Surely a significant European bank must do some business in the USA, I asked. Can the world’s largest economy really be so onerous that you truly want nothing whatsoever to do with it?Boy, it's a good thing that Progressives won't be embarrassed when they vacation in Europe, isn't it? Hope and Change!
Well he was rather guarded and he knew I was a blogger, which I suspect made him a bit uneasy at the prospect of being quoted, which is why I am naming no names. But to paraphrase the reply I coaxed out of him, it was “yes, the USA is simply not worth the trouble and so rather than complying with their endless diktats and the uncertainties of what are increasingly capricious rules… well… there is a whole great big world out there for us to do business with that does not include the United States.”
Yet I suspect the powers-that-be in Washington could not care less and moreover the notion that sophisticated foreign bankers are starting to see American not as the land of opportunity, but as a place to be avoided at all costs, would strike them as preposterous. Indeed had I not had those documents laid in front of me asking me to attest to a complete lack of economic links to the USA or anything associated with the USA that the US state might claim extraterritorial jurisdiction over… well, I would not have believed it myself.
Moreover, after our business had been concluded and he relaxed a bit, the banker in question, who I very much doubt is on any Interpol wanted lists (well I certainly hope not given that he now has some of my money) said he would not even visit the USA or transit a flight through it, due to the US authorities propensity to detain foreign bankers and ask them questions if they even suspect any involvement with US nationals, particularly from ‘non-compliant’ banks such as his.
Am I the only one who is astonished things have come to this? I am suddenly very glad I do not actually live in Arkham, Massachusetts (not sure which is worse, the IRS or the Deep Ones).
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Boy, the Europeans sure must be glad that we have an enlightened progressive as president
Instead of that cowboy Bush:
Wow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteOh, it's even worse than you think. The US requires massive reporting machinery from any bank that has American customers. Since US regulations are clearly unenforceable on foreign businesses, they resort to blackmail: If they US discovers that a bank has American customers but doesn't report on them, they will cut that bank off from any sort of dollar transactions. Since the dollar is (still) the primary international exchange currency, this is essentially a death sentence for the bank.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, those banks that do chose to comply - and accept American customers - must get their customers' signature on a document that (1) waives the customer's privacy rights, (2) allows the bank to send the customer's financial data to the IRS and other, unnamed third parties, and (3) makes the customer liable for any data breaches or data misuse that may occur.
Ugly. From an international perspective, the US government is just ugly.