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Downgraded France, Austria, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia. And in addition Standard & Poor's has placed the majority of EU countries on credit watch: further downgrades to come. Multiple downgrades signal far more than just ... Read More

The number of Authorized mandatories registered to collect the HNWI applications is 36. Question: How many will be the applications? Make your guess Read More

Hi Ricky, thanks for the infos on the German system. Pensions in Germany are lower, but also the contributions paid by employers and employees in the course of the working life are lower. In Britain I don’t know. French pensions are higher. ... Read More

Ricky, maybe they understood that the new scheme is too much expensive, does not attract the middle class, while the real high net worth people (living on capital revenues, not salaries or pensions) are more attracted by Montecarlo, Andorra, the ... Read More

In Italian we say: Meglio tardi che mai, Better late than never… The IRS website has finally published the List of authorized mandatories and a new Guidance notes document. Meaning, I suppose, that the application process for the HNWI scheme has ... Read More

Duffy, a derivative is a contract between two parties based on the price of the underling asset, for example wheat, or the S&P index. One party bets that the asset will grow in value within a set date and buys the future or the option. The second ... Read More

If it is ingots, gold in a safe deposit (hoping that you will not find the bank doors closed one day). If it is small pieces, hide them in the garden or somewhere. And CASH (perhaps in different currencies), under the mattress (or in a better ... Read More

Yesterday we said we’d like to send the banksters to jail. Today we will say we‘d like to hang them… Here is the latest bomb, more deadly than sovereign bonds or even CDS. It is the daisy-chain rehypothecation played in secret by banks and brokers ... Read More

Ricky, If the payers are first those with debts, and in case of partial or total default those who lent them money, we have already a jolly band together. Add in the countries whose banks are linked to the banks that bought the defaulted ... Read More

“nobody has started being austere” Not exactly. The Greeks have already been crushed and bled white, without solving their problems. And Italians will now start paying more taxes, losing their rights to retirement, having their pensions no more ... Read More

What do you make of the Anschluss? I mean, of the German victory in Brussels? Malta’s ambitions to develop its financial services will be hit by regulations and taxations. And the number of tourists from southern countries will fall, as the German ... Read More

From the Times of Malta, November 21 http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111121/business-news/Maltese-tax-residency-rules-for-foreign-nationals.394758 “The Maltese government has said it is looking at different schemes in addition to the ... Read More

Ricky, I will hopefully come to Malta. When? Ask the Inland Revenue. I wrote one week ago they were ready to open the applications for HNWI, but I was wrong. They need more time to fix some details. Eleven months after they had suspended the old ... Read More

George, I could not find the estimate for Malta. Probably, as you say, the current value of the euro is about right. But tourism is an important source of revenue, and if some Mediterranean countries devalued, Malta would be priced out of the market ... Read More

The external value of the euro is an average based on the strength of the different economies. So the euro is much lower than the D Mark would be and much higher than the Italian or Maltese Lira would be. The consequence is an explosion of the trade ... Read More

From The Telegraph: British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible. Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the ... Read More

Pas très encourageant, mon ami… I see you post a middle Canadian flag. I had fancied moving to Montreal, that I love (plus no income tax to be paid for five years), but, well, too cold, too far away. I agree with you that Malta is dreaming when ... Read More

Ricky, I snooped for info in the net and found that one of the missing pieces, the legal approval of the (expensive) 6,000 application fee, is now there, with a legal notice of November 4th. Funny that on November 20 the info is still nowhere to be ... Read More

Euro, Malta and the Scheme Does anyone know why on earth, eleven months after the old scheme was cancelled, and two months after the new one was announced, the HNWI program is still not open for applications? Was it de facto aborted? Are they ... Read More

Duffydoodle, Austrian economics are taught nowhere, because they forbid all kinds of government interference and manipulation. Politicians love to be seen “doing something” for the electors, even if what they do in the end will bring misery. They ... Read More

I agree with you Duffydoodle, I am an “Austrian”… But each European country HAS a central bank, and all central banks behave the same way, for the same reasons and benefitting the same interests. Henry Ford, the founder of Ford, said: “If people ... Read More

The consequences of a common currency should have been analyzed before launching the euro. If you want the common currency you also need common bonds, a real central bank like the Fed, as a lender of last resort, and you must accept transfers from ... Read More

