Should the President of the United States have a Swiss bank account?

OK ... so at least we are clear what we're arguing about. When you say there are obvious tax advantages, I hear you saying that there are differences in marginal rates or threshold values or something. But when you only trot out evasion as advantage, that's like saying "there are obvious tax advantages to not filing a return." You are making a sort of "where there's smoke there's fire" kind of argument, which is fine to make -- I don't buy it -- but at least I can understand it.

 

Apparently, huh?

 

The Swiss government currently will not turn over information to American authorities investigation tax-evasion charges -- only charges involving fraud. Rand Paul is using all of his senatorial muscle to keep this rule in place, and he (and probably other politicians) have been successful so far.

Worth noting that there was a sea change in these rules in 2009 when negotiations began about enhanced cooperation. Could this be why Romney was adamant about only going back two years into his returns?

 

Quite an interesting standard ... If all Americans domiciling all of their money overseas wouldn't be an economic cure-all, then obviously some individuals holding some of their money overseas must, by definition, weaken the economy.

 

So, Ragu, you think Mitt and his wife having all these offshore accounts is good for his campaign?

 

I operate under the world view that storing/domiciling/stashing/keeping money in overseas accounts is a political loser. You can make all the professorial arguments you want about why it makes perfect fiduciary sense, but you'll never be able to convince me it makes good political sense.

 

I don't think it changes anything. Romney's slim path to victory has always been convincing people to vote for him despite him being an upper-crust elitist, not convincing people that he's not one.

 

Ah, well we are in agreement there.

 

I agree. I cannot imagine anyone actually thinking Mitt was a normal guy before this, and this is another example of how he plays at a different level than the rest of us.

 

Having money and being relatable aren't mutually exclusive. YF brought of John Kerry earlier, noting that Dems didn't seem to have a problem with him being relatable. Wasn't that one of Kerry's main problems, in terms of getting elected?

And, worse for Romney's camp and the GOP, Romney doesn't seem to realize he has this issue. How else could he and Ann think their tale of struggling as a young couple in college (read: cashing in stock — gasp!) would elicit empathy?

 

If the only remaining advantage of a Swiss bank account is secrecy, then why bother?

Unless of course you want secrecy.