I received well over 100 email responses to this topic and not one of them was in defense of PayPal’s business practices.

Roger said, “Our company processed tens of thousands of transactions with PayPal over several years with only 3 charge-backs and 2 of them were reversed.  After all of these years they decided to close our account and froze access to our funds from dozens of clients without any written notice.  PayPal is illegally holding people’s money.”

Jeannette said, “I hate PayPal in every way.  I am looking forward to Visa coming out with their competing service this summer.”

Lisa said, “I used to sell items on EBay as my business. Small ticket items under $100.  Two months ago PayPal determined that my wares were too risky and without notice or warning they shut down my account and froze my funds for 180 days.  This has effectively closed my EBay business until I find another payment method that EBay will accept.”

I could go on and on.  There were dozens of stories like these.

I tell you this for three reasons:

1. I am pissed. I wanted to vent my frustrations and get my revenge.  I am sure my thousands of readers can put a microscopic dent in PayPal’s more than 200 million customer base…
2. I want my subscribers to be alerted to the pitfalls of relying on PayPal.  Find another resource for payment processing if your business demands it.  I did.  I actually set up 3 merchant accounts over the past week.  Overkill?  Maybe, but I don’t want to deal with this issue again.  I hope you are at least aware of the potential problems from using PayPal and give yourself options.
3. Most importantly, I want you to be aware that once a great company loses its way; the doors of opportunity are opened wide.  PayPal’s insistence on providing terrible service and alienating 100’s of thousands of customers per year has given opportunity for competitors to jump in this game.  When PayPal first started, they were cutting edge.  No one offered anything like it.  It was a great solution for millions of people.  But now with their complete lack of interest in taking care of their customer, they have opened the door of opportunity for American Express, Visa, Alert Pay, Google Checkout, Square, Intuit, and hundreds of others looking to take on this market.

For you, this may have little direct meaning.  Most of us aren’t interested in or capable of taking on the giant – PayPal and creating a competing business model.

But the idea is the same and can be observed all around you every day.  Have you ever used a product or service and thought, “This is really irritating, if they could just do X it would do well.”

Where turmoil persists, opportunity exists.

Some entrepreneurs are excellent inventors and creators.  They have the ability to create things from their own sheer brilliance.  We know of these visionaries because they make the headlines; Steven Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bernie Marcus and many others.

But many entrepreneurs take good ideas and make them great.  Ray Kroc didn’t invent the hamburger, the restaurant, fast food, or even McDonalds.  But he did take the concept and turn it into something amazing.

Oprah Winfrey was certainly not the first media personality and talk show host.  But she took the concept and grew it into something no one had ever seen before and became a billionaire in the process.

You could even say the visionaries like Jeff Bezos recreated the way books were sold or Steven Jobs reinvented the personal electronics sector.

Everyday you will encounter businesses that provide some product or service that fills a need, but could use improvement in its current state.

As an entrepreneur your eyes should be constantly open looking for inefficiencies in the marketplace or needs that are not even met.

Many young entrepreneurs are so money focused; they forget the most important thing;

Deliver value to your customer and they will deliver money to you.

Unfortunately most get it backwards and focus on the money, which is egocentric and they forget that in order to reach real professional (and personal for that matter) success, you must first deliver value.

I make an effort to deliver value to you every week through my newsletters.  Maybe I enlighten, sometimes entertain, and occasionally anger, but my goal is to provide real value to you every week.

For my clients, I provide value to them by helping them achieve their goals of protecting their assets and keeping what is rightfully theirs.  What value do you provide to your clients?

The past few months have gotten increasingly busy here at Global Wealth Protection.  We have seen a lot of new clients as well as an increase in traffic on our monthly Ezine – EscapeWealth.

In addition, I have also started hosting a weekly radio show every Monday from 3-4pm EST on the Overseas Radio Network called, “Global Escape Hatch“.  ORN is now completely free.  I encourage each of you to tune in and listen to my show where you can call in and get your questions answered live.

