one of the most intriguing men I have ever spoken to and leads a life that most of us only dream about.  If you missed last week’s newsletter titled “A Free Man’s Perspective”, you can find it on the website here.

Speaking of websites, we are in the process of updating the website and should be finished in the next few days.  For any of you that have visited the site, you certainly know it was very cutting edge….in 1997.

Aside from the old school look and feel of the site, it didn’t fully reflect what our firm does for clients.  Quite frankly it was too cumbersome to easily update, therefore it just didn’t happen.  I guess being busy is good, but in hindsight the website was allowed to suffer.  Lesson learned.

Now on to some useful information.  Many of you may have noticed that this week has been very interesting in the global debt markets (or at least those of you that actually care about that sort of thing).

Italy has now crossed an important threshold – the 10 year Italian bond yield exceeded the critically important 7% mark.  Many consider this to be the point of no return for European debt.  This is the point where Ireland and Greece started begging for their ECB handouts.

If you are unfamiliar with bonds, the price and yield are inversely related.  In other words, if the price of the bond goes down, the yield goes up, and vice-versa.  This week the Italian 10 year bond yield went dramatically higher (bond prices went down) signaling a lack of trust in the Italian government’s ability to maintain sound fiscal policy.

This puts Italy in a long line of European countries that had to go with hat in hand looking for a bailout to keep the Ponzi scheme….I mean government alive.  The big difference here is that Italy is significantly larger than any of the other PIIGS.

According to the IMF, Greece’s 2010 GDP was just over $300B ranking it as the 32^nd largest country in the world.  Italy’s 2010 GDP was just over $2T ranking it as 8^th largest or nearly 7 times the size of Greece.  Italy’s debt to GDP ratio is now over 120%.  This is completely unsustainable.  It is also likely to be the death nail in the EU coffin.

Folks, wake up to reality.  Nearly every major government in the world is dead broke.  The US debt to GDP ratio now stands at about 100%.  Japan is over 200%.  Debt has been the fuel of the last few decades and we are now running on fumes.

Many of you will read this and think, “Bobby’s a nutcase.  The world has had problems before, but we always pull through.”  Many of you will fire off an email demanding to be unsubscribed from the list because I am unpatriotic or disrespectful of the Obamessiah.  (FYI, you can unsubscribe yourself at the bottom).

Hopefully though, many of you will realize that you need to do something about it.  You need to develop your own ‘escape hatch’ giving you the right to work, live and play without fear and apprehension of what the political ruling class will do next to rob you of your freedom.

Your ‘escape hatch’ will vary depending on your own set of circumstances, but generally it involves creating a veil of privacy around you and your assets.  This is what many call the multiple flag strategy, or geo-arbitrage.

This can be as simple as setting up an offshore LLC and bank account to conduct your business and holding physical gold or silver as an inflation hedge.  Real estate investors may want to consider using a combination of land trusts and LLC’s, as discussed in my article ‘Protect Your Assets Like the Uber-Rich’.

No matter what your situation requires, it is important to create your own ‘escape hatch’ before it’s too late.  Our firm can help you with many of the strategies from residency and citizenship, US and offshore company formation, land trusts, living trusts, asset protection trusts, offshore banking, internet privacy and more.  Contact us today to schedule your free 30 minute consultation.

Living in Eastern Europe, I am somewhat sheltered from this, but with Facebook and all of the news outlets it’s impossible to avoid the implications of what’s going on with this movement.

The OWS movement reminds me of a scene from the movie ‘Network’ starring Peter Finch where he plays the role of network anchorman, presumably modeled after Walter Cronkite.  Click here to watch the scene.

Finch repeatedly says, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”.  This was during the ‘70’s when the US was suffering from a recession, high inflation, high gas prices, and record high unemployment.  Sound familiar.

Today is a different world though.  We live in the age of Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and blogs.  We have reached a point of worldwide group consciousness never before seen in the history of mankind.

You can’t even burp in public anymore without someone recording the video on their iPhone, uploading it to YouTube and then sharing it with their 730 Facebook friends within seconds.

Some people believe the revolutions in Egypt and Libya wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for social media.  I tend to agree.  It provided a virtual medium for people to organize and plan for their civil (and sometimes not so civil) disobedience.

I personally have been dismissing the OWS movement as a bunch of ignorant, lazy, out of work 20 something hippies who don’t understand how the world works.  To some extent, this is the case.

But admittedly, I have been wrong to dismiss this movement as short term hippie protest against capitalism.  I feel the anger is misplaced toward Wall Street and the majority of the blame lies in Washington.  I would feel a bit better if it were labeled, ‘Occupy DC’, but regardless there is merit to their protests, and it shouldn’t be dismissed.

People are angry with the current state of affairs, and rightly so.  Maybe they don’t understand the underlying causes of the ongoing economic crisis, but nonetheless they have the right to be disenchanted with the way things are being handled.

I am sure many of you (if not all) agree that something is just not right today with the world.  There is something out of sync.

We are angry that our elected officials have no fiscal responsibility and continue to rack up government debt that will drag down American productivity and decrease the quality of life for generations to come.

We are angry that huge corporations that fund political parties are not allowed to go bankrupt while our businesses suffer in the downturn.  We are angry that our neighbor stopped paying his mortgage 2 years ago but still lives happily in his house while we continue to pay a mortgage payment on a house that is worth half of what we owe on it.

We are angry that big corporations have record amounts of cash on their balance sheets, but still refuse to hire.  We are angry that the US seems to be turning into a fascist police state robbing you and me of our personal freedoms.  We are angry that we used to have great 6-figure jobs and now have to work 2-3 shit jobs just to make ends meet.

