Foreign Investors should watch out for America’s new Draconial Regulations

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Among a long list of things I never, ever thought I’d see as long as I lived, the US once the Super Power of the World has the developed the all the characteristics of its once Super Adversary the Soviet Union. They now practice domestic no-warrant spying, unreported prisons, and institutionalized torture. Local governments grab attractive private property to build office parks, and Congress passes a bill calling for spending billions on a fence across the southern border to keep other America at home. It is widely believed that by 2020 the Wealthy Americans will need an Exit Visa to travel outside the US.

The signs are there of a move towards a more totalitarian state is now beginning in earnest with the government beginning to exert controls on the flow of money out of the country. There are no problems in bringing it in no matter what the source.

We are now seeing an attempt at just that. Last Friday, Western Union announced, in a filing related to its pending IPO, that it had been served a warrant by the Attorney General of Arizona prohibiting the company from sending funds amounting to $500 or more into the state of Sonora, Mexico. Instead, the money must first be placed into a government-controlled “detention account” where it will be held until the authorities have spoken to both the sender and the recipient and are satisfied that they are not engaged in any illegal activities. Interestingly, even though the warrant is from the Attorney General of Arizona, it covers any funds sent from 29 states.

The seizure of funds exceeding the limit of $500 has already begun.

Of course, the Attorney General has just winged Western Union’s IPO and destroyed its lucrative remittance business—for which I doubt they’ll be writing an apology anytime soon—but what they have really done is to set a precedent, using that tired excuse that they are trying to combat drugs and other smuggling operations. If this precedent stands, then it opens a whole new chapter in the refutation of the principles that made this country the bastion—and the beacon—of freedom for the 100 years or so after its founding.

The is not just Western Union, it is all US banks delaying or asking a multitude of irrelevant questions with the obvious intention of keeping USD inside the US.  It is scarily close to a default situation.

Initially this is effecting those sending money in small amounts to their families outside the US but foreign investors such as the Venezuelans ,Argentines and many others are also being targeted.

You have been warned.

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