Last week a lot of things came to a head all at once.  As you may imagine from the title, one of them was a battle with Paypal.  I don’t normally accept Paypal for client payments unless the total is small, but I had 2 clients who really preferred that method so I agreed.

The problem is that Paypal decided I actually charged too much money (do they really want smaller fees?) and my account was closed because it was considered high risk.

No problem Paypal.  Close the account.

As it turns out though, when Paypal closes an account, their policy is to hold the funds for 180 days!!!  Who among you is willing to wait 180 days to receive payment for a completed project?  Not I.

So this is my way of blowing off steam and informing you, my dear reader, beware of Paypal.  After researching this issue, it seems there are 100′s of thousand of people in a similar position.  Don’t be a sucker like me.

Ok, moving on.

As previously mentioned, we have seen a huge increase in traffic for our EscapeWealth Ezine and last week we published our January edition.  This was by far our best issue yet.  So instead of continuing my Paypal tirade, I want to direct you to these articles.

Each and  every one of them are worth the read.  They all offer an enormous amount of information and value to you, the reader.

Below are the article titles with links.  Feel free to click on the ones that interest you the most.

Private Trust Banking – 21st Century Offshore Banking

What to do with Your Cash When the Financial System is Broken

(The Easiest) Way to Get a Second Passport? (Plus, How It Can Save Your Life When Things Go Wrong!)

Mike the Good Ole Country Boy vs. Lester the Scoundrel

Three Numbers that are Essential to Your Wealth

Who Really Owns Your Stocks?

Passive Real Estate Investments…For Real!

The Corruption of America

Conversations with an Idiot

Don’t Frack Me Up

The Weekly Jobless Claim Blockbuster

More IRA Restrictions Coming…

When Will Silver Reach a New High?

Can YOU Get in the Global Macro Game?

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

These 2 sub-sections deal with the detention of terrorism suspects.  The NDAA grants the president the authority to detain anyone, “who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners,” or anyone who commits a “belligerent act” against the U.S. or its allies, “without trial, until the end of the hostilities granted by the authorization for use of military force.”

The big controversy here is that the 2012 NDAA gives the president the authority to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial or even any proof of wrongdoing.  Go back and reread the previous paragraph and piece the puzzle together.

The president now has the power to use military force to detain American citizens indefinitely without trial for committing a “belligerent act”.  If I could embed a music file here it would be – “dom, dom, dom…”

Folks, wake up and smell the gun powder.  The United States of America is rapidly becoming the United Socialist States of Amerika.  Yes, I am well aware this is not a popular viewpoint and am 100% certain there will be lots of hate mail and notifications of un-subscribers in my inbox Thursday afternoon.

For many of you though, I am certain you are gradually (or possibly rapidly) awakening to the reality.  While I don’t agree with the OWS crowd, they are right to be angry with the current state of affairs in the US.

Some people claim the right thing is to stay and fight the good fight.  My question to you is how long will that take?  Are you willing to wait 5 years?  10?  30?  More power to ya…

We could also discuss the new FATCA (foreign account tax compliance act) that takes effect in 2013.  This little gem was slipped in to the HIRE (hiring incentives to restore employment) act as a means to track down and punish offshore tax cheats.

In reality it was created to shackle you and your money to a broke nation run by politicians who have no intellectual ability or desire to maintain sound fiscal policies.

If you are unfamiliar with the details, you can read my article over on EscapeWealth to learn more.

Essentially though what you need to know is this piece of legislation is going to make it much more difficult and costly for you to bank, invest, or do business offshore.

These laws are created for the sole purpose of controlling the citizenry; controlling your movement, your capital, and ultimately your tax dollars.  Ironically the unintended consequences will produce the exact opposite effect.

Obviously there will be many sheeple that remain holding fast to the belief that the ship can be righted, but the most productive citizens will move some or all of their business and investment assets to a friendlier environment.  Some will even move their own ass to a friendlier environment.

