OK this is really getting ridiculous.
Despite being the sacred keepers of the Catholic faith and trustees of the meek, the Holy See has just inked a deal with the US government putting the Pope in bed with the Internal Revenue Service.
It’s so bizarre you couldn’t possibly make this stuff up anymore.
The Vatican City has been forced into sharing information with the US.
So now, like a good little doggy, they’re obliged to cough up financial records on anyone they’ve ever had dealings with whenever Mr. Obama snaps his fingers.
I’m not sure this is what Pope Francis had in mind when he called for an end of “the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy”.
Ironically, the oft-quoted Book of Proverbs says that “[T]he borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”
And this is true in almost all cases. Except, apparently, when it pertains to the US government.
Despite having borrowed more money than any nation in the history of the world, the US government still acts like everyone’s master, including dictating the most ridiculous terms on financial agreements like this.
It’s all part of FATCA– the 2010 legislative joke formally known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
We’ve talked about this before– FATCA may prove to be the greatest disaster in US history. And there’s one simple reason why.
Ever since the end of World War II, the US banking system has formed the backbone of global banking and finance.
Right now, if a South African refiner buys oil from a Brazilian producer, that transaction will likely be settled in US dollars and clear through the US banking system.
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