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– Regarding the general rape of the world for profits by the big corporations, I’ve long held that once they do manage to pull the pillars down around us by crashing the environment and the world’s economies, they will take their earnings and go and hide away in high security enclaves living the good life that only big money can buy.   Yes, they’ll be living well, insulated from the consequences of their rampant greed while the rest of us are left to slug it out for survival in what remains.

– This article may be the first we see like this.   Remember it when you think to yourself in the future, “I wonder where those bastards went?“

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The plans of a Swiss canton to attract the super-rich by offering them the chance to buy property in exclusive, previously out of bounds locations has sparked a political row and accusations that the country is encouraging apartheid of the rich and poor.

The canton of Obwalden is planning to launch “special living zones” for millionaires in an attempt to boost its tax take by luring the wealthiest residents. Like other cantons in the tax haven, Obwalden finds itself short of revenue because it has been competing with other jurisdictions to see who can offer the lowest rate of tax.

The result has been a drastic shortfall in tax revenues as people set up PO box companies to take advantage of the low rates, while contributing nothing to the local economies because they live elsewhere.

Obwalden’s answer is to lift construction bans on land reserved for agricultural use, offering the rich the chance to secure property on protected land, with the promise of spectacular views of lake and alpine landscapes.

Details of Obwalden’s plan, published in the Swiss press, suggest selling villas on an exclusive basis to those who pay high taxes or who create work in the area – “a sunny location, with low noise emissions, good amenities … as well as an unrestricted view that cannot be built on”.

The homes would be constructed on land not usually accessible to ordinary citizens, leading to accusations that the policy discriminates against less wealthy inhabitants while rewarding the rich.

More… ➡

– hat tip to Cryptogon

– I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  The U.S. dollar will weaken as we go forward.   There may be momentary gains and loss cycles but the overall long term trend will be for a weaker U.S. dollar.

– Why?   Short-term Capitalistic greed over long-term nationalistic concerns.

– Virtually all the big corporations (U.S. and otherwise), have renounced any allegiance they may have had in favor of one nation or another in pursuit of wealth.  If sending U.S. manufacturing and U.S. hi-tech jobs overseas results in lower costs and thus higher profits, they’ve long since done it.

– The net result?  We, the United States, are no longer a wealth generating nation.   We no longer produce large quantities of things to sell the the rest of the world.  We’ve sent our production capabilities out of the country and we’ve become a nation of consumers.  And any nation that spends more on what it consumes than it makes on what it sells, is a nation with diminishing wealth.

– Other nations, and the U.N. itself, have realized that as the U.S. gets poorer, it makes less and less sense that our currency should remain the world’s reference currency.   The calls to move away from the U.S. dollar as the standard are increasing.   I’d say the writing is on the wall unless something fundamental changes.

– Check out the following articles that have just come out in the last few days:

China argues to replace US dollar

BRIC nations urge diverse monetary system

UN panel touts new global currency reserve system

– And check out these pieces that I reported and commented on earlier:

China stuck in ‘dollar trap’

China Flexes its Muscles and Finds Support in a Bid to Dump the Dollar as the World’s Main Reserve Currency

Growing Deficits Threaten Pensions