We are angry that old ladies and children are subjected to intrusive pat downs by bullying TSA agents when they want to fly cross country and visit family.  We are angry that politicians get to vote on the citizens’ healthcare and social insurance plans while they get to opt out in favor of much more lucrative plans for themselves.

We are angry when we go fill up our gas tanks for $90 and then read about the subsidies the oil companies receive.  We are angry when we hear stories about companies like Halliburton who received billions in government contracts that were never put up for public bid – especially when we know the former US Vice President was also the former CEO of Halliburton.

Clearly I could go on and on.  There is much to be angry about today.

The potential exists for the OWS movement to be the beginning of a US revolution.  Not in the sense that the people take up arms and storm the White House, but in the economic sense that people are fed up with the system and they stop feeding the beast.

This is essentially what has been happening in Greece over the past few decades.  Greece has a long history of stupid government.  In 1922 the Greek finance minister declared that each drachma would be cut in half and the balance of value would be replaced by 20 year bonds paying a 6.5% coupon.

Imagine you had 10k drachma in your bank account in 1922 and the next day you have 5k drachma and a 5k bond paying 6.5% interest for 20 years.  On the surface this sounds ok, but in reality the Greek government paid the coupon payments for a few more years then defaulted on the bonds.

Between 1940-1944, Greece re-denominated the drachma several times and created inflation that amounted to 160,000,000,000% during that period.  As you may imagine, the people developed a severe distrust for the Greek government.

It’s not hard to understand why so many Greek business people ran the majority of their businesses in the ‘black market’ and outside of the watching eyes of the incompetent policymakers.  Effectively the Greeks decided to stop feeding the beast.

They said, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”.

What comes next though is critically important.

What do you intend to do about it?

Do you plan to join the OWS crowd all across America and hold up signs protesting your anger?  Do you plan to build a bunker under your house and stock it with water, can foods, gold, guns and ammo?

Or do you plan to protect the wealth you currently have and position yourself to profit from the market inefficiencies that are abundant today?

Obviously I am a big believer in proper asset protection planning.  It is critically important to create a veil of privacy around your assets to keep the wolves at bay.  A properly structured asset protection plan consists of limited liability companies (LLC), limited partnerships (LP or FLP), and asset protection trusts or living trusts to ensure your estate can pass on to your heirs without government interference.

I am also a big believer in providing value.  Is your skill set sufficient for the globalized job market?  Maybe you can learn a new language, get your master’s degree, learn how to write html code, learn to build wordpress sites, become proficient in options trading, or educate yourself on reading financial statements.  The options for improvement are virtually endless.  But sitting on your laurels does nothing to improve your own situation.

I recently talked with a friend of mine who saw a significant downturn in his business, so instead of whining and complaining then collected unemployment, he researched the job market.  What he found was that in a certain part of the country the job market was booming due to recent oil and natural gas exploration.  He packed up the car, moved there and got a blue collar job making about $80k per year.

Another friend who runs several different web stores went on a buying spree picking up website businesses selling for 1X profit.  Yes, 1X profit.  Sometimes even less.

I’ve got a couple of friends who have been buying up houses in a couple of specific markets for less than 50% of their sales price just 3 years ago.  They are buying only newer houses, renting them out, and selling them as investment property to investors around the world.  Then they do the property management on the backend.

Even my 15 year old daughter has taken it upon herself (sorry, I’m a proud papa) to leverage her skills into freelance work.  She recently started taking jobs on Odesk writing and promoting a couple of fashion blogs.  This is work she can do from anywhere in the world, it’s completely virtual.

There are thousands of available jobs on sites like Odesk or Elance and many people make their living doing various types of freelance work.  For those of you looking for higher paying jobs, a quick search on ExecuNet showed thousands of available jobs both in the US and abroad paying well into the 6 figure range.

The point is that there is opportunity everywhere.  In the ‘70s after the stock market crashed the majority of passive investors fled the equities markets.  But many people built great wealth buying at that time.

I’ve said it many times, but where turmoil exists, opportunity persists.  Personally I’d rather profit from the crisis instead of stock my bunker.

Over the past week I have been working with one of my asset protection clients developing a strategy for him to minimize his risk.  He is a commercial real estate entrepreneur with a fairly large 8 figure net worth.  Every time I work with successful entrepreneurs like him I can feel my optimism growing.

The world truly revolves around entrepreneurship.  You are the dreamers, visionaries and ultimately the creators of economic growth and prosperity.  You are then ones responsible for constantly improving the welfare of the billions of inhabitants on this planet.

So while I may seem doom and gloom at times, it is all in an effort to awaken you to some of the harsher realities in today’s world.  Truth be told, I am an eternal optimist.

I guess you could say I am bullish on the ingenuity and creativeness of entrepreneurs, but very bearish on governments and politics in general.

I found this recent statement by Lon Fuller, a noted legal philosopher and Harvard professor.  I thought it was relevant to what I call ‘The Great Reset’;

Lon Fuller argued that in order to create and maintain a system which can properly be called a ‘legal system’; a certain procedural requirement should be satisfied.  These are (1) that there should be rules in the first place as opposed to ad hoc judgments; (2) those rules must be made known to all those affected by them; (3) rules should not have retrospective effect; (4) the rules should be understandable and; (5) consistent and; (6) should not require the impossible of people; (7) the rules should not be changed so frequently that people cannot orient their actions by them; (8) the rules as announced should coincide with the actual administration of those rules.  Fuller claims that the absence of any of the 8 basic premises of a legal system do not just result in a bad system, but no legal system at all.

America was established as a place where people could come to be free from overzealous governments, religious persecution, and economic constraints.  America was founded as a Republic; or rule by law.

