RBCPost
"tax evasion is stealing money from the people"
January 31, 2012
You (tax evader) will tell me: "No, I am just withholding half of what I should pay to the tax authorities of my country, you cannot call this theft!"
When you are living in a country of thieves and pirates thievery is "the" way of making a living, especially when doing so has been encouraged for generations by your own government.
In our (Switzerland) case politicians together with the banking community first (as we got to know painfully) have pocketed the money of Jews who disappeared during the Holocaust, then they have been making a very good living by hiding away the stolen fortunes of dictators and criminals, and as third a whole bunch of lawyers, banks and fiduciary trust companies have become rich by storing away tax evasion funds of other nations. And worse, everyone was applauding and making this scheme look honorable among our citizen and a goal to our children to strive after.
Until today tax evasion, to be declared a criminal act worldwide in my opinion, is NOT prosecuted in our country! Tax evasion funds, money hidden away, we call it "black money" (Schwarzgeld), is still highly esteemed in Switzerland. People who are declaring taxes correctly are ridiculed, laughed at, cornered, and ostracized.
Why don't you pay the taxes first and place your money afterwards in a safe, in a bank, under the mattress?
We, in the so called western countries, are often pointing to our Christian heritage. We seem to have forgotten basic principles of living a honest life. Let me quote a story from the Bible (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures):
Acts 5:1-10
However, a certain man, An·a·ni′as by name, together with Sap·phi′ra his wife, sold a possession and secretly held back some of the price, his wife also knowing about it, and he brought just a part and deposited it at the feet of the apostles. But Peter said: “An·a·ni′as, why has Satan emboldened you to play false to the holy spirit and to hold back secretly some of the price of the field? As long as it remained with you did it not remain yours, and after it was sold did it not continue in your control? Why was it that you purposed such a deed as this in your heart? You have played false, not to men, but to God.” On hearing these words An·a·ni′as fell down and expired. And great fear came over all those hearing of it. But the younger men rose, wrapped him in cloths, and carried him out and buried him. Now after an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter said to her: “Tell me, did YOU [two] sell the field for so much?” She said: “Yes, for so much.” So Peter said to her: “Why was it agreed upon between YOU [two] to make a test of the spirit of Jehovah? Look! The feet of those who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Instantly she fell down at his feet and expired. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her alongside her husband.
UNQUOTE
I am not asking for your head, tax evader, I am asking our government to put you in jail.
2012 - The Year of the Dragon (Water)...
January 3, 2012
...will start on 01/23/2012 and end 02/09/2013. I do not believe in astrology but the behavior of mankind is to a large extent driven by unrealistic assumptions we have to take into account.
Due to the overhang of liquidity I was talking about in my recent outlook I do expect a firework of stock market activities with markets across the world reaching record highs this year.
Don't miss the exit!
PS: I see President Obama reelected - and the world will not end on December 21
The Ontology of Money
December 9, 2011
For thousands of years, if you were buying something, you had to weigh out gold, silver, copper, etc. as payment. Money was a physical entity, quite difficult to carry around, and it had a value in itself by consisting mostly of metals or an alloy thereof. Today they would not even accept your paper cash in planes. Flight attendants take the information stored on the chip of your plastic card and charge the purchase to your card's settlement of trade company. You pay for this service you don't even want. In other words: money, the transfer agent of a sale or a purchase, has mutated to a "digital right".
This dematerialization of money has led to huge government debts in our so called western, industrialized countries. Main reason for these huge debts: politicians have been helping the rich 2-5% of our societies (the "aristocracy of wealth") to fill their pockets with "digital rights" for the past about 30-100 years (in 1916 I regard the "aristocracy of blood" to have come to an end, with "islands" still existing, the fight having started with the French Revolution in 1789) by sucking money and privileges out of governments, burdening the taxpayers and the coming generations with huge amounts of debts. These days more and more it dawns on everyone that these government debts will never be repaid. The rich seem to have no intention to budge, or to at least share the burden with the poor, whom they stereotypically accuse of lazyness and whom they make responsible for the governments' debts insinuating social welfare to be the culprit for this mess.
