The greatest single threat to American and foreign investor wealth & financial liquidity on Wall Street and in U.S. financial institutions is the planned Washington retaliation in the case of a WMD attack against New
York City and our financial infrastructure. All other threats to American domiciled wealth from scandalous lawsuits, unwarranted asset seizures and market or financial crisis risk, pale in comparison.
A successful WMD attack will likely close Wall Street and American financial institutions for months and the threat to foreign investors, specifically those individuals and institutions from Arab nations may well be far more permanent and severe.
Given the new powers from the Patriot Act, Arab investors may well find themselves, their financial institutions and entire nations declared terrorist related and thus their funds will be confiscated and held indefinitely due to the crisis. The solution is to move your investment funds at risk in U.S. markets and American financial institutions out now before this potential terrorist action happens as then it will be too late.
I have written quite extensively on the likelihood of another NYC terrorist attack on Wall Street and US financial markets and the probable disastrous results both in lost wealth and liberties if a weapon of mass destruction
is used. I believe our remaining Constitutional protections would vanish in the explosion just as all of the U.S. domiciled wealth in bank accounts, the stock market, mutual funds and variable annuities would be locked up for months or longer.
As an American who has long studied our history, we are generally an easy going people except in times of crisis when we have allowed the government and special interests full power to run roughshod over our prized liberties
and freedoms many times before. From the many excesses of the Lincoln Administration in the North during his war which took the lives of over 600,000 Americans to after the war when the victors made it illegal for the Southern states to repay their bond holders thus bankrupting most
Southerners, these excesses have usually consisted of wealth confiscation and loss of liberties. Consider Roosevelt and his betrayal at Pearl Harbor and our camps for loyal Japanese Americans most of whom never received
their wealth and property back.
This is the calm before the storm because in the climate of today's War on Terror, any WMD attack on NYC will be considered an Islamic terrorist attack regardless of who plans or carries out the attack. Whether Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network is involved or not, it matters little as I'm sure they would be happy to accept the credit for the attack but look at the other alternatives. Since Al Qaeda will be quickly blamed, imagine the temptation for other foreign terrorist groups, domestic extremists on the
left or the right, rogue elements in our government or other nations and groups that would benefit from the blame for an attack aimed at Islamic fundamentalists or Moslem nations.
Yes, the Constitution hangs by a thread and today any group can break this thread by a WMD attack with the security that a rush to judgment will blame Islamic terrorists. So what does this mean for American and foreign investors?
First of all, American investors should diversify a portion of their investments and savings outside the U.S. for liquidity and a safe haven strategy if an attack closes our markets for months. Second, this kind of attack would probably propel gold up to near $1,000 an ounce and the Euro
to $2.00 and the Swiss franc to $1.50 so some offshore investments in these two currencies and gold would probably be a wise idea. Although non-American markets might well benefit from the U.S. market closure, the initial attack would propel all world equity markets down dramatically in
the first week or so.
Second, for American investors fully invested in U.S. markets and savings, there would be no liquidity to take advantage of the upward move in gold or foreign currencies verses a collapsing dollar. The closed markets and
banking holiday, allowing only very limited withdrawals would see to that.
Third, the group suffering most from a WMD attack would be moderate Arab nations and investors with investments in the United States markets. Under the new Patriot and Homeland Security Acts and recent Presidential Executive Orders, make it very easy for the Treasury to confiscate the
assets of foreign and American investors with US bank and brokerage accounts, any organization, or country that attacks the United States. They get to decide whom the terrorist organizations or nations are and of course
you understand the consequences for every Arab investor and nation with funds in the United States. The wealth of Arab funds held may well be confiscated and used with broad public support in the U.S. for our whatever
purposes decided upon by our government.
So you see, the loss of constitutional guarantees and wealth following a WMD attack are certainly not just an American investor problem. It could bankrupt many foreign investors in the US market both from the long market
closure and the confiscation efforts against Arab nations and investors. Of course, many individuals and groups from Bin Laden to others would benefit from the confiscation of moderate Arab individual and national assets and
this is one reason this threat is so real.
As the recent attack on the HSBC Bank in Istanbul shows, our enemies know the importance of attacking the financial sector, as this is our weakest and most undefended link in the War On Terror. Arabs and American investors
would be wise to quickly diversify their assets outside of Wall Street because when the WMD attack hits, it will be way too late for action and investors will be left to only suffer the consequences of these actions.
There are far too many extremists who would benefit from Washington's reaction to such an attack for American and foreign investors to fail to consider this risk. As George Washington said, "Let us prepare for the worst" and hope it never happens.
The above article was taken from Ron Holland's upcoming internet and print
book - "Preserving Our Legacy: A 21st Century Approach to Wealth
Preservation and Restoring Liberty" Holland is editor of the Swiss Gnomes
news site based in Geneva, Switzerland http://www.swissgnomes.com and he
has developed both US and foreign investment products, been president of a
brokerage firm licensed to do business in 47 states and is a long time
speaker and writer on financial topics and personal liberty. He may be
contacted at [email protected]
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