If you take a look at just the US tax code, we are failing miserably with our legal system.

Regardless of the failure of the political machine in America, I am very optimistic about the future.  If there were an option trade to be made here, I would be buying calls on entrepreneurship and puts on stupid statist political agendas.

Right now is the best time in mankind’s history to be an entrepreneur.  I’ve said it many times; ‘Where Turmoil Exists, Opportunity Persists’.

With the explosion of the internet, you can now work from anywhere in the world.  Just five short years ago, it was very, very difficult to earn a living online.  Today, the opportunities are unlimited.

Just this week my 15 year old daughter got a freelance job (using Odesk) working for a clothing company promoting their blog, writing articles, and posting product pictures.  I was bagging groceries at that age hoping some desperate housewife would tip me for bringing groceries to her car.

A friend of mine, MJ Demarco (author of the book ‘The Millionaire Fastlane’ – highly, highly recommended!), says that in today’s world it’s all about providing value.  While that may seem a bit cliché, most people seem to just want to make money.

MJ recommends finding an unfulfilled or under-fulfilled need in the marketplace and adding value.  The majority of people today follow the traditional path and just want to find a job that pays money.  They seem to forget the part about providing value.  (MJ also runs a forum called ‘The Fastlane Forum’ for people looking to connect with other like-minded people).

My daughter found a way to provide value to her employer by offering her services.  Every day I see opportunities where a need is unfulfilled or under-fulfilled and providing value in this marketplace could give you freedom from the traditional 9-5 life.

Here in Eastern Europe, I have noticed that nearly everyone either speaks English or wants to.  Of course the best time to learn a language is when you are a child, so an English language pre-school would be ideal.  I’ve yet to find one.  They may exist, but they are few and far between.  Need?  Check.  Value?  Check.

A business associate of mine runs a law firm in Panama.  He has found that Americans are becoming more and more leery of the US financial system.  He has negotiated a deal with a credit union in Panama to accept US clients (very few accept foreigners).  This credit union pays 4% interest on basic savings accounts and up to 9% on retirement accounts.

If you put $100,000 in a retirement savings account today and added $10,000 per year for the next 20 years, you would end up with over $1M.  Keep in mind, this is held in cash, no risky investments – no stocks, bonds, options, real estate, etc. – only cash.

Where else can you get 9% a year risk free?  Did I mention there has never been a credit union failure in Panama?  Ever!  (If you would like a free introduction to my lawyer friend, email me here and mention Panama credit union in the subject line).  Need?  Check.  Value?  Check.

Another friend of mine, Jason, found there was a sever lack of quality in the investment research business.  He found there were a lot junk newsletters written by inexperienced traders and investors.

So Jason decided to find some of the top traders in the US with a long and verifiable track record of success and publish their research.  I am personally using one of his publications with much success (click here if you want to watch his free intro video).

For those of you that have chosen to live an expat life, you know that your ability to earn a living abroad was a very critical part of that decision.   If you have the knack for trading, this becomes a viable option for work.

I am personally using Chuck Hughes’ research.  I have been an options trader for several years.  Chuck’s trading methods are very similar to my own, and I have learned a lot about minimizing my own risk and maximizing gain using his options strategies.  For me, this was an investment in my trading education.

Yesterday I made a trade using his recommendation (by the way, I don’t make blind trades on someone else’s recommendations – I always do my own research to verify).  For every $5800 I put into the trade, my maximum gain was $796 and my maximum loss was $170.  This is for a maximum of a 9 week holding period (basically 2 months).

If it reaches max gain, this is over 82% annualized return.  If it reaches max loss, this is about a 17% annualized loss.  For most traders, this is a very, very good risk/reward ration.  If you are interested in learning more, click here to watch Chuck’s free video.  Need?  Check.  Value?  Check.

Day after day I speak with clients and friends who constantly amaze me at their capacity to reengineer their lives and their businesses to provide more value in today’s marketplace.

One friend is taking advantage of recent law changes related to medical marijuana and opening a high tech grow center to supply the local dispensaries.  Trust me; he’s not your ordinary farmer – or pothead for that matter.

Another friend just emailed me about the difficulty he has experienced in finding long boards (skateboards) in Finland.  He has done some research and found there is demand, but very little supply. He is talking to some US manufacturers about importing their product.

I provide value (or attempt to anyway) by offering you an alternative insight into the world of economics.  I help clients minimize their risk through customized asset protection planning.  I also inform you of various opportunities as they arise that can be of great benefit to your quality of life.

What is your value proposition?  Are you one of those people that just want to make money, or are you truly looking for ways to add value to the lives of others?  What are you doing today to improve upon what you did yesterday?

For those of you not inclined to read the musings of Barry O and his legal minions, let me summarize his $447B plan for you.

• Cutting the payroll tax for employees and 98% of businesses
• Payroll tax holiday for adding workers or increasing wages for small businesses
• Expanding the SBA backed loan limits
• Tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans
• State funding for preventing layoffs, modernizing schools, improving infrastructure, and expanding broadband access
• Extending unemployment benefits
• Tax credits for hiring long-term unemployed workers
• Mortgage refinance programs
• Fully paid for by the President’s long term deficit reduction program

Well folks, doesn’t that make everyone feel better?  The Obamessiah rode in on his white stallion to save the day.  We are lucky to have him…

I don’t want to go into all of the details since you can find that on the site mentioned above or on any number of other news sites, but there are many fallacies in his logic here.

For example, $35B is targeted towards saving the jobs of 280,000 teachers.  Simple math tells me that taxpayers are paying $125,000 for every teacher job saved.  While I certainly value the work that teachers do, the price seems a bit high.

