News

Dollar Vigilante Tells Americans to Get Assets Out - Peter Diekmeyer (3/2/2017)

The Trump Administration’s big government, anti-trade and border wall-policies, have generated surprising support from Republicans, the Alt-Right, and even Libertarians. But Jeff Berwick, publisher of the Dollar Vigilante newsletter, isn’t having any of it.

Berwick, this week, reiterated his call for US clients to hold at least part of their assets outside the country , and to consider getting a second passport in case the worst occurs.

“The American government has been increasingly curtailing personal, political and economic freedoms,” said Berwick. “This has happened under all administrations; Bush, Obama and now Trump. Don’t forget: a wall built to keep people out, can also be used to keep people in.”

Berwick isn’t alone. This week, the New Yorker Magazine published a piece titled “Survival of the Richest,” which discussed how some of America’s richest people, such as Reddit founder Steve Huffman, are prepping for disaster.

“Faced with evidence of frailty in the American project, some are permitting themselves to imagine failure,” notes staff writer Evan Osnos. “It is gilded despair.”

One particularly popular locale for second homes is English-speaking New Zealand, which has the rule of law, an upper-middle class culture and is off the beaten path. According to the New Yorker, 13,401 Americans registered with New Zealand’s immigration authorities during the first seven days after Trump’s election.

Is Acapulco safer than most US Cites?

Investors like to pride themselves as “out of the box thinkers.” However Berwick, an anarcho-capitalist, goes a lot farther than most.

“The US government is already going to extraordinary lengths to track American’s assets, and herd them into safe places where they can be seized,” says Berwick. “These include moves towards digital cash, exit taxes, FATCA (the Foreign Assets Tax Compliance Act) and global taxation policies. Now is not the time to take chances.”

An Internet pioneer, and founder of Stockhouse.com, one the world’s first financial news-sites, Berwick now holds fort in Acapulco, which, surprisingly, he claims is safer than most US cities.

There from offices overlooking the Pacific Ocean, he runs the Dollar Vigilante newsletter and its fast-growing YouTube channels.

The offices are also headquarters of the TDV Internationalization and Investment Summit, and Anarchapulco, both which take place later this month. Berwick, a shameless promoter, bills the latter event, which attracts an eclectic crowd ranging from mining investors to Bitcoin and yoga fanatics, as “the world’s largest anarcho-capitalist conference.”

What scares Berwick and free market advocates the most is not the US government’s attacks on financial freedoms, it is the attacks on personal freedoms. Trump’s threats to institutionalize torture, legitimize religious discrimination and criminalize free speech are particularly jarring.

When Trump floated the idea of taking away US citizenship from those who burn the flag, Berwick reacted by posting a video, which later went viral, of himself burning the flags of several countries, including Canada, where he was born, to the sound of “Freedom,” a song popularized by the late George Michael.

Heir to Doug Casey and The International Man

Berwick’s nervousness about the direction of US policies, while radical, flows in a long tradition of free thinkers of all kinds who were forced outside their home countries. Voltaire, Rousseau and more recently Alexander Solzhenitsyn, all got out of Dodge at some point in their lives.

However Berwick’s ideas most resemble those of global investor Doug Casey, author of Crisis Investing and whose book The International Man, published about 40 years ago, first introduced the general public to the idea of keeping one foot outside the United States.

Indeed, Casey was one of the first people that Berwick sought out when he founded his YouTube channel six years ago. Berwick flew down to Casey’s Argentina estate for a series of interviews and over the years, Casey has defended his controversial protégé.

Lessons from the old Soviet Union: broadening the ideas horizon

The idea that the United States is anything else other than a “shining city on a hill” is likely anathema to most Americans, despite the tough times that many are experiencing right now.

That opinion is likely correct. America has gone through rough patches in the past and has always bounced back.

However, gold investors think over a far longer time horizon.

Many remember policies in the old Soviet Union, which curtailed comments against the state, imposed restrictions on citizens moving assets aboard and foreign travel.

