Don Ke nobi
/ 83.5.241.* / 2009-08-13 11:54
How do you protect your assets if the financial system collapses? Recently that’s been a question for Argentines. But Americans aren’t crazy to be asking it themselves.
To me, the most interesting part of the article was the sidebar at the end, “A Cavalcade of Confiscation:
Worrying about a government destroying its currency or confiscating its citizens’ wealth may seem a bit paranoid—until you read some financial history. The sad fact is that over the centuries, time and again, governments have spent and borrowed themselves into a box and forced their citizens to bail them out. They debase the currency (which is a tax on savers), impose new taxes, or simply take whatever assets are most accessible. To keep their prey from escaping, they impose various kinds of capital controls, including restrictions on the movement of wealth or price increases. A few historical examples, ranging from ancient to more recent times, suffice to make the point….