The 300 richest people in Switzerland are officially said (unofficially, including all the black - undeclared money floating around, the figure may even be double that amount) to be holding a net worth of 481 Billion (in Europe Milliards) Swiss Francs this year 2011. They would be able to repay our government debt of 208 Billion (Milliards) Swiss Francs during an evening cocktail party at some opera house. Them showing up at the opera house would mean each one is drawing subsidies in the one month amount of probably a Harz IV (social welfare) recipient in Germany. Not to talk about the ecological footprint they have left behind to arrive at their destination, flying in from New York by private jet, switching to the chauffeur driven limousine to take them to the party at the opera house.
And who has to pay the bill? As usual: the poor! From the US to Europe politicians are not getting tired talking about and demanding "saving money" budgetary cuts, as if the poor were the underwriters of the accrued government debts. The tax income side is left basically untouched, see the actual stubborn blocking attitude of the Republican party in the United States.
We are not just bashing the rich, lamenting and finger pointing. We have been working on strategic solutions and presenting them repeatedly for years already. But of course the band of the rich together with the politicians refuse to listen. They wish to continue filling their pockets on the backs of the poor.
Our previous secretary of finance, Otto Stich, replied to our tax strategy proposal in writing, claiming the rich would just move their wealth out of Switzerland if such a change in taxation was to be applied. Sure we are asking for a global change in the approach of how taxes are levied.
What are the current dangers? And what are the possible remedies?
First of all the banks have become a cancer in society, similar to the churches in past centuries. They have to be regulated, the Glass Steagall Act (separating investment banks from retail/commercial banks) to be reimplemented not only in the United States but worldwide. Conflict of interest spheres have to be cut out of present banking systems. Banks have to serve and not to create automatic income schemes for their own breed.
But it is not the banks which primarily give us a headache.
Inflation has not so much gone into consumer price indexes than into money aggregates which have literally exploded. In other words: inflation in consumer price indexes will take off as soon as the rich assess they will not be able to convert their "digital rights" into real value before it is too late. Therefore, the huge bubble of capital, driven by the banks' pumps, has to be directed to become a useful tool to the world and not to remain a self inflating balloon destined to implode/explode at some future point of time. This bubble of capital chasing around the world desperately seeking investment opportunities we regard the danger number one.
The holders of this huge bubble of "digital rights" should come to the insight they should help paying back government debt. Better immediately than later, because later these "digital rights" will be worthless, will have to be written off. And the rich should understand that "helping the poor will help the rich".
Second:
We should start basing our assessment of the credit worthiness of a country NOT merely on the income side, the GDP Gross Domestic Product, but on the assets, the net worth of a country. The square miles/kilometers, the resources of metals, water, oil, gas, rocks, trees, fish, animals, plants, the infrastructure, buildings, railways, roads, untouched nature, the human capital, etc. - plus at the very end the GDP. Even Greece would look much better! Today's situation has been provoked by mere speculation.
Third:
Governments need money, working capital, in short: taxes. Every person should pay taxes in the country of his/her passport. Companies should be tax free, since every company is owned by people. Individuals should be paying taxes in relation to their net worth, NOT in relation to their income. Make the tax system simple: according to our preliminary calculations, a yearly tax probably in the range of 2.5% of personal net worth should be enough for governments to operate. We are talking about a net worth tax for EVERY PERSON ON THIS PLANET. Income tax to be eliminated.
Fourth:
The tax authorities and state prosecutors worldwide should have the unconditional right to check the bank accounts of individuals, companies, trusts, etc.. No hidden or black money permitted.
Fifth:
The poor get a monthly basic income as soon as it is clear they have no funds or income. The same is applicable to a rich person who became poor - and we will see lots of them in the future.
