Sep 14, 2026 · 34 min · 9 segments
The American passport used to rank # 1 in the world, but today is #12. What happened ? Declining reciprocity between countries and other policies have dimmed the luster of a US passport. And more…
Alex MarinoGuest
Jim HerlihyHost
But to get back to your point about FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, This is legislation that was passed during the Obama administration.
He knows and sees that in the midterm elections, he's going to get slaughtered, just like most incumbents do.
He knows he's going to lose the House and the Senate, which he does in 2010 in the midterms.
But right before, when the Democrats still held the House, the Senate, and the presidency...
I said, look, FATCA is just banks turning over U.S. citizens, suspected U.S. citizens and depositors living outside the U.S. U.S. citizen-based taxation has been around since the War of 1812.
Jurisdictionally, if you have law that is unenforceable, that's just ink on paper, which is what citizen based taxation was for U.S. citizens and green card holders living outside the United States for the first 200 years of this.
And you ask ourselves, why did they pass this? Well, during the 08 crisis, obviously things weren't going well.
You can, as your debt goes up and the economies are crashing and it's the end of the financial system as we know it potentially, you can either increase taxes on taxes.
those suffering in your country who are looking to potentially reelect you, or you can look to tax those U.S. citizens abroad who really don't affect your reelection campaign.
So what FATCA is, FATCA says, dear countries of the world, we know that you have U.S. citizens out there banking with your financial institutions.
And 190 plus countries agreed to this, including Russia and China, and signed off.
We want you to find out Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, who your U.S. depositors are.
And you have to tell us where they are, where their accounts are, where the money is, and report it back to us on a silver platter so we can now enforce citizen-based taxation.
But to get back to your point about FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, This is legislation that was passed during the Obama administration.
He knows and sees that in the midterm elections, he's going to get slaughtered, just like most incumbents do.
He knows he's going to lose the House and the Senate, which he does in 2010 in the midterms.
But right before, when the Democrats still held the House, the Senate, and the presidency...
I said, look, FATCA is just banks turning over U.S. citizens, suspected U.S. citizens and depositors living outside the U.S. U.S. citizen-based taxation has been around since the War of 1812.
Jurisdictionally, if you have law that is unenforceable, that's just ink on paper, which is what citizen based taxation was for U.S. citizens and green card holders living outside the United States for the first 200 years of this.
And you ask ourselves, why did they pass this? Well, during the 08 crisis, obviously things weren't going well.
You can, as your debt goes up and the economies are crashing and it's the end of the financial system as we know it potentially, you can either increase taxes on taxes.
those suffering in your country who are looking to potentially reelect you, or you can look to tax those U.S. citizens abroad who really don't affect your reelection campaign.
So what FATCA is, FATCA says, dear countries of the world, we know that you have U.S. citizens out there banking with your financial institutions.
And 190 plus countries agreed to this, including Russia and China, and signed off.
We want you to find out Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, who your U.S. depositors are.
And you have to tell us where they are, where their accounts are, where the money is, and report it back to us on a silver platter so we can now enforce citizen-based taxation.
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