Author: Mark Nestmann

Do you distrust the banking system? Prefer to do business in cash? Complain about the encroachment of Big Brother into every facet of your life? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’d better watch out. You’re a “person of interest” – and a growing number of businesses must report your “suspicious activities” to the feds. If they don’t, they can be fined and the responsible parties even imprisoned. These requirements originated in a law called the “Bank Secrecy Act” (BSA). Of course, this Orwellian law has nothing at all to do with protecting bank secrecy. Indeed, the … Continue reading →

When I was a teenager, I was a fan of the Rolling Stones. I bought their 1971 album, Sticky Fingers, immediately after its release. Unfortunately, the record was unplayable. The slider of a working zipper on the cover had pressed into the vinyl – making the third track, “Wild Horses,” skip. As a result, when Mick Jagger sang, “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” the record went no further. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away” played over and over again until I physically picked up the tonearm and moved the needle beyond the indentation in the vinyl. I thought of … Continue reading →

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a lobster boiled alive. It was at a family gathering when I was very young, perhaps five or six years old. One of my aunts calmly picked up a happily wriggling lobster out of an ice chest and dropped it in a pot of boiling water. The lobster flailed a bit and then stopped moving. That incident made a strong impression on me. I think of it whenever I read of a law, court decision, or administrative decision that, while not notable by itself, represents the end – the death – of … Continue reading →

With an $18 trillion debt and $97 trillion or so in unfunded liabilities, Uncle Sam is anything but flush with money. So Congress and President Obama are looking for ways to stem the flow of red ink. And your retirement or pension plan is square in their sights. No, Congress isn’t going to confiscate your IRA or 401(k) retirement plan, although there are lots of people marketing various products and services that want you to believe that. Sensationalism sells, after all. But as I discussed in this essay, confiscation isn’t politically feasible. Look at the numbers. More than 60 million … Continue reading →

I’m what people call a “contrarian” investor. I tend to buy assets that are out of favor with the chattering classes and the talking heads on television. And I make it a point to sell when the “man in the street” starts giving me investment tips. That happened most recently in 2011, when over a glass of Malbec at a local watering hole, I overheard two other patrons talking about the “killing” they were about to make buying gold at $1,800 an ounce. I sold all but my core position the next day. Since then, gold has had a tough … Continue reading →

It’s no secret that governments worldwide are broke. One country after another is cutting social benefits and taking other measures to reduce government spending. Take France, for instance. It’s under pressure from the EU to reduce its budget deficit to 3% of GDP. That’s the maximum permitted under the Maastricht Treaty, the agreement underpinning the EU. Currently, it’s at about 4%. To comply with these rules, France cut family allowances and reduced grants to local authorities. It’s also started a renewed crackdown against tax evasion. It even laid off 7,500 soldiers. But that’s not all. France also recently expanded incentives … Continue reading →

Freedom to travel is a fundamental and internationally recognized human right. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Congress ratified the UDHR on April 2, 1992. But it’s now having second thoughts. The “right to travel” makes some politicians very nervous. Consider the issue from their viewpoint. Leaving the country makes it more difficult to detain you if the Feds suspect you of … Continue reading →

Back in 1970, Congress enacted a law that became known as the Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA. But like the PATRIOT Act, the USA Freedom Act, and many other opaquely named laws Congress enacts, the BSA had nothing to do with encouraging bank secrecy. Indeed, perhaps more than any other law enacted by Congress, in its 45-year history, the BSA has effectivelyended bank secrecy worldwide. As with other laws Congress executes, the BSA requires that individuals and companies file various forms with the government. And penalties for non-compliance are heavy – staggering, in some instances. Take for instance, the Report … Continue reading →

Talk about a comeuppance. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, who helped force through Congress stricter laws against anonymous cash transactions, now faces financial ruin – and an extended jail sentence – thanks to the very same laws. Hastert withdrew at least $1.7 million in cash from bank accounts he controlled while trying to avoid having the transactions reported to the US Treasury. That apparently set off alarm bells with the anti-laundering software banks use to identify “suspicious transactions” in customer accounts. Now, Hastert has been indicted for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and lying to … Continue reading →

I’m a die-hard science fiction fan, and one of my all-time favorites in this genre is Douglas Adams’ superb The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Only seconds before aliens demolish planet Earth to make way for an interstellar shortcut, the book’s protagonist, Arthur Dent, is whisked aboard a spaceship. His savior is Ford Prefect, an alien stationed on Earth to conduct research for an updated version of the Guide. Upon being whisked into the spaceship, Ford hands Arthur a copy of the Guide. On the cover are the words “Don’t Panic.” “I like the cover,” Arthur says. “‘Don’t Panic.’ It’s the … Continue reading →

Cash has never been a popular asset with the totalitarian set. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to trace. Cash makes it possible to do business “off the books.” For decades, with the US leading the effort, governments have engaged in a War on Cash. The original justification for this war was to fight racketeering. The War on Cash morphed into the War on Drugs, then the War on Money Laundering, and subsequently, the War on Terror. But now, central banks and their lackey governments have a new rationale for the War on Cash: the very existence of cash makes it … Continue reading →

One of the assumptions of the eurozone – those 19 countries in Europe that use the euro as their national currencies – is that if any country left the zone, economic disaster would follow in its wake. Only a few days ago, it appeared that heavily indebted Greece might be forced to drop the euro and return to the drachma, the currency it used before the euro. During the 1990s and early 2000s, Greece was spending money like a sailor on shore leave with a limitless credit card. The government ran up debts amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars … Continue reading →

Just about every middle-class and wealthy family in the US uses household help at some point. Babysitters, maids, gardeners, nannies… American homes are full of them. And if your family uses any of these services, you face a minefield of legal hazards that almost no one wants to admit exists, much less discuss openly. A recent lawsuit by entertainer Mariah Carey’s former nanny illustrates one of the issues that face families in this situation. But it’s by no means the only legal hazard with which you should be concerned. In Mariah’s case, a dispute with a live-in nanny led to … Continue reading →