Conclusion:
We should start thinking about money in different terms. Many of the rich will meanwhile understand that their wealth is not giving them happiness, to the contrary, the more they possess, the less time they have at their disposition. They are being chased around by their wealth. The result is a ridiculous amount of undeclared and tax declared capital which is basically useless, not serving any other objective than trying to grow in volume, "digital rights' volume". Nothing is produced with this bubble. It's just there for the speculators and the banks' long fingers. Governments, get this bubble under control! The alternative is, one day the bubble will burst.
9/11
September 14, 2011
Myself I don't like to see the pictures of this horrific and traumatic episode in history, I don't like to talk about it, I don't like to remember it. Still it is present inside me somewhere as if it was a decisive mark in my life. I somehow knew then the future would be getting bleak before the sun would return. I always liked to be in the US, I did enjoy the vast space of this land, the freedom I could literally smell. Coming from Switzerland it is kind of funny to think about a country where freedom is felt even more profoundly. Maybe I have it in the genes. My dad liked to be in the US and was happy to fly there whenever possible. He bought a sporty Chevy Camaro back home when he was about as old as I am now. We all thought: wow, look at our crazy dad!
The first plane had just hit one of these beautiful, sleek towers, when we entered the factory of my friend, Eddie, one hour by car outside of Manhattan. The radio was on, as usual in the premises. I felt, strange enough, personally assaulted without the ability to defend myself. I loved these two simple buildings, two squares pointing up into the sky. When visiting the statue of liberty years earlier and climbing around below the crown I had taken some pictures from inside and outside the statue, without being able to say now if you could see the towers through the small windows in the head of the statue. All I do remember is the beautiful picture I took of the skyline with the world trade center from the ferry boat.
Several times I had visited the towers, the last time in 2000 when, after a meeting in nearby Merrill Lynch, I was about to take the elevator up to the restaurant. I never feel at ease in multiple story buildings, so when I noticed how the elevator reserved for visitors was spitting out people squeezed like sardines in a can, I turned around on my heels and went over to Penn Station.
Ten years have passed and I have not become Islam-o-phobic. Extremists can be found everywhere. Their concentration sure to be higher in states, regions, religions and families, where liberal thinking and tolerance towards other life style patterns are suppressed and where dogmatic, opinionated views are prevalent. No, since I first met with Arabs and the Islamic culture in 1977 I was fond of their mentality and I especially enjoyed the Badu (Bedouin) people of Saudi Arabia. I loved to see the carved faces of the heavily armed National Guard cross belted Badus in their white Saudi dresses waiting at Riyadh airport for their master and today's King, Prince Abdallah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud. That was during King Khalid's time, a man who reminded me of my beloved Saudi sponsor, Sheikh Abdul Moneim Akeel (Al Yamamah Hotel, Riyadh). Traveling the country by car extensively on sales tours and accompanying our engineers I made many beautiful experiences with locals. Later, in 2007, I became a very liberal Muslim myself. I was about to get married to a Saudi woman and that's only allowed if the man is a Muslim. She was the one instilling in me the interest to study Islam - and NO, I didn't become a Muslim in order to be able to marry a Muslima. I had rejected the last Christian religion I studied as explained by Jehovah's Witnesses. I was fed up of Christian hypocrisies. Muslims sure and unfortunately they have got their extremists and suicide bombers, but as we know today such mentally sick people can be found in Oklahoma as well as in Norway.
What does the future hold? There is a general feeling in the population of whatever country I have visited in the past 10 years which more or less can be expressed as: "The world cannot continue to go on like this".
Slippers and Kalashnikov
August 31, 2011
Muammar Ghaddafi is hiding and Hafez al-Assad is fighting his useless battle, better call it slaughter of his own citizen. The signs are on the wall: his ruthless regime will come to an end sooner or later. Over are the times of family dominated governments. After Syria most probably Jordan will be next. You will see China play a more prominent role in the area. I am expecting the countries around the Arabian gulf to get dragged into this turmoil. It will take more time to topple the super rich dynasties of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia as the last one. There is no way out. The young generation has got nothing to lose. A life without satisfying work is killing them slowly. Driving around in donated (not earned) Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, is no alternative. Parents: stop showering your kids with gifts and presents - give them work! Our youth around the globe is not happy. Why? Because you, old folks, are too greedy!
