Monthly Archives: August 2014

British families billed £500 – to prevent Americans dodging tax

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“Draconian legislation enacted in America – and aimed solely at helping American authorities collect tax from their overseas citizens – is translating into bills of hundreds of pounds for ordinary British families.  The total cost to British businesses and individuals of abiding by the new US laws, which became effective here only last month, is put at £1bn. Most people will pay unknowingly through higher fees for their investments, banking and other services. But for some families the costs are more explicit. And the invoices are starting to land on their doormats.  Tens of thousands of families are beginning to receive letters, and invoices, simply because they have established run-of-the-mill family trusts.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11050777/British-families-billed-500-to-prevent-Americans-dodging-tax.html

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U.S. Hikes Fee To Renounce Citizenship By 422%, to $2,350

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“Now, the State Department interim rule just raised the fee for renunciation of U.S. citizenship to $2,350 from $450. Critics note that it’s more than twenty times the average level in other high-income countries. The State Department says it’s about demand on their services and all the extra workload they have to process people who are on their way out.  Apparently, dual citizens in Canada trying to shed their U.S. citizenship have created a backlog at the U.S. consulate in Toronto that stretches into the third week of January 2015. A decision to expatriate should never be taken lightly. Taxes or not, it can be a big step. And around the world, more people are talking about taking it.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/08/28/u-s-hikes-fee-to-renounce-citizenship-by-422/

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Japanese Women With Chainsaws Head to the Hills Under Abe’s Plan

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“A new wave of women are taking forestry jobs, the result of economic, social and environmental policies sprouting in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Japan.  Cedars and cypresses are used to build local homes under the government’s program to encourage the use of domestic wood.  Abe came into office with his three-arrow strategy to end 15 years of deflation that stunted the economy. Nineteen months along, the first two points — monetary and fiscal stimulus — have succeeded in stoking inflation.  Ryosuke Aoki, the 37-year-old president and founder of Tokyo Chainsaws, said 80 percent of the company’s revenue comes from conservation work subsidized by national and local funds.” 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-06/women-harvesting-trees-meet-two-planks-of-abe-japan-plan.html

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Dimes on Black and Dynamite on Red

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“On the basis of measures that have been reliably correlated with actual subsequent market returns in market cycles across a century of data, we estimate that the S&P 500 Index will be no higher a decade from now than it is today. On the basis of nominal total returns (including dividends), we estimate zero or negative returns for the S&P 500 on every horizon shorter than about 8 years.  At the same time, we don’t have strong views about immediate market prospects. Still, even a run-of-the-mill completion to the present market cycle would wipe out more than half of the market’s gains since the 2009 low, so whatever gains the market experiences in the interim are likely to be transitory.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc140818.htm

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Bill Bonner: The Committee to Blow Up the World

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“Typically, investors have paid from 10 to 20 times annual earnings for shares. But when they are bearish, as they were in 1982 and again in 2009, they will want to pay less than 10 times earnings. And when they are bullish, the sky’s the limit… but seldom more than 20 times.  Currently – except for China and Russia – almost all major country stock markets are closer to the top of the range than the bottom. With the S&P 500 now trading on a Shiller P/E (which looks at the average of 10 years of inflation-adjusted earnings) of 26.5.  What would make investors so bullish? And why would this bullishness extend to practically the entire globe?”

http://bonnerandpartners.com/committee-blow-world/

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Use of Marijuana Said to Reduce Deaths From Painkillers by 25%

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“So-called ‘opiates’ are a very lucrative market for Big Pharma. Unfortunately, their chemical construction often renders them overly-powerful for some people, even when only a little is ingested. Additionally, chemical combinations mimicking natural compositions often yield up considerable ‘side effects.’ The use of marijuana by itself or in combination with opiates seems to be ameliorating or at least lessening some of the dangers of chemically constructed painkillers. This is certainly good news. What remains problematic is the continued barrage of criticism that cannabis is subject to from deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies and from law enforcement itself.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35601/Use-of-Marijuana-Said-to-Reduce-Deaths-From-Painkillers-by-Almost-25-Percent/

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Canada’s Marc Emery is a Man on a Mission

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“Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ Marc Emery has finally returned home after spending just over 4 ½ years in US federal prison for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.  Not only did the gregarious former libertarian bookseller relentlessly hassle Canadian and American drug warriors, he published Cannabis Culture, created the BC Marijuana Party and helped turn parts of downtown Vancouver’s Hasting Street into a Western Hemisphere Amsterdam, complete with a vaporizer lounge and several other cannabis-related enterprises.  When he was arrested by Canadian police at the behest of US authorities, the DEA was quick to gloat that it had struck a blow against the forces of legalization.”

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/aug/25/marc_emery_interview

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Backups for “Missing” Lois Lerner IRS Emails Exist; Gov’t Won’t Retrieve

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“Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service told Judicial Watch on Friday that Lois Lerner’s emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe.  The Obama administration attorneys said that this back-up system would be too onerous to search.  [..] The Obama administration had been lying to the American people about Lois Lerner’s missing emails. There are no ‘missing’ Lois Lerner emails – nor missing emails of any of the other top IRS or other government officials whose emails seem to be disappearing at increasingly alarming rate. All the focus on missing hard drives has been a diversion.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/backups-for-missing-lois-lerner-irs-emails/

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IRS lawyer: Lois Lerner’s BlackBerry deliberately destroyed after probe

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“Lois Lerner’s BlackBerry was intentionally destroyed after Congress had begun its probe into IRS targeting of conservative groups, a senior IRS lawyer acknowledged in a sworn declaration.  Thomas Kane, Deputy Assistant Chief Counsel for the IRS, wrote in the declaration, part of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the IRS, that the BlackBerry was ‘removed or wiped clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012.’  That date – June 2012 – is significant because by that time, ex-IRS official Lerner had already been summoned before congressional staffers who interviewed her about reports of the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/27/lois-lerner-blackberry-deliberately-destroyed-after-start-congressional-probe/

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For sale: Systems to secretly track cellphone users around the globe

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“Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.  The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/for-sale-systems-that-can-secretly-track-where-cellphone-users-go-around-the-globe/2014/08/24/f0700e8a-f003-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html

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