Another point of interest is the President’s plan to cut payroll taxes in half.  Considering that the Social Security Administration is now paying out more in benefits than it collects in revenue, does it really make sense for the President to propose a plan to cut its primary revenue source in half?

Based on the average estimate of several top economists, the jobs plan will create about 1.4M jobs.  Again, my simple math tells me this comes out to be over $300,000 per job.  Considering the median income in the US hovers around $40,000, where is the remaining $260,000 going to end up?

As I review the Obamessiah’s jobs plan, the thought that keeps sticking in the back of my mind is, “This is like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole.”

The US, as well as the rest of the modern world, is bleeding.  The bloodshed is coming from unscrupulous politicians looking to save their own asses and the asses of their campaign donors.  The free money era is coming to an end ladies and gentlemen.

Do you really think it’s a coincidence that Barry O proposes a jobs plan aimed directly at the middle class with one year left before the presidential election?  He is trying to buy political goodwill with the weak minded masses.

I am all for tax cuts and helping small businesses, but every proposal by this administration just increases the amount of red tape and thus the size of government.  Sure, it sounds nice to give tax credits and payroll tax cuts to small business, but who do you think is going to regulate this?

Voila, looks like the IRS is hiring again.  In addition, small business owners are now going to have to hire more accountants and lawyers to maintain compliance which increases their own cost of doing business.

Maybe I’m a naïve simpleton, but why not give a tax holiday for repatriating offshore profits held by US companies?  There is over $1.2T in profits held by US companies in offshore entities that will remain there as long as the US penalizes companies for creating efficient structures to compete globally.

Of course a big argument here is that the big corporations won’t actually use this money to hire new workers, but instead give it back to shareholders in the form of dividends or share buybacks.

My view is that even if corporations refuse to use this money to hire one single worker and use the money instead for shareholder enrichment, they would now feel richer and spend money more freely.  This would create an increase in consumption and companies would then need to hire anyway to meet demand.

But again, maybe my simple mind just doesn’t understand the way the world works.

Here’s another idea for the government – get the hell out of the way.  Eliminate agencies and departments that offer no increases in economic productivity and completely revamp the tax code.

In business, you want to create incentives for your workers to do the right things.  You pay operational people incentives based on profitability, you pay sales people incentives based on sales, you pay production people incentives based on productivity, and so on.

If you want to provide the right incentives as a nation, you need to start with a tax code that provides the right motivation.  Right now the tax code is so overly complex, it effectively makes all of us criminals by default.  It is virtually impossible to be 100% tax compliant.  Read Barry O’s jobs plan and you will see what I mean.

America became the world’s superpower because it was an innovative place where people could come and be free to run their businesses as they chose and not be restricted by oppressive government regimes.

America has now become what it was originally rebelling against.

We need to start at the foundation with a tax code that provides the right incentives.  A consumption based tax in the form of a national sales tax used alone or in conjunction with a low flat tax would immediately put this country back on the  path to prosperity.

I would propose either a national sales tax of 25% alone, or a 15% sales tax in addition to a 10% personal income tax.  Eliminate the corporate income tax, capital gains tax, investment income tax, death tax, and nearly every other tax that we probably aren’t even aware of.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, ok – back to reality.  That was good to get off my chest.  But we all know the likelihood of this utopia becoming a reality is nil.

I would encourage you all to assess your own personal situation.  Are you well positioned for the world in the ‘Great Reset’?   Do you have the skills necessary to thrive in today’s economy?  Are you living the life you dreamed of as a kid?

Today is the day to take responsibility for your life.  Sure, I rant about governments and stupid politicians every week, but I am a firm believer in using this knowledge to improve your life and increase your wealth.

The quality of your life depends on how you react to what the world throws at you.  Are you living life on your terms?

Call today to schedule your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live extraordinary.

Greg is a California entrepreneur who runs a very successful company.  He also has a very unique perspective on life and one of the few people I know that truly lives his passions every day.  Needless to say, I respect his opinion.  I called him because I wanted to know what his thoughts were on my recent email campaigns.

He told me that the promotional emails were not consistent with my ‘voice’.  He is a regular reader of my weekly newsletter and enjoyed hearing my viewpoint on various topics.  He was even so kind as to say my newsletters were intellectually challenging (although I probably misunderstood him and he just meant I was intellectually challenged…). 

I must admit, I agree with him 100%.  For this, I want to apologize to you, my readers.  These emails are a bit spammy and not consistent with my regular message.  As a fallible human, I am capable of mistakes.  This was one of them.  Oh well, life goes on.

As a lifelong capitalist pig, I unapologetically like to make money.  I do not adhere to the social entrepreneurship mantra that seems to be prevalent today, unless of course it makes more money.

The purpose of my newsletter is to enlighten you about current world events and economic situations that can affect your wealth and your lifestyle.  My goal is to provide value to you each and every week.  If I am accomplishing that goal, please let me know.  If not, also let me know what you want to see more of.

Informing you about things like the worldwide debt crisis, capital controls, invasive tax policies, threats to your privacy, and constantly berating the current president (and the next one as well), are my job.

I am also an eternal optimist.  I like to see the brighter side of life.  The glass is half full, yadda yadda yadda.  Because of this, I also want to make you aware of certain opportunities.

So while I do like writing this free weekly newsletter, I also enjoy eating and living indoors.  In order to do that, making money is a priority, and fun to boot.

Asset protection planning is the core of my business.  I work with clients, like many of you, forming US and offshore entities, setting up trusts and foundations, making offshore bank introductions, and helping you to minimize the risks that are so abundant today.

