#FATCA wreaking havoc on the economies of other nations

@KellyBaird12 Not only damage to US economy – here is #FATCA damage to the economies to other nations: http://t.co/00Sq0627 – amazing!

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) February 5, 2013

Almost all people (“Homelander Elite Corp” members excepted)  agree that FATCA is bad.

To be specfiic:

Everybody understands that FATCA is damaging to U.S. persons abroad.

Some understand that FATCA will result in GATCA which will damage the economy of the Homeland.

Few understand how FATCA is damaging the economies of other sovereign nations.

I came across this interesting post at the Isaac Brock Society:

Jamaican FATCA costs math quiz

Just noticed this article published last week by the Jamaica Gleaner:

Gov’t moving to reach FATCA agreement

A couple of interesting points:

“A senior manager with Ernst & Young quoted a price tag of US$30 million for each local financial institution to implement the requirements of FATCA.”

and

“The US, the law [sic] is expected to affect about 614 firms in Jamaica when it comes into effect. Those institutions include insurance companies, licensed securities dealers and collective investment schemes such as unit trusts and mutual funds.”

The Gleaner’s numbers ($30 million x 614 firms) seem to suggest that the implementation costs for FATCA compliance in Jamaica could reach as much as 18.42 billion dollars.  Using a 2011 population estimate of 2,889,187 means that every man, woman and child in Jamaica can theoretically expect to pony-up $6375 to pay for the FATCA Follies in their little corner of paradise where the per-capita GDP in 2011 was $9100.  Anyone care to check my math?

Especially for poorer nations, there can be little doubt that a FATCA IGA amounts to nothing less than a suicide pact.

The comments are enlightening. In particular consider:

*FATCA will bankrupt Jamaica.  According to a very detailed study of the Major Economies of Latin America and thje Caribbean published in today’s Miami Herald,  Jamaica’s economy is already in such serious trouble that it can’t possibly survive an expenditure like this to to be able to accept subservience to the exraterritorial tax laws enacted by the Congress of the United State What’s in it for Jamaica?  Zulch. Zero. Nothing. Nada.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/03/3215384/bright-spots-in-latin-america.html.

Last year Jamaica’s GDP shrank by 0.2%, placing it in in next to  last place among the 26 countries included in this report. Onlyh Paraguay did porrer with a GDP shrinkage of 1.8%.  By comparison the GDP growth in Panama, Chile and “basket case” Venezuela was 10.5%, 5.5% and 5.3%, respectively.   Hard hit by Hurrican Sandy, Jamaica’s economy is forecast in the report to grow bvy a tepid 0.1% this year, and that is super optomistic.  Jamaica is not a country where foreigners hide thier wealth but a country from which Jamaicans try to protect their savings by taking them out of the country.  Why Jamaca is so anxious to embrace FATCA, when it has a $8.4 billion foreign debt already, which is almost as high as Cuba’s stifling $8.9 billion debt, makes one wonder. If it spends $18.2 billion for this purpose it presumably will also have to borrow from abroad to obtain FATCA comliance certification from the IRS. That certification, together with about US$1.00, will just about pay for a cup of coffee. Bu the way, mountain-grown coffee in Jamaica is among the best in the world.

Jaamaica’s imports of $5.6 billion were al most 6 times greater than its $1.8 billion in exports last year.

and

It’s not just America’s citizenship-based taxation of its expats that’s immoral, is it? This is why the ordinary citizens of ALL countries need to fight this and not let the world’s financial institutions, in a desperate bid to save their own skins, lobby their host governments to capitulate to U.S. demands that will only hasten the destruction of an already-teetering global economy. The expression “rats leaving a sinking ship” was never more apt.

The world must begin to collectively wean itself from the American economy – a huge challenge for many, to be sure (for example, the TD Bank’s ludicrous 1300 U.S. branches), but it simply must be done. The Greenback will eventually no longer be the world’s reference currency, American T-Bills and bonds will soon be worthless, and a fully-depressed American economy will offer little incentive for foreign investment. The world can survive without the U.S. and ultimately, out of self-preservation, it must.

The U.S. is digging a gigantic grave for itself and it shouldn’t be trying to drag every other nation into it. The only thing more unconscionable is those countries which willingly jump-in of their own accord.