Don’t Steal!

Governments Hate the Competition!

100 billion reasons to have non-reportable assets

If you’re thinking, “Thank goodness I live in a free country where that would never happen,” think again. 

This is really no different than Civil Asset Forfeiture in the Land of the Free, the legal framework where countless federal, state, and local agencies have the authority to seize and freeze every asset you own without even so much as charging you with a crime.

Today oil constitutes more than half of Saudi Arabia’s GDP and more than 90% of government revenue… and it is the reason why Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s richest nations as measured by per-capita GDP. 

But all that success also comes with risk: what happens when the wells run dry? Or when the oil price falls? 

Last year the Saudi government announced “Vision 2030,” a long-term plan to diversify its economy and reduce dependence on oil revenue. 

But none of these options fixes the short-term problem. Saudi Arabia needs cash. Now.

So over the past few weeks they’ve 

found their source: 

theft.

Under the guise of a ‘corruption crackdown’, the government of Saudi Arabia has arrested hundreds of its wealthiest, most prominent citizens, and frozen more than 1700 bank accounts. 

It does strike me as a farce, though, to see extremely corrupt bureaucrats and politicians arresting corrupt businessmen… and then confining them to the very swanky Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh. 

The timing is also suspect– the Saudi government needs the money and cannot afford to wait for their long-term plans to generate income.

 DYI:

The biggest theft is inflation all generated by government itself in order to pay its debts and bills.  The newest con is digitally printing of dollars in order to purchase assets both government and corporate bonds.  The interest is returned to the Treasury to help offset incoming tax receipts.  Not a free lunch as the only way the purchase is made is by ginning up the dollars out of thin air digitally…So hence the interest earned is inflationary.  When the SHTF during the next economic downturn – this latest QE – will be just the warm up as the Fed’s will purchase dividend paying common stocks world wide as well.

 DYI