The Idle Rich can now start to sweat!

When the Union Bank of Switzerland last year had to reveal 252 names of people that may have attempted to avoid paying taxes in the United States….there was a huge outcry.  That hue and cry ramped up when the UBS had to pay a measly $730 million dollars – in bailout bucks fines.  You might have thought that “the Bear of Bahnhof Strasse” had been stung by the bee of D.C.  Today, an more amicable “apparent agreement” has been reached between UBS and the State Dept. of the US Government according to the Finanacial Times!

Yes, the news accelerates!  UBS says they have made a deal to reveal “more names”!  The guess is that Swiss Banks hold around 52,000 accounts which  could contain secret information and unreported funds.  How many UBS is going to reveal will be telling.  Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton says that “they have reached an agreement in principle.”  What that means is a “Double Taxation” program.  You put money in a Swiss bank…if you make money from interest or investment…..you pay a Swiss tax.  Then you need to report your winnings to the US Government.  Then of course, you get to pay taxes again.  How many names and when they will be revealed is being held closely to the vest by UBS and the U.S. Government.  How deep may it go?  Stay tuned…….

Enforcement is the biggest fly in the ointment however.  Revealing those accounts that have family jewels, bearer bonds or other articles which do not necessarily increase in value annually…..are going to be tough to access.  How much cash is stashed in “safety deposit boxes” that will not be inventoried or accounted for.  Will this just be a tiny inconvenience for those bright people that move the “Drug Cartel Cash” into foreign currencies or other not so regulated forms of “coin of the realm”?

The good news is that the blatant “rape, greed and theft” of corporate profits which are skimmed into Swiss Bank Accounts directly…by direct deposit, may become a little more difficult to accomplish.  Those famous traveling “Courier Services” may become more in vogue.  Diplomatic Couriers from African and South American Countries……may be very busy.  Moving that cash say from Somalia to a D.C. Embassy and then off to Switzerland may be nothing more that an added expensive and inconvenience.

The “Black Money” issue won’t even go away…..if they decide to go to a “cashless society”.  Those little Gold Krugerrands are just too easy to slip into a Lemon Meringue pie and ship off to Granma (anyplace – in the world!).  The big hope is that the US Treasury Department to stop two very important things: (1) The blatant printing of US Currency by North Korea and (2) The blatant shipping of moving ill-gotten gains into Swiss Banks or other off shore places like Bahamian, Panamaian or Caymanian banking interest.  The discovery process naming names will be the fun part.  Politicians, criminals and the Idle Rich….will have an equal opportunity to get nailed.  Should be fun to watch!  Ya think Ruth Madoff is sweating it yet?

Those “rico mogulitos” in Zurich will be looking over their shoulders for a while until they figure out how they are going to send their cash investment units via “underground railroads” – as they did from those NAZI banks at the end of World War II.  Hopefully, the US Treasury will be going after the “big fish” and not wind up nailing a bunch of frugal granmas!  Those banks in Rio and Buenos Aires are rubbing their collective palms together in anticipation!