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A Despicable Idea

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Would you be comfortable with the chilling proposal that all your financial info that institutions are required to report to the U.S. government would be shared with foreign governments? This proposal comes from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which started as a statistical collection and dissemination agency to promote free trade among its member. The OECD today is “an international agency promoting big government and higher taxes, and the destruction of financial freedom.” Read here from Richard W. Rahn, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, why Republicans and Democrats need to unite and oppose this treaty and defund the OECD.

Do you want the Obama administration sharing all of your financial information with the Russian, Chinese and Saudi Arabian governments? You may be thinking, not even President Obama would go that far. Not so, read on.

This past week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its full proposal for a global standard for the automatic exchange of financial information. The rationale behind this despicable idea is to more effectively enable governments, such as that of France and the United States, to identify tax evaders. This might sound like a good idea until one realizes that every individual and business will be stripped of all of their financial privacy if this becomes the law of the land — and it is very close to being just that.

Under the OECD proposal, all of the information that financial institutions now report to the U.S. government to try to ensure income-tax compliance, including your account balances, interest, dividends, proceeds from the sale of financial assets — would be shared with foreign governments. This would apply not only for individuals, but also for both financial and nonfinancial businesses, plus trust funds and foundations. The United States and other governments will, of course, claim that your sensitive financial information will remain confidential — and that you can trust the governments.

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.