Treasury Department Delays Global Policing of American Accounts Throughout the World

The U.S. Treasury Department announced a six-month delay in enforcing the central provisions of FACTA - a system of global policing of Americans' accounts held anywhere in the world:

FATCA requires financial institutions in other countries to provide information to the U.S. government about accounts held by U.S. citizens. Financial institutions in many countries are arranging to share the information through their own governments to avoid violating local privacy laws.

Can you see what's happening here? Maybe this will provide a hint:

International banks and financial institutions also said the U.S. law would force them to cope with significant new complexity and absorb big compliance costs. They've been urging more modifications to the planned system and longer lead times.  

First of all, make no mistake that this regulation (FACTA) is yet another example of your privacy at risk. Of course, the government's view is that they're trying to stem tax evasion by people hiding their money. And, sure enough, that does happen. But the FACTA system demands information from every government about any account held by any American. It does not distinguish in any way between accounts simply held offshore and those which are in some way associated with tax evasion (which is against the law).

But more than this, when I read this, it immediately reminded me of the recent announcement of the delay (one year) of the so-called "Employer Mandate" of Obamacare. It too was delayed because companies were having a hard time dealing with the demands made on them to comply with the mandate. The federal government makes demands and doesn't make it easy to comply with them. Their laws and regulations are extraordinarily complex. But that doesn't stop them.

But more than this, I'm getting the feeling of an enormous net or spider web descending on the world. The laws and regulations of the federal government continue to spread everywhere and there's no place to get away from them. I'm not talking about tax evaders getting away from them here. I'm talking about just regular folks just getting away from their peeping and scrutinizing your every move. Am I getting paranoid here? What do you think?

(Click HERE for the whole Wall Street Journal article.)