The Super-Rich Are Spooked

This weekend, Swiss banking giant UBS AG will hand over the names of 500 suspected American tax dodgers to the Internal Revenue Service, the first of 4,450 names it will turn over as part of an August agreement between the U.S. and Swiss governments. That accord marked a historic breach of Switzerland's cherished bank secrecy, and prodded many Swiss banks to refuse to take American clients for fear of falling foul of U.S. laws.

The focus on tax evasion misses the real point. No one really cares what happens to people who hide fortunes in order to avoid paying taxes. They -- and their bankers -- are criminals and deserve to be treated that way. But tax evasion isn't the only thing Swiss banks make possible; they also provide geographic diversification and privacy. That is, they've historically enabled clients to get wealth beyond the reach of corrupt and rapacious governments. They saved countless European fortunes from the Nazis during World War II, for instance, and to this day enable citizens of unstable countries to protect at least some of their wealth.

But now bank privacy is being systematically eliminated. Capital is being flushed out of hiding so it can be taxed today and, if some future government chooses, confiscated. The anxious rich -- and the rest of us -- are right to be spooked.

The iron fist of government control is closing in on our freedom faster and faster. Sort of reminds me of a passage in the Bible that talks about no man being able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. Total monetary control is a precursor to the beast system that seems to be right around the corner.