Rather than deal with the complexities of U.S. tax law, Americans living overseas are increasingly renouncing their citizenship in order to avoid paying their income taxes.

According to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson, approximately 4,000 people gave up their citizenship from fiscal year 2005 to FY 2010. Renunciations increased sharply within the past three years, from 146 in FY 2008 to 1,534 in FY 2010. And during the first two quarters of FY 2011 alone, 1,024 Americans ditched their citizenship.

The advocate's report cites two reasons for the renunciations. First, many taxpayers abroad say they are confused “by the complex legal and reporting requirements they face and are overwhelmed by the prospect of having to comply with them.”

This story was posted over a the allgov.com website on Tuesday...and I thank reader Scott Pluschau for sending it along. The link is here.

The Federal Reserve, declaring that the economy would need help for years to come, said Wednesday it would extend by 18 months the period that it plans to hold down interest rates in an effort to spur growth.

The Fed said that it now planned to keep short-term interest rates near zero until late 2014, continuing the transformation of a policy that began as shock therapy in the winter of 2008 into a six-year campaign to increase spending by rewarding borrowers and punishing savers.

It's my guess, dear reader, that we'll never have high interest rates again. We are at permanently low rates until the world's financial and monetary system breaths its last, as the world's sovereign debt can only get bigger. You can never borrow your way out of debt nor spend your way to prosperity.

This story was in The New York Times yesterday...and is Roy Stephens first offering of the day. The link is here.

“The U.S. economic and systemic-solvency crises of the last five years continue to deteriorate. Yet they remain just the precursors to the coming Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression. The unfolding circumstance will encompass a complete loss in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar; a collapse in the normal stream of U.S. commercial and economic activity; a collapse in the U.S. financial system, as we know it; and a likely realignment of the U.S. political environment.”

Here's a King World News blog that Eric sent me last night. I haven't posted anything from John Williams for a while...and this is probably worth the read. The link is here.

Japan's first annual trade deficit in more than 30 years calls into question how much longer the country can rely on exports to help finance a huge public debt without having to turn to fickle foreign investors.

The aftermath of the March earthquake raised fuel import costs while slowing global growth and the yen's strength hit exports, data released on Wednesday showed, swinging the 2011 trade balance into deficit.

Few analysts expect Japan to immediately run a deficit in the current account, which includes trade and returns on the country's huge portfolio of investments abroad. A steady inflow of profits and capital gains from overseas still outweighs the trade deficit.

But the trade figures underscore a broader trend of Japan's declining global competitive edge and a rapidly ageing population, compounding the immediate problem of increased reliance on fuel imports due to the loss of nuclear power.

I borrowed this short must read Reuters piece from yesterday's edition of the King Report...and the link is here.

The European Union’s embargo on Iranian oil threatens to accelerate refinery closures in Europe, the head of Italy’s refiners’ lobby said.

“Asian countries not applying the embargo could buy the Iranian oil at a discount and sell cheap refined products back to us,” Piero De Simone, general manager of Unione Petrolifera, said in an interview in Rome . “Italy already risks the closure of five refineries and at a European level we’re talking about 70 possible shut downs.”

This story showed up in the Tehran Times yesterday...and is Roy Stephens second offering of the day. The link is here.

"The measures introduced by the European Central Bank ... have relieved the liquidity problems of European banks but they did not cure the financing disadvantage from which the highly indebted member states suffer.

"Half a solution is not enough. It leaves the weaker members of the eurozone relegated to the status of third world countries that become highly indebted in a foreign currency," he added.

Germany he said was now acting as the "taskmaster", instead of the IMF, imposing tough fiscal discipline.

This story appeared in The Telegraph yesterday afternoon...and it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.

Austria's finance minister Maria Fekter said patience with Athens is exhausted. "Greece has failed its austerity targets by a wide margin. The Greeks have made decisions, but they weren't implemented. They have agreed to austerity measures, but costs haven't come down. This situation has caused great consternation," she said at a meeting of EU finance minister in Brussels.

"We're sending a direct message to Greece that the community expects more. We're not pleased and only when there's a written message on the table in front of us, can further assistance be discussed," she said.

The head of the European Commission's economics team Mario Buti said Brussels is prepared to allow credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek bonds to come into play if talks fail to reach a deal that gives Greece enough debt relief to claw its way back to viability. "Triggering CDS may have to be considered," he said.

The comment is a clear warning to private creditors holding €206bn (£172bn) of Greek debt that the EU will not step in with fresh money to prevent a default on March 20, when Greece must make a €14.5bn debt payment.

This Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering was filed late Tuesday night in The Telegraph. I thank Roy Stephens once again...and the link to this very interesting story is here.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defied calls for a radical shift in strategy to lift Europe out of crisis but is increasingly isolated as the International Monetary Fund and key global bodies join ranks to force her hand.

Mrs. Merkel said it was folly to think that a deep problem built up over many years could be solved "at one fell swoop" and dismissed talk of doubling or tripling of the EU bail-out fund as senseless chatter.

"I ask myself, how long would that remain credible? What we don't want is a situation where we promise something we can't back up, because if markets then attack hard, Europe's flank really will be exposed," she told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

She warned that Germany itself is nearing the limits of what it can bear as its public debt reaches 82pc of GDP. "We Germans have to be careful and not end up exhausting our strength, because we don't have unlimited resources either."

Here's another Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering...and this one was posted just before midnight in The Telegraph last night. I thank Roy once again for sharing this story with us...and the link is here.

Yesterday's Conversations With Casey took up the entire contents of Casey's Daily Dispatch yesterday. Louis James and Doug go at it...and it's today's absolute must read. So if you read nothing else in today's column...this would be it. It's a little on the long side, but worth every minute of your time...and the link is here.

This King World News blog was posted on Eric's website yesterday...and it's well worth your time if you have it...and the link is here.

While the use of gold as currency may help India get around the proposed freeze on Iranian central bank's assets and the oil embargo that the EU foreign ministers have agreed to impose on Monday, any outflow of sovereign gold will not go undetected, bringing in the political consequences of flouting the West-imposed embargo.

Keeping the Iran crude oil tap running is crucial for India, which depends on imports to meet around 80% of its oil requirements. Iranian crude accounts for a 12% share in India's total oil imports and any threat to this would have grave implications for the Indian economy.

Officials said another option that the government was looking at was to pay with the Indian currency. (India has had a rupee-rouble agreement with Russia.) According to the mechanism discussed with Iran, the exports and imports will be netted out and India will pay in rupees through Uco Bank. India is a net importer due to crude from Iran.

This story was posted on The Times of India website early this morning...and I borrowed it from a GATA release. It's certainly worth the read...and the link is here.

In an essay in The Wall Street Journal on December 6th, Warsh wrote that "policy makers are finding it tempting to pursue 'financial repression' -- suppressing market prices that they don't like."

Warsh said last week he planned to elaborate on "financial repression" in his remarks at Stanford and GATA has urged him to identify which policy makers and which markets are involved, to explain whether he learned about this "financial repression" through his service at the Federal Reserve, and to say whether the public and the markets have the right to know exactly how "financial repression" is being targeted.

Video of this Thursday's address at the Stanford University Institute for Economic Policy Research by former Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Kevin M. Warsh, who lately has complained about "financial repression" -- government intervention against free markets -- is expected to be broadcast live at 8 p.m. Eastern time at Stanford's Internet site.

If you don't remember to listen to it this evening, I'm sure that Chris Powell will post it in a GATA release later on Thursday evening...and it will be in my Friday column. The link to this particular GATA release is here.

Gold provided the best returns of all commodities in the past five years when adjusted for volatility, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the rally will continue as options traders signal no change in the metal's relatively low risk.

The Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking shows the Standard & Poor's GSCI Gold Total Return Index produced a 6.5 percent risk-adjusted return in the five years ended yesterday, the highest among 24 commodities tracked by S&P, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Silver, the next-best performer, yielded a risk-adjusted gain of 3.1 percent, while a total-return index for all raw materials slipped 0.2 percent.

Bullion, which has seen 11 years of gains as investors sought a haven amid two bear markets in stocks and a sovereign debt crisis, also posted the safest return in the past 12 months, even as it fell from a record high to a five-month low in the second half of last year and gold investors led by John Paulson suffered losses. Goldman Sachs forecasts that gold will reach a record this year, and a gauge of future price swings is near a five-month low.

I plucked this Bloomberg piece from another GATA release yesterday...and the link is here.

As gold and silver spring to life again, King World News gets Sprott Asset Management CEO Eric Sprott to comment on powerful Chinese buying of gold, the Federal Reserve's dedication to free money, and the details of the latest bid of the Sprott silver fund (PSLV) for nearly $350 million in metal.

I borrowed the above introductory title from a GATA release yesterday afternoon...and the link to the must read KWN blog, is here.