In addition to the fees I earn as an advisor, I also earn money by promoting products from companies that I trust.  You have my commitment that I will not promote products I have not personally vetted.

The recent campaign promoting the “Cash Flow Trading System” comes from a company owned by a friend of mine.  He is one of the brightest entrepreneurs I know.  His company goes out and searches for hedge fund managers and traders who have a 5-10+ year track record of verifiable success.

He then helps them publish their research.  My friend has a gift of finding amazingly talented traders.  He is also a marketing genius.  While his sales copy is bit spammy, the underlying product is very good quality.

I will continue to offer products to my readers via email, however going forward I will provide a brief introduction from me to alert you the following message is from a partner.  This way you can quickly delete any message that does not appeal to you.

I am committed to providing you with useful, actionable information that can potentially improve your quality of life.  I make no apologies for earning a living though.

On the topic of actionable information that can improve your life…

Moody’s just this week downgraded Japan from Aa2 to Aa3.  As I have stated in previous newsletters, nearly every major country in the world is broke.  The past few decades have been an experiment in fiat currency which gives countries around the world the ability to print money with no asset value backstop.

Up until August 15, 1971 the US dollar was convertible into gold.  At that time President Nixon temporarily suspended the ability for anyone to convert their dollars into gold.  During this time, world currencies traded at a set price against the US dollar.  The dollar was exchangeable for gold, giving the US dollar the world reserve currency status.  It also meant that every world currency has a fixed value in gold.

Without any asset backing for world currencies, we are at the mercy of politicians to be honest, ethical stewards of our nations (I nearly choked just typing that).  The past 40 years have allowed policy makers to over spend using their country’s treasury as their own personal piggybank.

They have lined their pockets and the fattened the wallets of their political contributors effectively creating an aristocracy that is legally allowed to feed off of the productive members of society through manipulation of monetary policy.

It seems this party is now coming to an end.  With Europe in financial shambles and many of the EU member states already getting downgrades, the US getting downgraded, and now Japan, even the ratings agencies are finally catching on.  Ironically it seems that most of the ratings agencies change their debt ratings months, or even years, too late.

While I consider S&P guilty of procrastination (read my article, ‘Where Turmoil Exists, Opportunity Persists’) with their downgrade of US debt, I find it rather ironic that Deven Sharma, the CEO of S&P, has been fired this week by the board for…wait for it…telling the truth.

Even more amusing though is that his replacement is none other than Douglas Peterson, COO of Citibank.  Let that sink in for a minute.  Go ahead, I will wait…

Yes sir folks, the new CEO of S&P is none other than the COO of Citibank, one of the biggest recipients of bailout funds.  Citi received a direct injection of $45B as well as $301B of bad loan

I feel today is the day though.  Of course I am an eternal optimist.  I have an offer on a great apartment in the center of town situated between 2 parks and within a 10 minute walk to anything you could possibly want to do.  I also have a 2^nd offer on the table in case this one falls through.

The turmoil in my personal life however is nothing compared to what is going on around the world today.  Nearly every major country is broke.  Completely and utterly broke.

It seems as though a new European country asks for a bailout every other week or so.  The list is getting quite long – Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy and now France.  Eventually Frau Merkel and her people are going to say ‘enough is enough’.  Germany cannot bail out all of Europe.

The US is no better.  It may even be worse.  Now that the US treasury debt has been downgraded to AA+ by S&P, the government wants to demonize them saying it’s their fault for crushing the US stock market.

This completely blows my mind.  S&P should have downgraded US debt years ago.  Personally I think the only thing they are guilty of is procrastination.

Now Europe has put a temporary ban on short selling financial stocks in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.  Yeah, that’ll work.  This now creates a world of problems.  The current shareholders will view this as a sell recommendation and unload shares at fire sale prices.

This of course puts pressure on funds that own the shares to unload as well causing a downward spiral.  You also need to consider the inter-bank lending business.  Many times banks lend to one another for short term loans.  As a hedge, the lending bank will short the stock of the bank receiving the loan.  With a ban in place, this will dry up liquidity in bank-to-bank loans.

Along those same lines, the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) increased the margin requirement on nearly every world currency, silver, gold, and many other commodities.

Honestly, I don’t know who the puppeteer is behind the curtain, but it sure sounds like someone is trying to keep the US dollar from falling through the floor.

For those of you that don’t understand what I mean in the above paragraph, world currency and precious metals (as well as lots of other commodities and financial instruments) trade on the futures markets.  People buy and sell contracts of these things in future months.

In order to buy a contract of Swiss Francs (for example), you must put up a certain amount of money (margin) to control the contract.  If the margin requirement increases then you must put more cash up as deposit.  This means you need to pay more US dollars to control less Swiss Francs.  This artificially raises the value of the US dollar.

All of these things are just intervention into the free market.  Anyone who has been through economics 101 (or read ‘Economics in One Lesson’), should understand than whenever there is intervention in the free markets there is a loss of productivity.

These are just protective measures governments are taking to help salvage their own position of significance.  Of course the biggest fear for any government is that their subjects will discover how utterly useless most government policies and programs really are.

This week I finished reading the book, “The Driver” by Garet Garrett.  The main character in the book, Henry Galt (reportedly the inspiration for the character John Galt in “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand) is a stock market speculator who took over a railroad and brought it back from the grave.

Galt struggled with crony capitalism and stupid government policies.  He also dealt with predatory taxation on companies that made too much money.  The government decided to tax companies for being ‘overly profitable’ in order to redistribute the wealth.

Does any of this sound familiar?  Ironically the book was written 89 years ago.  It’s a relatively short book with lots of similarities to today’s world.  I highly recommend it.