This will only serve to increase the velocity of the downward spiral.  Over the past couple of years the number of people moving out of the US has increased dramatically – even according the US Dept. of State’s own records.  While this number still remains relatively low, it only takes a few of the next Steve Jobs’, Bill Gates’, or Sam Walton’s to have a huge impact on the economy.

How would the current business landscape look if only these 3 visionaries were born in Sweden or Australia?  Would the US still have a dominant world position?

I’ve spent the last several days on a road trip through several Eastern European countries.  I’ve been in Lithuania, Ukraine, Serbia and now Bulgaria.  Tonight I had dinner at an amazing traditional Bulgarian restaurant and the tab for a 3 course meal for 5 came to be a whopping $34, including service charge.  The same mean in Austin, TX would have been over $100, minimum.

The income tax rate is a flat 10% and you can earn 8% on a 12 month CD at a major bank.  Sofia is a very nice city and there are beautiful mountains with great skiing nearby as well as exceptional beaches on the Black Sea just a few hours away.

Tomorrow I will be in Hungary for a few days then on to Poland.  With the exception of Ukraine, I could easily live very well in any of these countries.  Ironically many of these are former soviet countries with long histories of communism but they have somehow broken away from that mold while the western world is falling into the same trap they escaped from.

I am not proposing that you pack up and move to Bulgaria or Serbia per se, but you may want to consider finding your own perfect haven sooner rather than later.

With US politicians bankrupting the country, inflation driving up the cost of living and some of the highest tax rates in the world (at least for producers), now may be the ideal time to craft your own ‘Global Escape Hatch’.

Regardless of your reason for celebrating, I encourage you to take some time away from the pressures of your job or business to spend with family and friends and to remember the things that are important in life.  And of course, eat yourself into oblivion as this is a winter holiday requirement.

I want to keep this issue short and sweet and address two things I am very excited about.  The first item of interest is the launch of the Overseas Radio Network.

A few months ago I was asked if I wanted to have my own weekly radio show.  Having no radio experience whatsoever, I was a bit skeptical, but agreed to discuss the possibility.  The more we talked about it, the more excited I became.

The Overseas Radio Network is a brand new online program with 40 radio show hosts from around the world.  The shows have some pretty unique titles with incredibly qualified hosts.  Some of them are;

• Global Escape Hatch – yours truly
• IRA Choices – Thomas Phelan
• Food Pilgrimage – Sage Russell
• Girls Guide to Paris – Doni Belau
• Mike’s Gringo Life in Nicaragua – Mike Cobb
• Live and Invest Overseas – Kathleen Peddicord and Lief Simon
• Investment Postcards – Prieur du Plessis
• Expert Expat – Robert Culpepper
• Escape to Mexico – Henry Altman
• Truth and Lies – David Finzer
• Wine Line – Robert Scott
• Yachts: The Perfect Escape Vehicle – Gary Fretz

This is just a few on the schedule, but the others are equally as unique and interesting with very qualified experts in their respective field.  Personally I feel this is an exciting endeavor as I get to be part of a group of like-minded experts discussing issues that are important to us and spreading the word about living an extraordinary life.

For you, this is a fantastic opportunity to listen and interact with each one of us on a weekly basis and get your most pressing questions answered.  Each and every one of us will be hosting a live radio show giving callers the ability to dial in and ask questions about any topic they wish.

Many of you subscribe to my newsletter because you are interested in protecting your assets and have an interest in offshore investments and internationalizing your life.  But many of you are still sitting on the fence and have yet to make the leap.

The Overseas Radio Network presents you with a unique opportunity to engage myself or any of the other show hosts directly and get your questions answered.

Do you want to know how to privately move assets offshore?  Interested in moving abroad but not sure how you would educate your kids in a foreign land?  Does the idea of living in Mexico excite you but you fear the news headlines and think the country is entangled in a drug war?  Do you want or need a 2^nd passport?

