By Doug Casey in Conversations With Casey:

…The first tax haven rule is to never go to a place that's obviously a tax haven. If I were interested in bank privacy, I'd forget about places like the Bahamas or the Caymans. It makes no sense at all today. All those little island republics are totally under the thumb of the U.S. at this point. And they've always been infiltrated with stooges. They may have bank secrecy laws, but they don't have a tradition of privacy like Switzerland has – although that's no longer what it was.

Instead, I would recommend places that are geographically distant from the U.S. – and culturally distant as well. To me, the best places to be are in the Orient. That's partially because the Chinese, and other oriental civilizations, are much less prone to roll over and do what they are told. National pride assures that, if nothing else. But if you go this route, with, say, an account in Hong Kong, you certainly would not want to use a bank like HSBC. It's got branches all over the world, prominently in the U.S. – so, like UBS, they'll do what they are told.

Actually, there are still Swiss banks that will open an account for a "U.S. person," if you can convince them to do it. But you definitely do not want a Swiss or Liechtenstein bank that has any presence in the U.S. The same would be true in the Orient – so forget about HSBC. You want a real Chinese bank. That way, when the U.S. government calls, the phone will be answered in Chinese and no one will speak English with them.

The best places are the least obvious places. Malaysia is…

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