Monday, September 17, 2012

The International Super Rich are Migrating as never before

I was rereading an article about 1million plus dollar homes being in short supply in Silicon Valley and found this article through a word button there. It demonstrates how the super rich are migrating as never before to places of safety worldwide. Some of their choices are places like Switzerland, the U.S., Canada and other places where they might withstand whatever is coming from the weather and from overpopulation and from threats to their families and to their wealth. Though this article was originally written in May I believe it is still relevant in fact more so today because of unrest in the world and because of increasing levels of starvation in so many countries which tends to destabilize governments.
The Mass Migration of the Super-Rich)

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The Mass Migration of the Super-Rich

Published: Tuesday, 29 May 2012 | 11:32 AM ET
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By: Robert Frank
CNBC Reporter & Editor



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Switzerland
Cosmo Condina | The Image Bank | Getty Images
Switzerland is among the countries receiving an influx of high-net-worth individuals.
The global rich are on the move.
Whether it’s wealthy French or Americans fleeing the prospect of higher taxes or wealthy Russians and Chinese trying to escape political uncertainty, millionaires and billionaires around the world are migrating like never before, according to government statistics and relocation experts.

“There is a sudden awakening among the wealthy that they’re no longer bound to a certain country,” said David Lesperance, a Toronto-based attorney who specializes in relocating the rich. “After the recession and other recent events, they realize they need to get themselves in better fiscal shape. For the wealthy, the idea of moving has changed from something that’s interesting or exotic to something they feel they really need to do.”
The number of Americans seeking to renounce their citizenship surged to more than 1,700 last year, more than twice the rate of 2009, according to U.S. Treasury data compiled by Andrew Mitchel, the international tax attorney. Among them was Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook[FB  21.64    -0.36  (-1.64%)   ] billionaire who famously moved to Singapore before giving up his citizenship late last year. This year, 460 people expatriated in the first quarter alone.
Robert Frank
Robert FrankCNBC Reporter
& Editor
In France, the wealthy are eying Switzerland, Britain and Singapore as possible escapes from President Francois Hollande’s proposed 75 percent tax on income exceeding 1 million euros. Switzerland had 5,445 people in the forfait system – which allows foreigners to immigrate through a special tax treatment -- at the end of 2010; more than 33 percent of those are French, according to a Bloomberg report.
Some rich French are also seeking to leave what they perceive as a growing hostility toward the rich in France.
Meanwhile, the newly rich people in several emerging markets – Russia, China or Brazil – are looking to come to better protect their wealth or families. The combination of slowing growth, political uncertainty and volatile markets at home has lured some of the newly rich around the world to move to Britain or the United States.
Wealthy Russians are moving to London is such large numbers that local commentators have coined the term “Londongrad.”  Roman Abramovich, the Russian multi-billionaire who owns the Chelsea Football Club is the highest-profile rich Russian in Britain, but he is only one of ten Russian billionaires living there, while an estimated 1,000 Russian millionaires now call London home. 
Attorneys and real-estate agents in London who deal with the Russian rich say their clients are attracted to the stability and refined culture of London, as well as the relative safety. After the tumultuous presidential elections last year, wealthy Russians are increasingly nervous about the country’s political stability and their own fortunes, experts say.
Meanwhile, Chinese millionaires and billionaires are flocking to the United States in record numbers. More than two thousand Chinese citizens sought to immigrate to the United States in 2011 through the so-called “investor visa.” That’s more than twice the number in 2010. The program allows foreigners and their families to receive permanent U.S. residency for an investment of $500,000 or more (or in some cases $1 million or more) that also creates a minimum number of jobs.
The impacts of all these new migratory patterns of the wealthy are still emerging. Some economists and sociologists say the rootlessness of the new rich could further tear the fabric of countries and communities, since the wealthy won’t be as grounded in local charities, workers or businesses. It could also lead to an arms race in tax policy, with locales like Singapore and St. Kitts offering generous income-tax and capital-gains rates to attract wealthy spenders and taxpayers.
Yet others say the rich are simply following the new rule of capital – money will move where it’s treated best. Technology has allowed the rich to run their businesses and investments from anywhere in the world. And while taxes play a role in the decision, relocation experts say culture, education and climate also play roles among the rich. He said some of the U.S. rich are looking to Britain and Switzerland as well as other larger countries in Europe that don’t necessarily have the lowest tax rates.
“It’s not just about taxes,” Mr. Lesperance said. “They’re not necessarily moving to small islands anymore. They want to go where they can replicate their lifestyle, run their businesses, educate their children and eat at great restaurants and enjoy the culture. They don’t want to be on an island where you say, “Well, we’ve eaten at the same three restaurants already. Now where do we go?’

end quote from:
The Mass Migration of the Super-Rich)

Also, the article that I found this embeded in that I quoted earlier this year is here:
Silicon Valley's Boom Creates Shortage of $1 Milli...

Since these times right now we are living in remind me of studying about the late 1930s more than any other time in U.S. and world History I think the middle east, Oil and the world are really in for it on multiple levels. And the migration of the super rich to places of apparent safety is only one of many indicators for the times the world is presently trying to survive.

Possibly along with this realizing that oil (at any price) might be in short supply soon if Saudi Arabia and Iran have at it in a war or if Israel attacks nuclear facilities in Iran in concert with Saudi Arabia since they both have a vested interest in eliminating Iran as a threat to their countries continued existence. So, alternative energies like wind, solar and wave as well as geothermal might become absolutely priceless (beyond any previously conceived value) for those who have them in place in the future. So, alternative energies likely will become not just useful but absolutely necessary during oil shortages where prices of anything made of oil doubles and triples for short or long periods of time during the next 25 years until all the oil of the earth has been used up within 25 years. It is difficult to know at this point what will happen after all oil (at any price is exhausted from the earth at that point).





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