One thing that struck me in the book was a conversation between Galt and his personal secretary.  They were discussing the news of very high unemployment and the stock market going down the tubes, and Galt stated, “We are still a rich country, and this is still a rich company”.

His point was that it is all relative to your current environment.  Today we may have high unemployment, a volatile stock market, millions of foreclosures, and bankrupt governments, but the reality is that most people still have a place to live, a computer, a TV, a car and food to eat.

Just 200 years ago, if you were unemployed you may go hungry.  Today it just means you have to cut back on your budget for dining out.

I certainly agree that today’s economic situation is dire.  Today we live in what I call, “The Great Reset”.  I have written several articles about this before;

• Asset Protection in the Great Reset
• The Great Reset is in Full Swing
• The Procrastinator’s Doctrine
• Why Jobs Suck
• The Black Crow Event

To me this represents a great time in history.  I have never been more excited about the future than I am today.  There will are (and will be) enormous opportunities that emerge from the ashes.  Where turmoil exists, opportunity persists.

This is the time to take personal responsibility and make things happen.  Take charge of your life.  Start that business you have always dreamed of.  Move to that exotic land you have always wanted to visit.  Learn a new language.  Go back to school and get your degree.  Whatever it is that has caused you to say, “one day….” now is the time to get it done.

I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago about a report I am creating about a backdoor EU residency program.  I am putting the finishing touches on it over the next week and waiting on a bit more information from an attorney friend in Estonia.  This report will provide you with the exact steps and available options on how to acquire residency (not citizenship) in Estonia.

The report will deal with the reasons why you should consider this option, what your options are to acquire residency, and where and how to open a bank account in Estonia.

Estonia is former Soviet bloc country that was admitted to the EU in 2004.  It is a tiny country of about 1.3M people and borders Russia to the east, Latvia to the South and the Baltic Sea to the west.

If you would like to be placed on the early notification list, please drop me a line here.

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a webinar with RJ Palano about investing in residential real estate.  The webinar was fantastic and we were at capacity on the system.  If you are interested in learning more, you can view the webinar here, and email me if you have questions.

I plan to host another webinar with a good friend of mine, Tres Knippa sometime over the next 2 weeks.  Tres and I met a few years ago while completing a Masters in Entrepreneurship from MIT.  Tres is a hugely accomplished floor trader at the CME and has some very interesting insights into the stock and commodities markets.

If you are interested in participating in a webinar with Tres and I, please send me an email to get on the early notification list.

Now that we are settled here though, it is fantastic.  Riga has some of the most beautiful architecture in the world.  There seems to be a park every other block.  The river and the canal running through the center of the city are gorgeous.

Earlier tonight I went for a run along the canal and back down the river.  There were couples walking hand in hand and kids playing in the parks.

I ran along walking paths with little lighting and there were no signs of trouble anywhere.  Young girls felt comfortable enough to go for a walk at night without fear.  It really is a great city.

Housing, food and entertainment are cheaper than anywhere in the US.  I was out apartment hunting earlier today and found an amazing 3BR/2BA apartment fully furnished with a sauna for about $900/month.  An equivalent apartment in Chicago would cost around $3000.

You can easily find a .5L beer at a pub for about $2.  The most expensive movie ticket to a beautiful 3D theater in the center of town runs about $7.50.  I went to the movies yesterday and the ticket was about $5.50.

Did I mention that Latvia has a low flat tax of 23% on earned income, or that there is no tax on investment income, capital gains, or even on foreign sourced income?

I’m not saying Latvia is the perfect place.  The winters are cold (I actually like cold winters though), gas prices are exorbitant, and many shopping items like clothes and electronics are pricey.

The point is, there are many great places to live around the world.  Many Americans are borderline arrogant in their patriotism and feel the rest of the world is just 2^nd rate.  This is not the case.

While I agree that the US has many great places to live, you cannot argue with the fact that it is rapidly losing its luster.

Since last Friday, we have witnessed the US lose its coveted S&P AAA rating, gold rally about 8%, US treasuries rally (safe haven investment LOL), and the Dow index bounce like hedge fund manager jumping out of Wall Street high-rise.

In my own portfolio, gold and silver stocks have been the only thing keeping me from the ramen noodle and pork and bean aisle in the grocery store.

Precious metals stocks can make great investments and/or speculations.  In my personal view though, gold is a store of value.

You cannot deny this if you take a look at the long term charts for gold prices when compared to the value of the US dollar.  An ounce of gold today buys about the same amount of ‘stuff’ as an ounce of gold 100 years ago.  The US dollar however has lost 97% of its value.

Jeff Clark from Casey Research said it best in a recent article;

There are 101 reasons to own gold right now. You might buy because of the debt turmoil you see around the globe. You may think it wise, like the Chinese and others, to keep some of your savings in gold. Negative real interest rates may draw you to gold. You might buy because of the mere fact that demand is overwhelming supply. Or you fear inflation. Or deflation.

But most of these factors are missing one critical element: They’re not yet personal.

Most reading this have not had to flee their country, been the victim of hyperinflation, or watched helplessly as their currency went poof! Longtime investors have made money on their gold investments, to be sure, but most of us bought the yellow metal as an investment and not because of a do-or-die situation.  (read the rest here)

We are not seeing gold rally for any other reason than the worldwide debt crisis.  Over the past week we have heard the rumblings in Europe about Italy and Spain (as if it were ever a question) and just today France made the headlines about their debt issues.  Let us not also forget our own US S&P AA+ rating.

Our policymakers have been living in a dream world.  Reality is not in their dictionary apparently.  We have a very serious debt problem with no one willing to take responsibility.

