Love yer money

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Everyone's favorite goofball in the Oval Office is up to more hijinks, as can be seen right here. In sum, quoth the Bush: bin Laden's assets that we know about are frozen, so ha; if you support him, we're tracking you; if you're a foreign bank who isn't helping us tracks their assets and financial flow, we're going to freeze *your* assets here, so double ha; we can't tell you any more than that because it's classified; thanks much, punch at the back of the room, restrooms to the side.

So...good, bad, dumb, workable, pretext for more goofiness?

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My THORTS -- the potential for abuse is...bemusing. But also hard to measure unless an overseas bank that the US decides to crack down on squawks about it in turn, in which case everyone wonders if they have something to hide and could destabilize them more. Have fun puzzling it all out!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Initial reaction = "yeah sensible". I read in the Observer that a side-effect of this is big crackdowns on offshore tax havens which sounds good to me.

Magnus are you reading this? You're the only person I know who works in banking, any idea of the implications...?

― Tom, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, it's legal, that's all I can say.

― Ally, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What about secret Swiss Bank accounts. The Swiss Banks are a secretive aloof bunch, out of EU and a law unto themselves. Can the Swiss Govt tell their banks to tighten things up too?

― DJ Martian, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I gather that over the past couple of decades -- and especially in light of the embarassing problem of those Nazi-era account seizures and all that -- the Swiss are rather more open to outside persuasion on these matters, let us say.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Top Swiss banking act: Ollie North and others collect HUGE amt of money (eg millions) from Iranians (?I think?) to hand over to Contras. It "rests" for a time in a Swiss bank. When they go to remove it they dsicover it was paid into someone else's secret acct by(er) mistake. This being Swiss, they are not allowed to find out whose and have to give up all hope of ever recovering it HAH! Did I remember that right?

Also there's tge story of the little old lady in Glasgow who discovered when she went to pay her pension in that she'd also had paid in the entirety of Glsagow City Council's budget for the next year = several million pounds. Being insane she reported it to her bank manager, and wound up with a cheque for £120 as reward and a photo-op with the mayor hurrah oh...

― mark s, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.