Yes, they should have found a way to let Greece go, it should have avoided bigger troubles. The EU problem is the difference in productivity and efficiency among member states. Take Greece and Germany. If they have a common currency, equivalent to a ... Read More

In addition: were Germany to leave and revert to the DM, the debts would be repaid not in DM but in deflated euro. And I don't think Germans are ready to "attack" France. Remember that France needs some euro zone and the ECB, that will be asked to ... Read More

My understanding is that Germany is preparing to form a smaller euro area, togheter with France and Northern Europe. If they reverted to the DM, the DM would be the strongest currency in the world, yes, but so high that German exports would ... Read More

You are raising the question of democracy. Probably the Greeks, if allowed to vote, would vote for leaving the euro zone,because the austerity is killing them. Iceland was allowed to vote, choose to default on the debt and is recovering. But now, ... Read More

Where is the new topic? Still I see a link with the HNWI scheme (that, announced in September is still not open for applications, they are waiting for a law on the 6,000 application fee - My God aren't they slow? In the current situation some ... Read More

Some time ago I asked: What if Southern Europe leaves the Euro Zone? The question seemed far fetched. Well, here are some lines from a Reuters dispatch: German and French officials have discussed plans for a radical overhaul of the European Union ... Read More

I stumbled on these figures for the Irish real estate bubble. Ireland, with a population of 4.5 million, built an excess of 300,000 homes. The bubble poppped a few years ago and now property prices are down 65%. For Malta, with a population of less ... Read More

Yes, that was the answer from MFEI. They don't know when legislation and list will be published. Yes, the Act was backdated, and its provisions corresponded with those in the Guidance doc published earlier on the IRS website, but later the Guidance ... Read More

Coming back to our topic. The HNWI is not yet launched. The process of applications is not yet open, as they wait "for the legislation as well as the list of authorized mandatories to be published", I was told. How longer it will take, does anyone ... Read More

Oh, I forgot these fresh data from the Bank of International Settlement: just four big US banks have a totale exposure to the murky over the counter derivatives at around 235 trillion $. And - here is the fun part - their totale assets are a little ... Read More

Interesting discussion. Add that the European mess is not an island of disaster in a happy world. Japan is in a much worse shape, will go down in this decade, and you can imagine the tsunami reaching our shores. America is not really stronger, and ... Read More

They have to give some more billions to Greece, otherwise a lot of European banks would get a bloody nose, and if the next step is Italy or Spain the banks would spit their teeth. They own a large part of European debts. French banks are first in ... Read More

Ricky wrote: we might see other countries leave the S.E. area and I think Italy will be in the same currency area as Malta if this happens! Yes, that is exactly what I said. And in case we go back to local currencies, devalued, or we are in a South ... Read More

Thanks a lot Ricky. I had printed the IRS Guidelines doc in mid September and now realize it has been corrected with the provision that at application stage it is no longer required to have already acquired or rented property. That makes ... Read More

George, I do not mean that Malta is in bad shape, but I can tell you that other countries are. And if Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain (and Belgium?) were forced to leave the euro it would be difficult for Malta to be the only spot with a strong ... Read More

I come back to my first point. The Act says the property bought or rented, before applying, must be the place where “the individual habitually resides in as his principal place of abode”. According to the Act this individual "should not already be ... Read More

Tank you Georgeingozo. Was it also possible for renting? Another point: all minimum tresholds, for taxes etc. are labelled in euro. Fine today. But if the southern countries leave the euro and devalue (probably at least a 40% devaluation), and ... Read More

Thank you for the info Point 4 of the Law says that the applicant must hold "a qualifying property holding". So before applying one must buy a house. And if the application is rejected? One will be stuck with the property? It seems wrong. Any idea? Read More

Is the new scheme already launched and open for applications, or it must be discussed and approved by Parliament? Read More

Is the High Net Worth thing already in effect, as it is presented on the IRS website, or for the time being it is simply a government plan to be discussed and approved in Parliament? My good sources say that subsidiary legislation is being prepared ... Read More

Friends in Malta informed me of the September date. Ricky you wrote: The draft is already known. Is it? I mean with all the conditions for the different categories? It does not seem so Ren Read More

I halso heard the date of September 15. I understand that the draft will be presented, to later be discussed and approved in Parliament Ren Read More