The reality is that we are in the midst of an American debt crisis.  Take a look at this short 8 minute video by the guys over at Casey Research.  The narrator discusses the debt crisis with hard facts.  They also offer solutions.  It is really eye opening.

What are you doing to secure your financial future?  Have you created your own exit plan?  Have you developed a formidable asset protection plan to ensure you are not wiped out by the poor decisions of our elected officials or the ambulance chasing lawyers representing the parasites of the world?

One of the first things that should be on your list is opening an offshore bank account.  Having money outside of the reach of the US court system and denominated in currencies other than the US dollar should be a top priority.

We have recently developed a relationship with a bank in Singapore that will accept American clients without actually having to make a personal visit to the bank.  You can open the account in your name personally, or in the name of your Singaporean company.

For the personal account at this Singapore bank, there are 2 banking options; one with no minimum deposit and no ATM card or checkbook, the other with a small minimum deposit and comes with an ATM card and checkbook.

The business banking option has all the normal features you would expect from a business bank account.  Email me if you would like more information about facilitating the opening of a Singapore company and bank account.

Singapore has become the Asian Switzerland.  Many wealthy Australians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others are now calling Singapore their banking home.  With privacy laws favorably compared to pre-2008 Switzerland and the rapid rise of the Chinese economy, they are not likely to be easily swayed by the bullies from the US department of revenue.

For any of my consulting clients, I will provide this introduction for free.  If you are a client, please send me an email requesting the introduction.

If you are not yet a client, I charge a flat $1000 for creating a personalized asset protection plan.  With this plan, I analyze your assets, liabilities, income and desired outcome to provide you with options on minimizing your risk and potentially your tax liability.

I will also credit the $1000 towards any implementation fees once you choose how you wish to proceed.  As stated above, I will provide the introduction to the Singapore bank that accepts Americans without a personal visit.

Hank was very familiar with asset protection and international taxation issues and had previously worked at a law firm assisting international clients with these issues.

The two of us had very similar ideas about politics, economics and ways to reduce the risks is your financial life. We chatted on the phone for quite awhile about these and other issues.

Politics – We’re screwed. Politicians are all liars. Democrats and Republicans are all alike. President Bush presided over this country during the largest increase in government spending in history (at the time).

He waged war in countries that never asked for us in order to enrich his political cronies at the oil companies and defense contractors. He effectively colonized the Middle East.

In the name of national security he robbed us of privacy and personal freedoms through the Patriot Act. We now are subject to phone taps, email interception, bank and property seizures, and vigorous, yet gentle groping while passing through security at airports all over the country.

King Bush also grew entitlement programs at a break neck pace further indebting us and our heirs to a generation that we have no responsibility for, nor can we afford.

But luckily, Komrade Obama came on the scene. He has taken the Bush playbook and doubled down on nearly every move. Under his leadership, he has put the US in debt unlike anything ever before seen in the history of mankind.

The US debt per taxpayer has now reached about $129,000. We are running ANNUAL deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Keep in mind, this is annual. It accrues each year. Imagine running up a $20,000 credit card balance this year. And next year you accrue another $20,000 balance that you use to pay off your interest from the previous years. Welcome to US political economics.

Economics – We’re screwed. Mainly because we now have no separation of Politics and Economics.

At what point in history did our political leaders become responsible for the economic well being of the country and its citizens? The current environment reminds me more and more each day of the book, Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand (my all time favorite novel). Much like the boiling frog analogy, we cannot really pinpoint the time when the water became too hot for comfort.

We do know that it sure was nice when the government stepped in and bought mortgages, treasury bonds, and bailed out companies to make us all feel nice and cozy. It gave us that secure feeling that big brother really was watching out for our best interests (just a hint of sarcasm here).

The reality is individualism and personal responsibility has somehow left the mainstream thought process of the American public. Our society has come to expect that Social Security and Medicare will take care of us when we are old and Medicaid and welfare programs will take care of us when we are poor.

We have been sold a bill of goods that we really do need hundreds of military bases all over the world to protect us from the evils that lurk in the shadows.

What we don’t realize is that this all comes at a price. The piper must be paid, and he is here to collect.

As Hank mentioned when we were on the phone, he has found the only way for him to ensure his safety, privacy and personal freedoms was to leave the US.

Hank, and many others like him, has found living in other countries to be much less intrusive on their personal lives. Ultimately, it all boils down to economics.

When the citizens of a country have to pay for excessive government intrusion, it will increase your cost of living and reduce the free time you have to spend doing the things you truly love.

Taxes in any form are always passed down to the end user. Many people are now complaining about how corporations are ‘getting away with murder’ by shifting profits to low tax jurisdictions.

Keep in mind the alternative is they keep their profits here, pay the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and pass the cost increase on to you dear consumer. Do you really think the corporate benefactors at HP, Dell, Intel, Proctor and Gamble and others are willing to bear the burden of the increased cost? Not likely. Welcome to higher prices thanks to massive government growth.

Of course there is always the hidden tax, inflation. Since the Obamessiah took office, the money supply in the US has more than doubled. It has far outpaced economic productivity.

Have you bought a gallon of milk lately? A gallon of gasoline? Loaf of bread? Movie ticket? Furniture? Are any of these items less expensive today than they were 3 years ago?

The government is left with few choices but to either massively cut spending, increase taxes, or print money and inflate away the debt. We all know #1 is not an option.

Tax increases and printing money are the easy choices for policymakers.

Money printing is the hidden tax that raises the prices for nearly everything you buy. Thank you government incompetence.

In just a couple of week the federal government faces a major hurdle. On August 2nd we will have reached the federal debt limit, which means we won’t be able to pay our bills in August.