So far I have forgotten to give you some practical advise as for what you could do with your money. People who know me are well aware that my 20 years old long term predictions concerning the USD, precious metals, interest rates have realized. I don't care where individual stocks are tending to go, because if you are a trader, you know how to act. And I have been a trader, trained by Merrill Lynch. Am still thankful to www.ml.com. Stock exchanges have become mere casinos. And I refuse to play in casinos. Money is worth nothing, just look at the historically low interest rates (completely beside the fact that I hate the western concept of interest taking).
The Swiss Franc will continue to be strong due to it's limited volume anyway, precious metals will rise in price on paper as well as in case of physical delivery, which is made more and more uneconomical, difficult and burdensome. Sure, real physical gold and silver is best stored away in a safe. Let those continue speculating who are interested in book entry speculation. The wise ones put some cash away physically. But there is no way out, long term, money, the way we deal with money today, will be dead. New concepts will be more in line with Islamic banking principles.
Get prepared for the worst. Money will not help you much. Kalashnikovs will not help you either. Maybe best to just sit it out on some mountain or in a desert oasis.
Greed
August 10, 2011
Democrats and Republicans reached a last minute agreement to lift the US government debt ceiling. Listening to US and European radio and TV broadcasters, reading posts in the internet, I found quite a confusion when journalists were dealing with huge figures. Some people seem not to be aware of the fact that in the US one Billion (1'000'000'000.00 = one thousand Million = a 1 and 9 zeros) is called one Milliard(e) in Europe. One US Trillion (1'000'000'000'000.00 = one thousand Billion = a 1 and 12 zeros) is called a Billion in Europe (Bi-llion = 2x6 zeros).
I do agree with President Obama that the US is in a better position than the downgrading of the US sovereign debt to AA+ by Standard & Poor's may suggest. The US will find a solution, not only by continuing trampling further on the backs of the poor and the middle class, but by finding a way to have the rich contribute more to the income side of the US government. The rich employ whole armies of lawyers and tax specialists to resort to paying percentually less taxes than the middle class in many cases. Then there are the shrewd, impertinent and simply criminal rich people who use to pay taxes only on the amounts they anyway find no way of storing away or hiding.
A tax reform is highly recommended. My brother Jonas and myself for many years we do promote the replacement of the income tax by a flat personal net worth tax, in the range of probably 2.5% for all citizen of a country. Of course the rich, who have been profiting from the poor for many decades and who see no hindrance at all since the fall of the Berlin wall to drive capitalism and materialism to its extremes, are happy with the status quo. Moneys get accumulated in the hands of the few 2-5% of the population, while the army of the poor is ever growing.
While it is the poor and the middle class who are forced to pay the mistakes and the luxuries of the wealthy, the rich shrug their shoulders living in their secluded ghettos like on another planet in order not to get in touch please with a poor neighbor. The rich have simply lost touch with reality and will pay a hefty price in case they do not come to their senses. The actual riots in London by the young lost generation is just another one of the warning flags.
Not only are they, the rich, not able to feed the poor of the world, worse they do not create jobs for the young. People who have jobs are squeezed to the limits by their employers while our young generation is roaming the streets with no perspective of a decent future.
US defaulting - the next crisis?
July 30, 2011
Could be, although most analysts are expecting a solution to be reached. What makes me wonder is the seemingly irresponsible behavior of politicians. Or is that what they want, what they are instructed to do: deliberately provoking a default? Did China agree with the US to get the balance in place I was speaking about in my latest Outlook? Washington circus for the public - or as Nietzsche said: opium to the people?
