Since we wrote the article, 'We're all doomed, the credit crunch panic', in May, everyone has become increasingly obsessed with the credit crunch, which may sound rather unthreatening, like a breakfast cereal, but, if it becomes a recession, could develop into something altogether more serious. There is general consensus within the media that we are now facing a world financial meltdown, with the situation changing daily. US economists and politicians are currently debating whether Washington should acquire the banks' toxic assets for $700bn. In the first instance, Congress turned down the bill to inject $700bn into the banking system, amid popular feeling that this support of the banks was akin to being sued by a burglar who has broken into your home. The need for bank bail-outs has not gone away. Billions of taxpayers' dollars was used to give Wachovia to America's biggest bank, Citigroup. Belgium's largest bank, Fortis, was partly nationalised by the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland. Previously the US government bailed…
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Jon Dixon is the European managing director of OCRA Worldwide, who are sponsors of this newsletter and we caught up with the busy Jon between meetings. What does your company, OCRA Worldwide, do? We establish and manage onshore and offshore companies, trusts and other types of international business structures to meet the specific objectives of our clients, fiscal and otherwise. Broadly, these objectives include corporate re-structuring, wealth protection and tax reduction, international expansion and market entry. Our focus is to understand, assess, design and implement a solution that best fits our clients' specific needs and goals while maximising all available benefits. We can also help you decide under which flag to register a new yacht or aircraft. You obviously market to a very specific client base; how do you reach them? We spend a fortune on pay-per-click. We try to be the top choice in Google for any relevant word search. If you type in 'offshore tax' we want you to be able to find…
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