No one has voted for this: Intl Exchange of Tax Information

Quite apart from the fact that there are simpler ways to increase tax revenues the international agreement violates basic rules of a proper democracy. The agreement is negotiated several steps removed from what ordinary citizens care about, or what they want. Anonymous bureaucrats deal over the head of citizens in backroom fashion. A withholding tax would have been simple to introduce and administer and the privacy of savers would have been preserved.
The hypocrisy surrounding this form of legislation is evident when just recently the Italian government announced that the Super rich would be offered tax-haven status in Italy. A billionaire would be able to pay just €100.000 (!!) per year in full settlement of his tax obligations! And an (in)famous Italian, Signore Draghi does his best to confiscate the incomes of hundreds of millions of hard-working and honest citizens in order to bail out his profligate fellow-citizens.

The only way to hold Euro-denominated Bonds

Whatever you make of the latest measures taken by the ECB to 'boost the economies' of the Euro-zone do keep in mind one key rule for your financial survival: Do not hold any bonds denominated in Euros unless they are backed by the full-faith and credit of Germany. As the interest rate on many of those bonds is now turning negative it probably is advisable to give them a miss as well and stick to cash. At some stage some members of the Euro-zone may default or leave the Euro-zone and the value of their obligations will nose-dive. So buying Italian or French bonds just because they return a measly 1.5 percent is akin to picking up pennies in front of a steamroller. Index-hugging fund managers playing with other people's money in the big investment institutions will continue to play this game of Russian Roulette and you should make sure that you avoid them if they play this dangerous game.

10 things you should ask your financial adviser about
(MarketWatch)

Do not be taken in by fancy offices, glossy brochures or even by the centuries-old pedigree of an investment management company. If you are not sure how to protect your interests in the face of a slick and professional marketing machine you should consider taking impartial advice. And do not even think to rely on regulators - just never forget Cyprus and the fact that EU regulators were powerless (unwilling?) to help depositors in some of the country's banks.

EU Banking 'Union' threatens your Savings

The proposed EU Banking 'Union' which would centralise the regulation and supervision of banks in the EU (or at the very least in the member states of the Euro zone) would be a threat to the savers in the countries with more stable financial systems. The guarantee of banking deposits would also be administered on a centralised basis. This could lead to the situation were the savings of citizens in, say, Germany or Austria, are used to bail out savers in banks in Spain or Italy.

Bank deposits may be expropriated in Eurozone

The introduction of a European deposit insurance scheme could lead to the expropriation of savers in countries who end up as net contributors to the scheme warns former member of the ECB Ottmar Issing. (Financial Times)

Are the regulators completely out of control?

We would love to hear from any real end investor private saver who thinks he is (1) able to explain what the various versions of UCITS investment regulations mean or (2) what benefit he has personally derived from this legislation. We suspect it is easier to win the Euromillions lottery than to find this person, especially as we just notice that the 'legislators' in the various European capitals - and in particular the pampered species in Brussels - are already beavering away at drawing up plans for UCITS version number 5 (when even market professionals have difficulty understanding, let alone implementing version number 4). All this nonsense means that costs will be piled on costs and the hapless investor must be even more careful when deciding how to invest his precious nestegg.

FATCA - The road to serfdom is well travelled

The absurd legislation making its way through the US government machine is a sad indictment for the inability of the European 'elites' to make a clear and determined stand in defending the interests of their citizens and the financial industry in the Continent. A simple threat to retaliate tit for tat and subject the US institutions to the same treatment would have stopped the whole nonsense right in its tracks. After all, if the US is so keen to catch potential tax cheats it could impose stringent controls on its own citizens, control all movements of money in and out of the country and in the process make a laughing stock of the expression 'land of the free'.

UCITS IV - is your money now really safe?

The regulatory machine is (as always) running overtime but the outcome is not always proportional to the effort. After UCITS I, II and III regulators are already putting the finishing touches on the next (but surely not last) version of the framework for investment funds in Europe. When a commentator writes that 'EU laws impose no ficuiary duties on boards of directors and the definition of their role is again left at the discretion of country regulators' (Samuel Sender, FTfm, 28 March 2011) one can have but little confidence in the outcome of the deliberations of the regulators.

Are all private investors idiots?

That seems to be the assumption under which regulators in the EU and FSA publish a raft of consultation documents, guidance notes and draft new laws argues Matthew Vincent in the Financial Times. I would like to add that these diktats lack any democratic legitimacy as they are cooked out by unaccountable technocrats and bureaucrats that are not answerable to the citizens.

Ireland, Hungary expropriate pension funds

The idea of putting one's savings into officially-sanctioned pension funds receives another serious setback when EU member states (or better their ineffective politicians) think that the only way they can save themselves from further fiscal and economic disasters of their making is the expropriation of pension funds that to all intents and purposes have been created to provide their beneficiaries with benefits during their years of retirement. Where are the regulators that are so busy sticking their noses into every aspect of our daily lives? Where is justice and democracy?