It is hard to believe that 2% of the US population, probably around 8 Million of the wealthiest individuals, have got such a strong lobby to take the whole nation hostage. At the same time I do remember Rolf W. Buschmann, who was sitting with me in the Sheraton Abu Dhabi in 1981, asking me: "Do you know the third world war has started already?" My face must have pictured a question mark. He continued: "Yes, rich against poor - poor against rich".
What could be the plan after the default starts swinging? Clearly, already the interest payment on the official debt of USD 14'300'000'000'000.00 is a mind boggling figure, let alone to think about rising interest rates or the possibility that due to different tricks the actual debt may well stand around double that amount.
A debtor nation in the past resorted to inflation and/or war in order to wipe out debt. Nowadays we may face more sophisticated actions planned and taken.
I would keep some cash under my mattress and some gold and silver in a place easily accessible until we know for sure what's going on.
Macroeconomic analysis of the world financial situation
May 18, 2011
Picture two men sitting alone on an island. One is a good hunter, but he doesn't know how to cook, the other one is a good cook, but he doesn't know how to provide for food. Both need one another, killing the other one would mean starvation. That's the situation with China and the US at present. China is financing the debt of the US to a large degree. This situation is an uneasy one, not only for Timothy Geithner, it is an uneasy one for his counterpart as well. As soon as a sail appears on the horizon, that's the time when the balance gets challenged. Who could be that sail?
It's not Europe, which is sitting on another island cooking its own dish. Europeans often describe Americans as plain stupid. They are not, even if the majority has got no problems eating Jack in the Box. The US is a country of free choice. Who invented Facebook, the iPhone, the iPad, sent man on the moon first? Most marketable inventions still originate from the US. The Chinese are not stupid either. They will continue perfecting our inventions for some time to come. The best Volkswagen will probably be produced in China one day. China is not a country of free choice but of low labor cost. The pressure on our workers will continue with no end in sight.
So, who could be that sail? Both men are looking out onto the sea to be able to spot the sail first. Then there are two options: either of cooperation or confrontation. My guess is that China and the US will continue a kind of cautious cooperation. The US will never be ready to give Alaska to the Chinese as an exchange for debt, and the Chinese will never allow the US debt to be wiped out by inflation or some other trick in the sleeve of Billy the Kid, but some kind of a balance will be reached. What if the cook is teaching the hunter to cook and the hunter is teaching the cook to go hunting?
When goods are available in masses and there are not enough buyers, the price goes down. Two commodities are in that trend clearly today: money and labor. The pumps for money are the national and commercial banks, the pumps for labor the individual countries' labor and emigration/immigration laws and capabilities. In wise foresight the US government had started to limit immigration and set up a rigid immigration policy. Countries with lenient immigration restrictions will simply get flooded by cheap labor, worse they will have to support the numerous illegal immigrants. On the money side as well the US are in a leading position. Their pumps have been called to order, restricted, and safety valves are being attached. Banks are not allowed to speculate on their own account and a reintroduction of the Glass Steagall Act (separating retail/commercial banks from investment banks) is under serious investigation and implementation. The Europeans are still discussing...
As a conclusion I regard the US in a far better position than Europe in handling the next crisis from whatever corner it may arise. Maybe Fukushima will explode, or California will be devastated by an earthquake, the next crisis will not be triggered by the financial markets' participants - in my opinion.
Why RBCStrategy?
May 16, 2011
The company, Renato Buehler Consulting (RBC), I had founded in 1980 when coming home to Switzerland from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2000 UBS Union Bank of Switzerland had successfully eliminated my debt free company and had forced bankruptcy on me as a private person because I had been fighting the Swiss Banking Secrecy Law (that's an assumption, which I cannot legally prove yet). I could not understand, why Switzerland was not willing to distinguish between rightfully acquired wealth and stolen wealth. Crooks from nations around the globe brought their stolen funds to be managed and multiplied by our banks. Worse, we would even give these criminals protection from their jurisdiction in their respective home countries. We all know, what has happened meanwhile, especially by the pressure exerted from the side of the United States government. But the party in general seems to be going on, just with more sophisticated tactics. While we do not protect foreign funds from being investigated by the tax and juridical authorities of other nations any longer, we have started to offer wealthy foreigners to settle in Switzerland on favorable tax conditions, since we in Switzerland still do not prosecute tax evasion. Plus we are actively attracting the headquarters of multinational companies to move to Switzerland thus helping to erode the tax base of those countries they withdraw.
