And you still haven't told me your name. Very brave.

As for your suggestion that I'm taking the lazy cowardly way out, I would argue that no, I'm being true to my American roots. I am standing up for my rights under the constitution. FBAR in the case of Americans abroad violates their 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th amendment rights. In this case, if you--who refuse to lose your citizenship--you have to submit to a government that continually violates your rights. What kind of pathetic American is that who is a slave of the government? Because I believe in freedom, I believe that as an American I have the right to go somewhere else and renounce my citizenship in order to escape an evil and oppressive government, just as our forefathers escaped and then fought against England and King George, expatriating en bloc. You can indeed fight for your rights within American, but that option is not available to me. Irwin Schiff fought for his rights and he rots now in a Federal Prison. I also have a wife to think about, and I therefore have expatriated in order to protect her and her assets, but you would just fight, and when the IRS has impoverished both you and your wife, you would laugh and say, "I will never abandon my country". So if you want to fight for your country, then do this: fight for the US expatriates that have to renounce their citizenship because of FBAR. Many of the 6 million Americans overseas are contemplating it. And stop insulting them, because that is not helpful. They only want what every true American wants, freedom.

Furthermore, the persecution of expatriates by the IRS, will make it nigh on impossible for the US to carry out any business overseas--to sell our goods to other countries. Because if your people can go to another country and set up shop because of oppressive regulation of Americans abroad, then you will not be able to carry out business. Already Americans are shunned from certain jobs and from opening up bank accounts.

But if you continue in your current logic then you prove yourself to be the quintessential Ugly American--insulting what you don't understand. I am now a proud Canadian, proud of our heritage. And I will defend her, just as you would defend your country. She has adopted me and it is my duty. After over 25 years of living in this country, growing to love my community here, it is only right that I should defend her. But dual citizenship is an absurdity. In my thinking, I had to give up my allegiance to the United States in order to make my oath to the Queen of Canada. Now I just want a government that, in its oppression of its expatriates, has become worse than King George ever was-- I want that government to leave me alone. And I wish you well, you Americans, as your government, whether Republican or Democrat, takes you over the abyss of insolvency and financial meltdown. Good luck with that!

Also I should mention that I consider temporal political alliances such as the current nations of the world, e.g., USA or Canada, to be passing away like chaff in a fire. I am only a sojourner here:

"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

I will do whatever is expedient in this earthly so as to better prepare for that everlasting country of which I am a true citizen.

Mr. Jim in Houston:

I didn't abandon my country. It criminalized me and therefore my country abandoned me.

I want you to know however that I am doing what I can to fight this injustice. I am writing polemical articles and I am now in the open, and for some that takes courage, for I am staring the IRS in the face and saying, go ahead, make an example of me. Meanwhile, you are some guy in Houston named Jim. That is really courageous. Tell me what your real name is then you can brag about how courageous you are.

See this post: http://righteousinvestor.com/2011/11/15/pillaging...

Mr. Jim in Houston:

Thanks for this suggestion. When I left the United States in 1986, Ronald Reagan was president. I wanted to study abroad. So first I studied in Vancouver Canada, then I moved to England and studied at Cambridge, then I went to Switzerland and studied there. Now when I was in Vancouver I met a Canadian girl, and I've been married to her ever since. When I finished my studies in Switzerland, her family took us in, she started working for them, and now, well, it just turned out that we've stayed here in Ontario. So I haven't lived in the United States since 1986. Now, I relinquished my citizenship on February 28, 2011, because of the Obama administration's application of the FBAR law made me into a criminal, because there is no way that I will waive my 4th and 5th amendment rights and hand over my bank account information to the United States treasury. I live in Canada--my normal accounts out of which I conduct my daily affairs have become a felony.

Instead of upbraiding me for cowardice, you should be ashamed that your country is making criminals out of law abiding citizens--about 5-6 million Americans live abroad. You should be apologizing to me that I had to give up my birthright.

