Money Talks, But American Dollars Shout

Suburban Chicago News ^ | 11/12/06 | Malcolm Berko

[expat_panama]

it's money that makes the world go round. It's the U.S. dollar, not the riyal, yen or peso that people use to measure their wealth.

It's not gold either; people throw gold away everyday, like on that gold lettering of the shampoo bottle for instance.  Nobody throws away dollars.

[GoLightly]

Congress withholds money taken from Ameican citizens at the point of a gun and used to entice other countries to emulate our system from countries whose legal systems don't match our standards and limits trade with countries whose definitions of "free speech" are not as liberal as ours.

People with a socialist mindset don't see the world the same way we do. When you think the government rightfully owns everything, you can easily see how the author drew the conclusions he did.

[expat_panama]

Anyone can click online with their IRA broker and buy shares in an ETF that holds foreign stock, or even just plain shares in a foreign fund that's traded on the NYSE.  More info by googling 'foreign "exchange traded fund"'

Investing is not nearly as complicated as people try to make it.

[headsonpikes]

Investing is not nearly as complicated as people try to make it.

Exactly!

Just buy low and sell high - it works every time. ;^)

[Osage Orange]

Or the dirty little secret most brokerages won't tell you...Sell high..then buy it lower.

[KarinG1]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Same to you RebelTex. May all of your turkeys be smoked to juicy perfection.

[kublia khan]

"Congress withholds assistance"
Why was this "assistance being offered or given in the first place. I not an isolationist I'm just sick of the U S being treated like a rich uncle when ever any struggling third world toilet needs a handout and then as soon as they cash the check they go back to treating us like a red headed step child. I thought the Republicans would see the inherent evil of taking one persons possessions and giving it to another in the name of equity. But they did not see it and they apparently still don't judging by the new leadership they have selected for the congressional caucus. I here all of the talk about a return to power in two years; we'll be lucky if anything resembling a conservative party is back in power in 20 years. They didn't get it then, they don't get it now, and there is little promise for an awakening in the near future.

[theBuckwheat]

You are right. Because of the tax code, filing requirements, and the horrible taxes that are levied, IMO, US Persons really should not own foreign-based mutual funds. That is not to be confused with a US-based mutual fund that invests in non-US stocks and bonds, such as Fidelity's International Small Cap Opportunities Fund (FSCOX).

If a peson wants to invest directly in non-US Stocks, there are several non-US brokers who will accept US accounts such as Brewin Dolphin in the UK (http://www.brewindolphin.co.uk/), SwissQuote (http://www.swissquote.ch/index_e.html), and Thales Securities (http://www.thalessecurities.com/) in Panama.

Use of these firms is perfectly legal, as long as the US Person files the form every year disclosing their account. Failure to file carries a $10,000 fine. The form number is TD F 90-22.1.

see:
http://taxes.about.com/od/preparingyourtaxes/a/TDF90221.htm


Of course, I cannot vouch for any of these firms. I am only reporting what I have heard. If any Freepers can comment, I would welcome their posting on this subject.

[expat_panama]

"Just buy low and sell high - it works every time..."

Dang, buy low and then sell high---of course!! 

For the life of me I never know how I ever could have gotten those two backwards...

[GoLightly]

Our economies growth is more limited if we're only trading amongst ourselves. It's one of those boats rising together kind of things.

[expat_panama]

Because of the tax code, filing requirements, and the horrible taxes that are levied, IMO, US Persons really should not own foreign-based mutual funds...

This is news to me; it's never come up in my work because I have absolutely no intention of ever making an investment instrument purchase anywhere but under the jurisdiction of American trading laws.  Every single foreign market I've seen suffers from a total lack of even a minimum level of useful transparency.  [Translation: "foreigners are crooks"] 

Well, not everyone feels that way about foreigners, but what we know for sure is that the world invests in America, and Americans are not in much of a hurry to invest outside the US.  This imbalance may be caused by the US tax code and different people have different opinions.   My theory is that even though people may make their political views as goofy as they want, they always end up putting their money into markets they can trust.   OK, we hear a lot of moaning on these threads about how terrible this situation is -as if there was actually something wrong with a trade deficit.  I say "nonsense"; this is simply America leading and the rest of the world following.  Business as usual.

[Osage Orange]

It's called shorting..............

[Osage Orange]

Ignore me........

Thought you responded to my post...

I'm often an idiot.....

[nicollo]

"recently returned from my first foreign posting in Turkey and I was amazed at the anti-U.S. mood of the people. "

Like any good poll, depends on what you ask. I ran an experiment on Paris cabbies last month. Eight of ten Parisian cabbies think Bush is the devil himself. Meanwhile, ten of ten of those cabbies think France is going to hell.

They don't make the connection between those two lines of thought. Sure, most of 'em think we suck, only just about all of them know that they suck worse.

God bless America.