Squirrel away your acorns — We are in full protection mode for the coming storm
By Patrick Vermeister
2 May 2016
Back in January, President Barack Obama responded to reports in the media suggesting that the U.S. economy was showing signs of cracking. He famously said: “The United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world. … Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.”
There obviously must be a discussion as to what constitutes “decline,” because the United States has had meager to no Gross Domestic Product growth in Mr. Obama’s eight years in the White House. In fact, if the final six months of Obama’s final term don’t dramatically change upward, he will become the first President ever to not experience a single year of at least a 3.0% gain in GDP.
But forgive him if he hasn’t had the domestic economy at the forefront of his objectives — he’s been busy going on a world tour to keep the global use of the U.S. Dollar intact. Last week, he issued a not-so-veiled threat that if Britons vote on June 23 to leave the European Union, that their future prospects in global trade would suffer tremendously.
Asked what would happen if the UK people did vote to leave the union, Obama said that while “maybe at some point” Great Britain could seal a trade deal with the United States, “it’s not going to happen any time soon. The UK’s going to be at the back of the queue,” Obama added.
Although Britain is not part of Europe’s monetary union, they are members of the EU, meaning they share a common understanding with many other nations in non-financial matters, most notably immigration.
Also, the existence of the European Union has made it easier for the United States, whose currency is at present the base currency for world trade, to keep the culturally diverse European member states corralled together through treaties and other legal arrangements. A British vote to leave the EU roughly six weeks from now would be a proactive step, as popularity of the EU agreement is declining, as are the days of U.S. Dollar global dominance. The EU was devised in 1958 and created in 1993. The monetary union became a reality in 1999 and has been adding countries ever since.
The approval rating of Prime Minister David Cameron, an outspoken advocate to remain in the EU, moves in lockstep with EU popularity, while both London mayor Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, have pushed for the Brexit, saying that the people need to maintain the ability to control its own destiny. The European Union Commission is a group of unelected bureaucrats.
Regardless of the outcome of the UK vote in June, the Euro currency is severely flawed, and the U.S. Dollar’s reserve status in global trade has already been dealt a series of blows. Dollar influence will continue to erode away into the summer, and eventually, could mean bad news for holders of USD-denominated assets.
“Now is not a time to be frisky with the U.S. markets,” said Adele Weiss, principal of Weiss+Associates, a European-based consultancy firm specializing in financial freedom and the Federal Income Tax. “Prudent Americans need to be financially proactive as the storm clouds are building overhead.”
This means, not only establishing a financial presence outside the United States, but also considering getting a second citizenship. Displeasure with the current state of affairs within the borders as at an all-time high. Record numbers of Americans are expatriating, giving up their U.S. citizenship and moving abroad.
For the time being, Weiss thinks it would be best to keep U.S. citizenship, and says it is smarter to add a second citizenship for those in a position to do so. It’s not only an ease factor in keeping the valuable U.S. passport but also the cost of expatriation. The U.S. has the highest fee for expatriation, at $2,350. Just a couple of years ago, the fee was $450 (you figure out the reasoning behind that four-fold increase).
“We think you’d have more options if you kept the U.S. citizenship and instead concentrated on acquiring a second passport,” added Weiss, who in addition to his tax research is also a global investor with a financial presence in a handful of countries. “It’s all part of a master plan to protect the assets you’ve worked years to achieve. It’s extremely possible that the U.S. Dollar could collapse and your purchasing power could dwindle to 20 or even 10 cents on the dollar. It’s paramount for you to consider your options.”
Weiss’ firm has over 3,000 clients and has helped people not only acquire a second citizenship but also establish corporations, bank accounts and trading accounts around the world. “I would hate for this storm to hit and people get blind-sided by the enormity of what’s at stake,” he feels. “The media is concentrating their airtime on the soap opera that is the presidential election and not on the Mack truck coming right at us.”
The media may be helping prop up Obama’s fantasy about the economy, but Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen obviously did not get the memo. She announced on April 27 that The Fed would not raise interest rates, adding that the economy is still “quite weak by historical standards.”
The official unemployment rate is listed at 5.5%, but the real rate, according to shadowstats.com, for March 2016 stood at 22.9%. The official rate (U3) provided by the government does not include people whose unemployment benefits have expired, those who are under-employed, or those who have given up in their job search.
It’s clear that somebody is peddling something; it’s up to the reader to discern who’s performing the sales job, and act accordingly. That means at least considering the possibility of creating a financial presence outside the United States.
Weiss+Associates offers a Platinum package to help those wishing to gain an understanding on options and benefits of investing overseas. For more information on this package, click here or email bilateral@gmx.com.