Archive for February, 2008
« Previous EntriesThink Encryption Can Protect Your PC’s Secrets? Think Again…
Thursday, February 28th, 2008One of the best ways to protect the data on your home or office PC, and—especially—your laptop is to encrypt it. Encryption is a mathematical process that converts your e-mail messages, your disk files, or even your entire hard drive into unreadable gibberish. Only you—and the intended recipients of your encrypted messages—can decipher the gibberish. [...]
Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Laptop Gone?
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Your laptop PC may be the most dangerous item you own. Laptops are a magnet for thieves, because they can easily be sold to pawnbrokers or others. But it’s the data on your laptop that can be truly devastating in the wrong hands. In 2006, thieves broke into the home of a contractor for the [...]
How U.S. Taxpayers Can Safely Purchase Offshore Funds
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008If you’re a citizen or resident of the United States, it’s a challenge to purchase many of the tens of thousands of offshore mutual funds traded worldwide—at least not without highly unfavorable tax consequences. This is a consequence of the "passive foreign investment company" (PFIC) provisions of the U.S. Tax Code, which I described in [...]
U.S. Taxpayers: Beware Holding Offshore Funds in an Offshore Trust
Thursday, February 21st, 2008One of the most unfair and insidious parts of the U.S. Tax Code is Section 1291-1297, which deals with the taxation of offshore mutual funds. Naturally, the Treasury doesn’t call offshore funds "offshore funds." That would be too simple. Instead, it calls them "passive foreign investment companies" (PFICs). For purchases of U.S. mutual funds, the [...]
Offshore Annuities and Life Insurance: Four Key Advantages
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008Variable annuities and life insurance have a reputation as pretty boring investments. Yet, they’re some of the most flexible contracts available to achieve tax deferral, asset protection, and a degree of financial privacy. That’s especially true if you purchase an OFFSHORE life insurance policy or variable annuity. Almost every state protects the death benefit of [...]
Backbone, at Last
Monday, February 18th, 2008It’s about time. The U.S. Congress finally mustered the political courage to slow down the War on Terror’ stampede on civil liberties. By failing to re-authorize the so-called "Protect America Act," Congress reinstated a deeply flawed legal framework for warrantless surveillance. Nonetheless, that framework is preferable to that developed by the Bush administration under this [...]
Welcome to “Ueberveillance”
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. citizens, along with just about everyone else, have become accustomed to greatly increased surveillance of their travel habits, their financial affairs, and their communications. But that’s only the beginning of what our political leaders have planned for us. In the name of the "War on Terror," we [...]
You Can Protect Yourself from Identity Theft—Here’s How!
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008In yesterday’s blog entry, I described the rapidly increasing risk that identity theft poses to every American. Fortunately, you can take a simple and nearly foolproof precaution that will virtually guarantee that you won’t become a victim. It takes about 15 minutes to implement this recommendation. Just don’t count on credit bureaus, banks, or merchants [...]
2007: Another Record Year for Identity Theft
Monday, February 11th, 2008It’s a piece of cake for someone to steal your identity. And if they do, you can count on spending countless hours dealing with police, credit bureaus, and banks to "prove" you didn’t cause the fraud. You might even face arrest if police believe that you, rather than the actual identity thief, is perpetrating a [...]
How to Spot a Passport Scam [Part II]
Friday, February 8th, 2008In yesterday’s blog entry, I described Internet scams offering allegedly legitimate "instant passports" from nearly a dozen countries, including members of the European Union and Switzerland. These documents are all fakes. And if you get caught with a fake passport, you’ll have serious problems! The world’s governments don’t like it when scammers sell stolen or [...]
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