Everyone one of the radio show hosts have lived in at least one country outside of their birthplace.  Most of have lived in several places and have travelled extensively around the world.  Each one of us has tackled many of the obstacles that you feel are holding you back.  You can easily tune in to your show of choice (preferably to mine every Monday from 3-4pm EST) and ask the most pressing questions.

The show has its official launch in mid-January.  If you are interesting in learning more about the Overseas Radio Network and want to be updated with information regarding the show hosts, schedule, call in numbers and other information please click the link below.

Overseas Radio Network
Escape – Retire – Live

The last item that may be of interest to many of you is opening an offshore private bank account in Europe without the need for a personal visit.  Many of you may be aware that opening an offshore bank account is becoming increasingly difficult with countries around the world cracking down on ‘tax cheats’ and ‘criminals’ in an attempt to regain control of the world’s financial system and tax you into oblivion.

Earlier this week I had a face-to-face meeting with a private bank that I feel is an excellent option for many of you looking to establish your own ‘Global Escape Hatch’.  This bank has many benefits to offer including;

• Low set up cost
• Low fees
• No minimum deposit
• Private debit card
• Online brokerage account with stock and derivative trading on many world exchanges
• Wealth management services
• Multi-currency account with 30 different currency options
• No account reporting requirements to your home country
• 2.5-3% interest on cash accounts
• Deposit guarantee of 100,000 Euros
• Very safe bank with 17% capital adequacy ratio and 58% liquidity ratio
• Zero toxic mortgages on the balance sheet
• No branches or offices within the US

The preferred method for opening the account is through an offshore company.  This gives you the utmost privacy and eases the account opening process.  We can assist clients opening an offshore company in Seychelles or Belize (and others) to facilitate the account opening.

With the new FATCA rules enacted as part of the HIRE act in 2010, opening an offshore bank account will get much more difficult for Americans beginning in 2013.  Having an offshore bank account is one of the most important steps you should take in asset protection planning.  I would encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity while you still can.  No one knows how much longer it will remain possible for Americans to open an offshore bank account.

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.

In last week’s asset protection newsletter titled, “I’m Buying Call Options on Entrepreneurship”, I discussed my bullishness on the innovation and creativity of the entrepreneur despite the stupidity of governments in the US and around the world.

The second paragraph of this article states;

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.

Yesterday evening, one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs died after having battled cancer for the past several years of his life.  Steve Jobs’ name was virtually synonymous with entrepreneur during his lifetime.

Jobs cofounded Apple in the late ‘70’s only to be ousted by the CEO and board he hired several years later.  Approximately 10 years later, Jobs regained the reigns of Apple and brought the world a string of innovative products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and most recently, the iPad.

Early in his career he was considered the rogue underdog, but went on to become the tech CEO powerhouse building the 2^nd most valuable company in the world, behind Exxon-Mobile.  The last 10 years of his life could be considered as his most productive years where he continued to impact the world in a big way up until his death yesterday.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Jobs;

• “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to…love what you do. – Your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life”
• “You’ve got to find what you love… the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
• “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.”

The man truly embodied the spirit of passion, perseverance and an unwavering commitment to his own ideals.  Is there any doubt he was passionate about his life and his work?  Bravo to a living an extraordinary life Steve.

Steve Jobs is the modern day, real life equivalent to one of my all time favorite novel characters.  Howard Roark is the unyielding, visionary architect hero from the novel, “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand.”

While “The Fountainhead” may have been written nearly 70 years ago, it is more popular today than when it was originally published.  The hero, Howard Roark is an architect who wanted to build things in exactly his own way.  He was completely unwilling to yield to the whims of bosses, regulators, friends, family or even the university where he was studying architecture.

The book even begins with his dismissal from school because of his unwillingness to conform to the norms of the day in regards to architectural design.  He was brash, arrogant, not very personable, volatile, and difficult to work with.

He was also very passionate about his work, exceptionally brilliant, and built things that improved the lives of many.  Sounds just like Steve Jobs to me.