Currently the debt ceiling is at $14.29 trillion. The last time it was raised was just last year. Most likely it will be raised again, all at your expense.

Right now the Republicans and Democrats are playing a cat and mouse game trying to negotiate for higher taxes, lower taxes, spending cuts, new programs, and who gets the last serving of garlic mashed potatoes at the dinner table.

In other words, we have no idea what they are really doing in Washington, but ultimately their only goal is to win votes to make sure they get re-elected. Heaven forbid they lose their job and have to actually work for a living.

This is what happens though when you put the purse of the minority into the hands of the majority. Politicians have to pander to the majority to keep their jobs. Unfortunately it’s the productive minority who has to foot the bill.

Or you can be like Hank and I. Hank left the US permanently several years ago. I left a few years ago and have been back for several months now. In just a few short weeks, I will be leaving permanently.

This may seem like an extreme move to many of you. Some of you have already taken the plunge. I have talked with many of you who have left and never heard an inkling of regret.

I have also talked with many of you that would love to make the jump, but just aren’t sure where to go, how to educate your kids, or how to earn a living abroad.

I can tell you from personal experience, the hardest thing about making the move – is making the decision to make the move. Once the decision has been made, you will figure out the rest. By solidifying in your mind that you want to make the leap, you will be open to finding the solutions to each and every challenge that will present itself. But the process will certainly be rewarding.

We are currently working with a couple of law firms in the Baltics who are offering services helping clients establish residency in Estonia and Latvia. We will be offering a special report sometime in the next couple of weeks that will explain the details of the programs available and exactly what you need to do and who you need to talk to.

Estonia and Latvia are both EU countries so by obtaining residency in one of these countries, you would also have EU residency. Both of these countries have developed unique programs that make it very easy to receive a 5 year residency permit.

They are actively seeking educated, productive people who can bring money and jobs to the area. They are providing incentives for people like you and offering the reward of EU residency.

If this appeals to you drop me a line here and I will keep you on the early notification list.

I would love to hear from those of you that have taken the plunge to live an expat life. Please share your stories, both good and bad and I will reprint them in an upcoming newsletter.

Regardless, I have several things to discuss with you so here goes.

The past week has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. We launched our new asset protection product, the Wealth Fortress Trust©, and haven’t even had time to put it up on the website. To be honest, I’m not sure I even want to list it on the site, due to privacy concerns.

It’s a very interesting hybrid product that I have never seen anywhere else. Due to the weaknesses of various other entities like FLP’s, LLC’s, corporations and trusts, we created this structure that combines the best attributes of all of the above without the weaknesses.

I have been completely overwhelmed by the number of emails and calls received since discussing this last week. If you have sent me an email or left a message, I will get back to you. Please be patient.

To answer some questions and summarize the highlights of the Wealth Fortress Trust©, here are a few of the details;
• It is a US based structure
• Offers complete anonymity
• Your name is not registered in any public record
• You retain complete control of the underlying asset
• Provides bulletproof asset protection from potential future creditors
• Low cost structure with minimal annual maintenance requirements
This product is perfect for;
• Investment real estate
• Segregation of your operating business from the real estate (if you own your building)
• Investment or trading accounts
• Large cash, or cash equivalent accounts
• Owing shares or membership interest of privately held companies
• Private investment partnerships
• High value business assets like equipment and machinery
If this appeals to you, please forward me an email with your name, number and your availability and we can schedule a call to discuss your asset protection needs.

In addition to this, I have been working diligently on producing the July issue of our EscapeWealth Ezine. We have partnered with EscapeArtist as the premiere portal for asset protection and financial information for expats or would-be expats.

We are very excited about this development and our new media partners involved. EscapeArtist has been around since the mid-90s and the site attracts over 15 million unique visits per year. We also have a subscriber database of 400,000 readers who receive our monthly Ezine.

If any of you work in the asset protection or financial arena and would like to tap into this very specific niche, please drop me an email and we can schedule a call to discuss options.

As a side note here, please do not contact me if you are only interested in blasting sales copy out to our 400,000 subscribers. I will only accept partners who are willing to provide real value to our readers. None of us need any more spam in our email box.

In the news today (July 13), Bernanke announced he may launch a new round of stimulus. Is anyone really surprised by this? I know I am not. It is only a matter of time.

The supply of dollars has more than doubled over the past 3 years and yet unemployment is still climbing. Interest rates are at all time lows, yet new and existing home sales are in the gutter. None of these attempts to control a market economy will ever work in the long run.

It seems the only ones benefiting from this stimulus measures are big business, aka friends of government. I would advise you to tread lightly with your investments and keep in mind who it is that’s pulling the puppet strings when you are allocating funds.

The US policymakers are still playing by the Keynesian rulebook of economics. Ironically Keynes was a big supporter of communist ideals like central planning. Keynes even praised Lenin for his 5 year plan.

Communism has proven over and over again that it just doesn’t work. Yet our policymakers still continue to play by his rulebook. As Einstein noted, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results”.

Who are the insane ones now? The politicians or the ones that keep voting them in office…

On a lighter note, I have been reading an amazing book I would encourage each of you to check out. It is Beyond Wealth: The Road Map to a Rich Life by Alexander Green.

I don’t recommend books often, but this one certainly deserves a look. Alexander is the investment director of The Oxford Club. He has been writing investment research for many years and has a tremendous track record.

More importantly, he has found balance in his life and understands what is truly important. The book is a compilation of essays he has written over the years and pulls wisdom from great minds throughout history.

I’ve even had my 11 year old son read this book (of course he has also read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand). If you are a reader (and everyone should be), give it a look.