From: Phil Fraering        <pgf@tyrell.net>
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 95 18:33:39 PDT
To: enzo@ima.com
Subject: Zimmermann legal fund
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.950731115906.7803A-100000@ima.net>
Message-ID: <199508010129.AA00881@tyrell.net>
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   Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 12:12:16 +0800 (HKT)
   From: Enzo Michelangeli <enzo@ima.com>

   How could it be worse than with the U.S. of A.?? ;-)

OK... think about Venezuela. It has bad inflation. It has laws against
converting local currency to US dollars on the black market, which is
basically defined as any agency/person/corporate entity exchanging at
a worse rate than the government rate (at least in Venezuela itself;
you can pay your foreign creditors in Bolivars and exchange them on
the open market for twice the official exchange rate); all
government-rate currency transactions must go through a special
currency review board that checks to see if you _really_ need to
exchange currency. It is illegal to bribe this board and impossible to
get a request acknowledged inside a year without bribery (if it isn't
denied because you didn't bribe the members of the board).

Of course, one day the U.S. may be this bad.

Phil