Since you don't seem to know much about the plight of American citizens abroad, I suggest you could start by reading the following article that I wrote (with Monty Pelerin) for the American Thinker:
http://righteousinvestor.com/2011/11/15/when-gove...

If you have any wealth at all, I'm not sure you would be willing to put up with its confiscation either. A simple trip to the US Consulate in Toronto, and now I am relieved of future filing requirements to the IRS.

It's very kind of you to respond. As I said, your article is excellent and I appreciate your willingness to respond to the issues facing American citizens abroad.

As for point (1), the differences are not that significant. I consider myself an economic refugee in Canada, since the United States has threatened me with imprisonment and substantial fines of up to 300% of my wealth if I do not comply with FBAR. But this is something that I refuse to do on many grounds: I will not expose my Canadian wife to this draconian law and the possibility that her wealth could be stolen by the IRS. I will not under any circumstances ever reveal any of my account information to the IRS, because it would expose her to the capricious confiscatory programs of the IRS. I will die first. Besides, it is a violation of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th amendments of the Constitution of the United States.

I wish to mention further that the Human Rights Code in Canada where I live does not permit discrimination on the basis of citizenship: so that the Canadian banks which are currently gearing up to implement FATCA will face human rights lawsuits. The expat community in Canada is currently in the process of organizing. We are not going to sit here and allow our rights under the Human Rights Code in Canada be stripped from us by a law that was made in the United States where we have no representation. The Canadian banks may think that they have the right to insist that people reveal their citizenship to them, but the fact is that the code does not even permit us to ask a legal Canadian resident where they were born, or what their citizenship is, in a job interview (unless the job requires Canadian citizenship--then "Are you Canadian?", not --"What is your citizenship?"). So FATCA cannot be implemented in Canada under any circumstances, except if the Federal and each of the provincial governments severely curtail their Human Rights Codes to permit this kind of discrimination. Thus, I predict, that within a few months, the banks will tell the Yanks that there is no possibility of implementing FATCA.

Many other countries will do the same. And if the US doesn't back down from FATCA, $14 trillion or more in foreign investment will leave the United States; then printed US dollars will start pouring back into the US and their will be the mother of all hyperinflations. The date is January 1, 2014. The hyperinflation will probably happen in any case, but now you have my prediction for when it will happen.

Thanks Brian for this excellent article. Now I would like to point out a couple things from the stand point of those of us Americans (and former Americans who like myself have recently renounced or relinquished our citizenship). (1) You wrote: "Members were concerned about the human rights implications for foreigner depositors, particularly from Latin America, who face kidnapping and extortion threats back home, but most importantly the capital flight this concern would cause should the rule pass." Now I want to point out that from our point of view, the reason why our countries should not become FATCA compliant is that we do not want to face "extortion" from the IRS, forcing us to face hefty FBAR fines. There is a very large expat community in the world, that is scared out of its wits now by what the United States is doing. (2) In my article at the American Thinker, "FATCA: a ticking time bomb for the economy" I bring out this human dimension of a very angry and scared expat community. You say nothing about it here. But I suggest you speak to people like me who have relinquished our American citizenship in the last year. We are very angry, angry, angry. I gave up my birthright this year, so I would not have to face the extortionate fines of FBAR. Some of us are the most anti-American folks out there now, telling all our friends to stop investing in the United States and to make this government pay for its arrogance. http://righteousinvestor.com/2011/11/28/fatca-a-t...

This is why the so-called AAA rating for USA debt is a farce.

Absolutely interested.

Thanks Redmond. I enjoyed the event and meeting you. Great wine and cheese! Great conversations.

Martin: It was very nice to meet you last night at Books for Business. I had read this post earlier, a couple of days ago, and then overheard you saying the same thing in at Mises meeting. I didn't realize it was the same person!

I personally attributed the little rise in the TSX oil companies, which I follow closely, to fear--investors were indeed stung in 2008 when the prices went high, only to see their portfolios cut in half. That being said, I am also sure you are right about stagflation, and it gives me food for thought. Thanks.