Are We Slaves to the State?
It’s that time of year again; the season that everyone loves to hate; tax time. Personally, I don’t completely despise paying taxes as much as I despise the complications of tax reporting and the use of tax dollars. Don’t get me wrong, our current tax system in the US has reached a point where it […]
On the Path to Socialism???
Over the past couple of years we keep hearing various media outlets and bloggers debate about whether or not America is on the path to socialism. Many people talk about the destruction of privacy from Bush’s Patriot Act, while others discuss the nationalization of the healthcare system from Obamacare. According to dictionary.com, the definition of […]
Are You a Beast of Burden?
Reading the headlines over the past two weeks was like riding a roller coaster with no seatbelt – exciting to say the least. We read about the turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Libya and pretty much the rest of the Middle East. In about one week we have seen oil spike from $83 per barrel […]
Asset Protection for the Real Estate Investor
Since January 25th, I have had a nearly uncontrollable urge to write about the one hour sitcom I watched that same night at around 9 pm EST. This was one of the funniest shows I have seen in a long time. Of course I am talking about Barry O’s State of the Destruction Address. On […]
Detroit – Beyond Thunderdome
Last week I read an article in The Wall Street Journal titled, ‘Detroit and Decay’. It was truly disturbing. To me it tells a story about where this country is heading. In the early days of the industrial revolution, Detroit was the hub of innovation and capitalism. Today it more closely resembles a landscape scene […]
Protect Your Assets Now
In order to get the people to believe the US is the best place to do business, it must first BE the best place to do business. And this involves creating the proper incentives. I truly believe that a large part of this needs to begin with a massively overhauled tax code similar to what […]
The Morality of Asset Protection
Back in May I went on a 12 day trip to Amsterdam and New York, then back to Estonia. The purpose was to attend an annual entrepreneurship conference in New York that I have been a part of for 6 years now. And what an amazing trip. Each year we gather in a different US […]
Asset Protection – FATCA Requirements
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, will require all foreign financial institutions or FFI’s to enter into information disclosure agreements with the IRS. A FFI is any non-U.S. entity that accepts monetary deposits, holds financial assets for the accounts of others, or participates in the business of investing or trading securities, commodities, partnerships, […]
LLC Secrets to Keep Your Assets Safe
While we have found there are two main threats to your wealth; litigation and government intervention, the focus for today will be primarily on litigation. In 2008, there were nearly 1.2M practicing attorneys in the US alone and nearly 400K students in law school. Costs of litigation consumed 2.3% of the US GDP, or approximately […]
Russia to Diversify out of US Dollars
According to a recent Bloomberg article, Russia is adding Australian and Canadian dollars to its international reserves. The Russian central bank deputy chairman, Alexei Ulyukayev along with Dmitry Medvedev have recently suggested that the world needs a new reserve currency and the US dollar no longer should be used. Central banks around the world have […]