Strategy, because I had noticed through the years I had developed a long range thinking and acting pattern in my private as well as in my business life. We all do strategy every day. The question is: do we do strategy for good or for bad? Here we are getting into a philosophical and religious or theological area. Myself I do favor the standpoint of the Muslim world that religion should not be separated from government and business activities. Religion may be refraining us of doing things which are not advisable to do. Persons who do not believe in a God and think that our life is over with at death: that's their problem, not mine. The Roman Catholic Church for sure has been taking advantage for centuries and has been enslaving people to the point of killing them for the ownership of a Bible. The same threat emanates from the part of radical Muslim religious leaders who have nothing less in mind than power and money. Therefore my proverb: "Money makes the world go around - and pastors around the world". Priests all over the world and of all denominations have proved to be more deadly than poisonous snakes. God is love, says the Bible, we do not need selfish priests, their churches and their enslaving trickeries.
Admittedly, living by a strategy of trying to be a good person does not necessarily pay off immediately, but I am sure the long term outcome will be beneficent to the one doing just so.
Introduction
April 27, 2011
My last employer was a bank in Geneva, which turned out to be a money washing machine for the crook and prime minister of Italy, Bettino Craxi. The marble bath rooms and the oriental silk carpets inside the bank's toilets had not confused me. I was used to luxury myself. I had sent a fax to the chairman of the board that I had a Saudi bank interested in placing money with our bank under the condition that our bank would be checked inside out. The next day I was fired. My employment had lasted for 3 months. Fortunately.
I had enough working for other people and got self employed, that was in April of 1992. I was forty years old, my son had just been born. A couple of years later I decided I had to help my country, Switzerland, to abolish the laying out of the "hiding stolen money trap". What happened? The trappers took away my money and my properties. My best friends deserted. I landed in the mountains, where I am still living. I had never consented to shut up and be quiet about unjust or unlawful behaviour.
No, I am not lamenting. Licking my wounds lasted but for a short while. I understood, the trappers really did me a favor. I had been running around like crazy chasing the tail of materialism and now I had found - or rather I had been thrown on top of - nature. What a delight!
Sitting on my mountain gradually did I start to understand that I had been on the wrong side of society for too long time. Desperately I had been searching for excuses for the conduct of the rich. Finally, and that insight is of recent date, I had arrived at the side of the majority on our planet earth, the poor.
And you know what? Life is better with the poor! They got their problems, but better problems, natural problems, not artificial problems. They are closer to life. They can smell it, laugh about it, dance, drink and enjoy it, fight for it.
Running for riches is like a dog chasing the sausage, which is dangling in front of his eyes securely fastened onto his back on a long stick. The dog will collapse one day and die. That's happening to most of the rich. And forgotten they are.
Why am I still offering services to the rich? That's what I have learnt, strategies of how to effectively run a business, how to market products, how to reinvest and save earnings, how to manage surplus funds, and secondly: there are exceptions to the rule. Good rich people do exist. They certainly are in the minority.
They are no liars, they do not cheat, they do not evade to pay taxes, they treat their employees with respect, they pay wages which afford at least modest living standards, they care about the health of their employees, they do not live extravagant lives, they do not overindulge in luxury, they share their riches with the poor, they do not support the accumulation of wealth in a few hands, they do not bend the laws in their favor.
When with the Bank Trinkaus & Burkhardt I used to issue a newsletter: "Outlook". Here I am back again. I miss pointing at mismanagement and extortion by writing. Hopefully some hear the message. Let us make this world a better place!
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