For example when Simon Mikhailovich, who is now managing director at TBR Bullion Reserve, left the Soviet Union, his family’s assets were essentially confiscated in the form of a series of quasi-exit taxes, which were in some ways similar to what the US IRS is currently levying on Americans who want to renounce their citizenship.

Critics like Berwick aren’t for everyone. But investors need second opinions now, more than ever.

Product Upselling Spotlight

Don’t miss a golden opportunity.

Now that you’ve gained a deeper understanding about gold, it’s time to browse our selection of gold bars, coins, or exclusive Sprott Gold wafers.

About Sprott Money

Specializing in the sale of bullion, bullion storage and precious metals registered investments, there’s a reason Sprott Money is called “The Most Trusted Name in Precious Metals”.

Since 2008, our customers have trusted us to provide guidance, education, and superior customer service as we help build their holdings in precious metals—no matter the size of the portfolio. Chairman, Eric Sprott, and President, Larisa Sprott, are proud to head up one of the most well-known and reputable precious metal firms in North America. Learn more about Sprott Money.

Learn More
about-sprott-skyline

About the Author

Peter Diekmeyer has been a business writer/editor with publications such as Sprott Money News, the National Post and Canadian Defence Review and Jane's Defence for nearly three decades. He has studied in MBA, CA and Law programs but dropped out of all three after failing to convince the academics that they were wrong about everything.  Diekmeyer has interviewed more than 200 CEOs and filed reports from dozens of countries. 

His most terrifying moment came when he spoke to central bank economists for the first time and realized that (unlike politicians) they actually believed their own analysis and forecasts. 
He has been a regular contributor to the Sprott Money blog since 2015.

*The author is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Sprott Money Ltd. The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the author or guest speaker, are subject to change and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprott Money Ltd. Sprott Money does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness and reliability of the information or any results from its use.

Comments

jj
February 4, 2017 at 10:55 AM
Berwick fails to understand what has been happening in the US for the last 20 or so years. The globalist have fired millions of American and not only in manufacturing and then built factories in cheap labor countries shipping products back in tariff free. Since 1990 India alone has taken over 500,000 American jobs with the H1-B visas. This has completely wiped out the middle class. When an economy as been raped as the US has been the only way to bring it back is tariffs forcing companies to bring back jobs. A part of the Deep State, (see Catherine Austins Fitts latest interview with Jeff Rense as she does an excellent job of explaining what is happening now), is responsible for Trump being elected as they have seen the US economy had to change or a total collapse was coming. With high taxes, Obamacare, trillions spent on foreign wars, the theft of trillions from US taxpayers, (the DOD alone in 2016 cannot account for over $6 trillion), and the hiring of foreign workers over Americans simply had to be stopped or the whole system would have collapsed. Look next for Congress to implement changes in the H1-B program, an audit of the FED and an audit of the different federal agencies. Leaked phone calls on Soros with Ukrainian officials prove that taxpayer funds were used to over throw the elected government there. The wikileaks e-mails actually came from US military intelligence who are firmly behind Trump and the changes that has happened and will happen. Mexico, China and the EU will pay dearly in lost trade if they do not toe the line and agree with the changes. This is why Brexit happened as they realized the globalist would bring the UK down with the EU if they stayed in. It is now a different world but the globalist will not go away easily but the US and the UK has no choice if they want to remain as a country. Martin Armstrong's computer models some years back forecast if the US did not change course it would break up into 5 different countries and of course with all the violence by the left is appears where the US is heading. The models forecast Brexit on the exact day along with the outcome. It forecast gold weakness the last year, euro and pound weakness and Dow strength. The models track international capital flows which dictates economic, financial and social change in countries all over the planet. With the recent state wide arrests in California of child and human trafficking, pedophilia and pimping both adults and children, this is the tip pf the iceberg and the reason why the left is so desperate to cling to power and overthrow Trump. In addition arrest were made in Pa.