A month ago I anticipated that G-20 meeting held in Washington last weekend would certainly do no favors when it came to offshore tax havens.

In spite of outgoing President George Bush’s call for mainly free market solutions to meet the global economic crisis, the majority of the national leaders present were of the socialist persuasion, almost all of them representing high tax welfare states where government intervention and control are an established way of political life.

For a decade or more high among these leftists’ goals has been the abolition of tax havens worldwide, an end to all financial privacy, automatic exchange of tax information among all national tax collectors, nullification of bank secrecy laws, and public records of all hitherto private beneficial ownership of trusts, foundations and corporations.

The left’s excuse for this relentless rape of personal privacy and individual liberty used to be the anti-drug war, then terrorism, now it’s the global financial crisis. Their true goal, rarely admitted, is more and enforced tax collection.

Any Excuse Will Do

Just as the 9-11, 2001 terrorists attacks were used to justify rushing through Congress the unconstitutional PATRIOT Act, this "summit" meeting repeated the stock anti-tax haven rhetoric as justification for their radical demands, stuff we’ve heard for a decade or more.

And there’s more to come; a follow-up meeting has been scheduled for April 30, 2009.

Leading this radical, anti-free market, left-liberal agenda has been socialists politicians of welfare states like France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — and, it would seem, the president-elect of the United States, Barack Obama, is right in tune with this pack.

For those who believe in financial freedom there is an unhappy convergence of anti-tax haven views between the G-20 statement and the expressed position of the president-elect.

The Anti-Tax Haven Act sponsored in 2007 by then Senator Barack Obama, if it becomes law, will allow Obama’s new Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to issue rules that could restrict the now free offshore activity of American banks and individual Americans. With the socialist "spread-the-wealth" Democrats in power, the offshore financial activity of U.S. banks and U.S. citizens could be seriously curtailed. Indeed, selective currency controls are a possibility.

Same Old Same Old

The final G-20 conference communiqué mouthed the same old anti-tax haven script, to wit:

* "We will also promote information sharing, including with respect to jurisdictions that have yet to commit to international standards with respect to bank secrecy and transparency.

* “National and regional authorities should implement national and international measures that protect the global financial system from uncooperative and non-transparent jurisdictions that pose risks of illicit financial activity.

* “Tax authorities, drawing upon the work of relevant bodies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), should continue efforts to promote tax information exchange. Lack of transparency and a failure to exchange tax information should be vigorously addressed.”

Sovereign Roadblocks

The Economist magazine, however, realistically pointed out that a major block to the G-20’s lofty ambitions is national sovereignty.

Says the magazine: "International finance cannot just be ‘fixed’, because the system is a tug-of-war between the global capital markets and national sovereignty. As cross-border financial flows have expanded and big financial institutions have far outgrown their domestic markets, finance has become one of the most globalized parts of the world economy…Governments broadly welcome the benefits of global finance, yet they are not prepared to set up either a global financial regulator, which would interfere deep inside their markets, or a global lender of last resort."

One can only hope that estimate is correct. But the left will not stop trying. Remember that these folks were backers of the grandiose proposal to make the United Nations a global tax collector.

The Real Threat

The Economist rightly suggests: "The contradictory desires for national sovereignty and global capital markets limit the room for an overhaul. For all the grand rhetoric, no politician is proposing to cede sovereignty to a global regulator."

The greatest threat to Americans continued free participation in offshore banking, investment, currency and precious metals trading is not the G-20. Rather, it is the new occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW and his radical left-wing buddies on Capitol Hill.

* While you can there still are many legal ways to bank and save taxes offshore; I tell you Where To Stash Your Cash: Click Here.  And if you’re interested in Switzerland, Click here for Swiss Money Secrets.