Spanish Prostitute in a Catholic Church

It seems the more stupidity the politicians of the world throw at us, the more creative we become. We are barraged on a daily basis with headlines about how new French President Hollande is going to tax the wealthy at 75%. Or Bill Clinton praising Mitt Romney as having a sterling business record.

In response the productive and wealthy French have begun to emigrate in droves. Americans are renouncing their citizenship in record numbers as well. And that doesn’t even include the ones that just move abroad and go ‘off-grid’.

What politicians don’t seem to understand is that the productive and wealthy people of the world didn’t get that way because they are stupid. They are highly educated, intelligent and driven toward perpetual improvement. They always will find the greener pastures.

I don’t need to repeat the headlines we all read on a daily basis. We all get the gist – politicians are grabbing at straws now in an attempt to justify, and save, their miserable existence.

I was speaking to client earlier this week who told me a few years ago he was forced to hire a lobbyist in DC to save his business. There was pending legislation that would have essentially put him out of business and without the “assistance” of a Washington insider it would surely push through and bankrupt him.

Obviously he did what any rational person would do and took it upon himself to hire a lobbyist to save his business. What he found was a bunch of 25 year old new college grads writing legislation that would then be signed – without scrutiny – by the elected officials. He told me it was the stupidest bunch of people he had ever dealt with.

Interesting to think these are the people who make many of your decisions on a daily basis. How much longer before you do something about it?

Another recent conversation I had was at a birthday party about 10 days ago. My wife and I attended a friend’s 40^th birthday party. It was a great event with a live band playing Spanish music, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and an open bar.

As it turned out, the birthday girl and her husband have many good friends that work at the local US Embassy so there were several diplomats and their spouses in attendance. I felt about as comfortable as a Spanish prostitute in a Catholic Church, but luckily – as mentioned – there was an open bar.

As the drinks flowed, I started up a conversation with one US diplomat whom we will call “Judas”. “Judas” and I chatted for awhile about various topics, but ultimately I was interested in his opinion on obtaining and using 2^nd passports around the world.

“Judas” told me a few insider tidbits that I cannot publish, but the most interesting thing was the he told me that he possessed 3 different passports and his wife and children had 2 different passports.

He went on to tell me that if you are an American living abroad, you would be insane not to have at least 2 different passports for travel, business, banking and ultimately – safety. Keep in mind, this was a US diplomat telling me that it is crazy for an American living abroad to not have a 2^nd citizenship and 2^nd passport.

To be fair, maybe they all think like that but as a libertarian and borderline anarcho-capitalist, I tend to stay away from high level government workers. I was a bit surprised though to hear his take on 2^nd passports. He actually went on to tell me that he would highly recommend even those living in the US to have a 2^nd passport.

“Judas” told me a few stories about friends of his that ended up in legal troubles while inside the borders of the US and used their 2^nd passport to leave the country to get to a safer place. He told me that considering the geo-political and the economic situation in the world today having a 2^nd passport is the ultimate insurance policy allowing you to travel, bank, and do business globally and unencumbered.

If “Judas” – who clearly knows more than the average Joe about these issues – thinks it is a good idea to have a 2^nd passport, who am I to argue?

On an unrelated note following up with my recent issues involving offshore banking, I was told by 3 more (non-US) banks this week they no longer accept Americans.

On Tuesday this week I had a meeting with one bank here in Latvia that originally told me they do still accept Americans, but when she called in the compliance manager to confirm, he stated they are updating their bank manual this week to reflect their new ‘no-American’ policy.

This bank would actually be an excellent option for non-Americans (or those with a 2^nd passport) as it has some very unique investment products where you can get up to 7% interest on time deposits in a private numbered account.

For Americans we have an excellent Caribbean banking option that is good for transactional banking and you can even earn a bit over 3% on deposits.

And finally, I will close with an update on our upcoming offshore conference, “Global Escape Hatch – Panama 2012”. For those of you unaware, we are hosting an offshore conference in Bocas Del Toro, Panama from September 19-23.

We have a dozen lawyers, bankers, consultants and investment professionals coming to discuss with us the latest and greatest information about 2^nd passports, asset protection, offshore banking, offshore business, internet privacy and more.

We have just confirmed our final speaker. He is a former American citizen and now holds at least one other citizenship and passport. He has joined the ranks of the few who have taken the giant leap of renouncing his American citizenship. He is coming to discuss how he did it and how you can easily obtain your own 2^nd passport.

I don’t want to give it all away as we haven’t even had time to put his image and bio up on the website, but this event is going to be like nothing you’ve ever experienced. To learn more, visit the conference site here – “Global Escape Hatch – Panama 2012”.