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Strategies & Market Trends : Strictly: Drilling II -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Shread who wrote (4186)	11/19/2001 12:10:39 PM
From: isopatch	Respond to of 36161

Paul. It gets even better. Wait til you hear this!<G> Some of very important re-insurers are US companies. But In recent years, several were bought by foreign holding companies. Long standing giant, Americian Reinsurance is just one example. It was acquired by Munich Re, HQed in Germany. So in a Titanic multi-layered system of gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, spin and book cooking that would turn even Rube Goldberg green with envy, here is essentially what we have. 1. Am Re's IS the actual source of funds paid out to cover US damage claims. BUT because the bookkeeping is done in Bavaria the US gov can cook the trade figures that it's a foreign insurer.<g> 2. Then cometh the proctologist!!<lol>. US taxpayers bail Munich Re out of 90% plus of any loses due to terrorist attacks now AND in the future! Yup. I'm not kidding. Here's the story from the American Re website, no less: <U.S. House sets up action on insurance aid effort By Andrew Clark WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - House of Representatives leaders said on Friday they had settled most of their differences over legislation to aid insurers hit hard by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and now expected to clear it soon after returning from next week's congressional recess. Progress in the House may in turn put pressure on the Senate, where a companion effort has been stalled for weeks. "This bill will be on the floor when we get back," House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas told a news conference. "We will have this legislation completed, it will be passed into law and that will not take long." U.S. insurers say they can pay the $40 billion in expected claims from the Sept. 11 attacks, but cannot support repeated losses of that magnitude, particularly as reinsurance companies are expected to cancel commercial terrorism-risk coverage from Jan. 1 -- when most such contracts come up for renewal. U.S. policymakers have warned that the specter of most businesses losing terrorism insurance coverage at the end of the year poses a serious threat to the economy and have urged Congress to act quickly to defuse it before it adjourns. "This must be enacted into law. It is imperative," said New York Rep John LaFalce, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. "We will produce a bill." The committee on Nov. 7 approved a bill that would have provided tax breaks and temporary, direct government assistance to insurers to ensure the availability of terrorism coverage. The tax changes, however, drew objections from the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. TAX DISPUTE In a deal to resolve those, the Ways and Means Committee on Friday struck the provisions from the bill and provided for the Treasury to instead study the question and report back to Congress by early next year. "We will almost certainly have to revisit this whole insurance issue next year anyway," said Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, an Ohio Republican. As currently written, the House bill would require the insurance industry to bear at least the first $1 billion in claims from a terrorist act, with the government absorbing 90 percent of losses above that figure. Insurers would have to repay over time any government aid up to $20 billion. Smaller insurers could get government loans if total claims exceeded $100 million and their own share of those losses exceeded a set percentage of their capital or premiums. The plan would last for a year, with an option for two more. Republicans and Democrats continue to differ over some specifics of the plan, LaFalce said, most notably whether it should include controversial curbs on punitive damages suits, but expect to resolve those on the House floor. In the Senate, the Banking Committee two weeks ago unveiled a bipartisan plan to require insurers to pay the first $10 billion in claims from any future terrorist attack -- with the government picking up 90 percent of losses above that figure. But despite winning Bush administration support, that bill has stalled over the damages issue. In a further complication, the Senate Commerce Committee has also claimed jurisdiction and is drafting its own competing aid plan.> amre.com AND.... 3. How much US tax do you think Munich Re will pay on the biz they've done through American Re here?<lol> The tax provisions above are aren't even necessary. The reason is simple. One of the best know ways for Foreign multi-national firms to legally steal money is to buy large US firms and hoodwink the IRS. It's easy. The Japanese companies blazed the trail back in the 70s and 80s buying large US firms when the $ was weal then stiffing Uncle Sam every year for taxes owed with cooked books. For those of you who've been around long enough to remember it? Became one of the worlds best known scams and made a laughing stock out of the IRS and the US Gov. abroad. Naturally our media said little about it. Gotta keep voter in the dark, don't ya know. So even with the $ much stronger into the 90s, companies like Munich Re, Zurich Insurance and foreign firms in other industries buy US corps learned it's worth it to pay up for quality US outfits because you can quickly recover costs via easy tax evasion. So....? WE, my friends, Americans are actually paying the bill for all this THREE TIMES . 1st, American Re collected all the premiums from the US business paying them. 2nd, Congress taps your taxes and mine to pay a 2nd time per the above article from the American Re website. And we pay the 3rd time to cover for Munchkin Re paying dodging the US taxes they and other foreign companies should be paying but the IRS can't or the politically corrects US State Dept won't let them take more aggressive action to collect. BUT as you pointed out Paul. Poof! That's all swept under the rug. Instead it magically becomes.... A CREDIT......that massively reduces our trade deficit. <roflmao> Isopatch