How about you?  Are you passionate about your life’s work?  Are you making a difference in someone’s life?  Are you providing value to the world?

I am not suggesting that we all strive to become the next Steve Jobs.  That would certainly be a tough act to follow.

In spirit however, we should all live our lives with a similar level of passion and an unwillingness to sacrifice our own ideals for the sake of something or someone else.

Personally I value individual creativity, productivity and the power of capitalism as the growth driver of the world economic engine.  I chose asset protection planning as a means to help entrepreneurs and investors their keep money and assets where they are most productive – in their own hands as opposed to the hands of the parasites that now seem to flourish around the world.

Additionally, personal freedom and adventure are ideals that I value highly.  What are your values?  Are you living them every day?

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.

He called me the voice of anarchy.  We were discussing the state of affairs in the world today and the worldwide debt crisis that is causing an economic meltdown; or what I call ‘The Great Reset’.

While some people talk about how we will soon enter these tumultuous times, I would argue that ‘The Great Reset is in Full Swing’.  As an eternal optimist, these types of major structural changes are a positive going forward.  It will lead to smaller governments and more personal responsibility.

My new title given to me by my friend, Scott, reminds me of a book I read a few years ago titled, ‘Market for Liberty’ by Morris Tannehill.  Tannehill makes the case for a society completely devoid of any government influence.  In his utopian world, every problem is solved by the free market.

So while I am not a complete anarchist ala Tannehill (the book is very thought provoking), we could certainly use a massive cut back in governments around the world.

For productive members of society, there is little argument that government has far out stepped its boundaries in everyday life.  We have reached a point where it sometimes feels we are creating government programs, and their necessary tax increases, merely for the purpose of employing government workers.

Two days ago I was walking through a park near my flat in Riga and noticed there was someone working there collecting a small fee for usage of the public restroom.  Almost no one was using it, yet this woman was there all day just collecting these toilet fees.

While observing this, I just couldn’t help but think that the cost of paying her to collect fees was probably more than the amount received every day.

When you consider the huge deficits the US, Europe, Japan and many other countries are running these days, is there really any difference here?

We are just hiring workers to collect taxes, but the taxes don’t even come close to paying our bills.  So we borrow, borrow, borrow and destroy the productive capacity of future generations for the sake of ballooning the government payrolls.

At least the lady collecting toilet fees knows her job is shitty…

This week I am keeping the newsletter short and sweet.  This is the deadline week for publishing our monthly EscapeWealth Ezine, so this has consumed an enormous amount of time.  You can view this Ezine here.  We have articles every month from experts in the financial world about asset protection, investing, trading, and international living.

Nearly every week I get requests from readers looking for sources of more information about becoming better investors or traders.  While you can certainly get your master’s or PhD in finance or go work for an investment firm, in reality the easiest way to improve your skills is to learn from those who have a verifiable track record of success.

As one of my mentors once told me, “Leaders are readers.”  So below is a list of a few books I consider required reading for anyone interested in making a lot of money as an investor.

• The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham
• One Up on Wall Street, by Peter Lynch
• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre
• Market Wizards, by Jack Schwager
• The Mystery of Banking, by Murray Rothbard
• Winning on Wall Street, by Martin Zweig
• Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist, by Jim Rogers

These authors all have a long history of success; they aren’t just academics writing theory.  If you add these books to your repertoire of knowledge, you will certainly improve your odds of success as an investor.

If you are interested in getting a direct line to one of the best trader’s I know, I am hosting a free webinar for my readers next Thursday, September 8 at 7pm EST with Tres Knippa.

You can register for the webinar here.

Tres is a good friend of mine and a very accomplished floor trader at the CME.  He frequently appears on CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg News.  You can view some of his appearances here, here and here.

Join Tres and me next Thursday for this free webinar where he will discuss the current economic environment and what he personally calls his retirement trade.

On a somewhat unrelated note, we are offering a 20% discount off the regular price of our Wealth Fortress Trust for the month of September.

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