If Spring comes early, perhaps one of the coldest English winters on record will abate in time for the April 2d meeting of the G-20. But in a city notorious for fog, if past G-20 meetings are any example, more verbal fog is inevitable.
The G-20, ( a.k.a. the "Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors"), is comprised of finance ministers and central bank governors representing 19 of the world's 25 largest national economies, plus the 27 country European Union. Together G-20 economies comprise 90% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and two-thirds of the world population.
Shopworn Solutions
G-20 leaders will gather in London on Apr. 2nd with the stated intention of finding solutions to the current banking and financial crisis. "Solutions" to most G-20 politicians means more government control over private financial activity, both domestic and global.
They last met in Washington in November where they made a paper pledge to adopt "steps to shield the global economy from future crisis" -- and we all can guess what kind of power grab that entails.
The G-20 wants to coordinate "reform of global financial rules," among other objectives. European reports are that the G-20 have agreed that countries with bank secrecy and financial privacy laws, some of which might be called tax havens, should be subjected to "collective sanctions" designed to force these financial privacy loving nations into more transparency.
In a coordinated effort, the EU is proposing new rules requiring EU member government to disclose details on accounts held by taxpayers in each nation.
In other words, the attack of the welfare state tax collectors continues -- just as it has for the past two decades and more.
Same Old Song
Have no doubt that what comes out of the G-20 will be right in line with the demands of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), an inter-governmental body founded in 1989 by another G group -- the G-7, formed in 1976, with the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
The supposed purpose of the FATF was to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The excuse for FATF, and for all subsequent G-7 and G-20 attacks on financial privacy, has been expedient in the extreme.
At first the laudable goal was to combat drug lords and their dirty cash, then to stop terrorists from financing their schemes -- and now these same anri-privacy measures are said to be essential to solving global banking problems.
Radical Plans
All these stated excuses are really smoke screens for plans by welfare state tax collectors for the complete and utter destruction of financial and personal privacy for all. These tax bureaucrats want complete access to every citizen's financial lives, no matter where you live or where you have assets.
But abolishing bank secrecy is not enough. They also want to abolish lawyer-client privilege, demand mandatory publication of all beneficial ownership of private trusts, private corporations and private foundations, plus the imposition of total tax information exchange among all nations.
The assumption of all these leftist advocates is that personal and financial privacy must now yield to Big Brother government's unlimited right to know all.
American Privacy Dead
For citizens of the United States all this is at best an academic discussion -- under the Draconian terms of the 2001 PATRIOT Act, financial privacy is already dead. The government has the power to obtain financial information in secret about anyone -- and to confiscate your wealth.
Small wonder that many millions of Americans do business offshore, in part to take advantage of the strong privacy laws in places such as Switzerland, Panama, Singapore, Austria and Luxembourg.
Of course the usual cry by those who advocate ever increased government surveillance of not just our finances, but every aspect of our lives, is the old saw: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"
The Real Issue : Liberty
It is absolutely wrong to characterize this debate as "clean money versus dirty cash" or "security versus privacy" or, now the latest, "banking stability versus recession."
Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect. The real choices are personal freedom and liberty versus government control of our lives and our fortunes.
Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of terrorist attack, alleged solutions to banking problems or under any form of unrelenting domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny.
Liberty requires security without intrusion -- security plus privacy. Widespread surveillance, whether by police or nosey bureaucrats, in whatever form it takes, is the very definition of a police state.
And that's why we should champion privacy, both personal and financial, even when we have nothing to hide.
* While you can, there still are many legal ways to enjoy privacy, bank and save taxes offshore; Bob Bauman tells you Where To Stash Your Cash: Click Here. And if you're interested in living offshore, The Passport Book is just what you need.
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