Considering Expatriation out of US ? Beware ..

All immigrants to US are familiar with the agony and uncertainty one's family goes through the long drawn process of naturalization to becoming a LPR (Legal Permanent Resident) and finally to become a Citizen. (click on the image to the right)

Of course, finally when one does become a US citizen - it does seem like you reached goal and things finally settle down.

However, in the back of minds, every such first generation immigrant keeps an eye open to the "Plan B & C" of going back to the home country or else where some day once again to start this all over.

And, it never seemed that it could cause any problems in US to expatriate whenever you wanted. But not so easy any more ..Uncle Sam has put certain new checks to this process of 'expatriation' as well.. so exiting a maze is as difficult as entering it.

On June 17, 2008 a new 'exit tax' law was silently signed into force by former president George Bush, which makes expatriating from US a rather expensive step. The newly passed expatriation legislation imposes a "mark to market" tax on all worldwide assets owned by the "covered expatriate" on the day before expatriation occurs. Under this tax regime, all property is deemed sold on the day before expatriation and total net gains in excess of $600,000 are includable in income and taxed.

So who is considered an expatriate ?

By definition, "covered expatriates" can be either U.S. citizens or green card holders who decide to expatriate and who either had an average annual net income for the five years prior to expatriation greater than $139,000, which will be adjusted for inflation, or a net worth of a least $2 million on the actual date of expatriation.

Green card holders are also considered "covered expatriates" if they have had permanent resident status for at least eight of the 15 years prior to the expatriation, including the year of expatriation.

Related Links :

• Exit Tax for U.S. Expatriates to Become Law ; PWC Link ;
• The flight option in the "fight or flight" decision ;
• Immigration_reverse_brain_drain

Get rid of that mouse and keyboard, finally !

Check this out .. future of Human - Technology interaction

Outcome of research work being done at MIT Media Lab led by Pranav Mistry, a Ph.D student, and one of the winners of this year's prestigious "Young Innovators Under 35 award".

Called SixthSense project, it aims to seamlessly integrate digital information with our everyday physical world, and get rid of the clunky interfaces like mouse, keyboad, screens that exist today.
Here's the Trivia bit : Remember seeing this concept some where else before ? ( hint).

This idea of making a gesture-controlled interface is similar to what was in the Spielberg's famous 2002 movie .

So next time your kid wants to watch a sci-fi flick don't stop .... as you never know, that might inspire the next coolest invention. Till then I will keep clicking on this keyboard..

Related Links
Sixth Sense Project MIT Media Lab 2009's Young Innovator award Winners India Today

Hood to Coast

Another milestone in my running career : Last weekend Aug28-29th, ran "Hood to coast 2009", the mother of all relay races. 197 miles of pure joy or pain however you want to put it. I had the privilege to run on behalf of my adidas corporate group as part of team of 12 runners.


We had a decent finish #20 out of 120 corporate teams with a race time of 25 hrs:39 min:11sec, and I did set my personal best record covering a distance of 14.74 miles. I ran my legs at 8PM (7+mile), 3AM (4mi), next day 11AM (4mi) all with nothing but 2 hrs of sleep during the 28 hrs we were moving from one point to another in van stuffed with six team members.

When we started at Timberline lodge, on top of the Mt.Hood , the oregon's tallest peak, it was a wonderful weather and beautiful scenary. My first race leg was 7.2 miles of knee breaking downhill descent from 1600 ft on Mt.Hood highway 26, then followed by next leg at 3AM on Hwy 30 to St.Helens. That was the creepy portion of run, you couldn't see more than few feet ahead in pitch black darkness. All I can hear are my own foot steps hitting the road, deafening silence, faraway other runner's head lamps.. and your mind start to play games with you. What those piercing eyes looking at you from forest could be ? wolves, coyotes, bears, or blood sucking vampires? what ever it was, ran like hell ! Then we managed to catch two hrs of sleep before we hit the road again for the final run in up hills leading to Astoria. In the end when we were done with all legs, stepped into the freezing ocean waters at Seaside to soak those tired legs, it was heaven !! Ofcourse the beach party and some real food at adidas tent.. worth it all.

It was painful - but hey, no gain without pain right !! I am able to check off one items on my list of "100 things to do before I die". For more about this legendary race, view this video. A total of 49 states and 36 countries are represented this year on Hood to Coast teams.

Apart from self-discovery, this run has been a mainly a part of my “Run for India” campaign to raise funds for my favorite charity, and hope that every step I take ultimately makes a difference to someone’s life in the world elsewhere. 

Economic crisis, and a crisis for economics

Thought provoking article in Telegraph UK, on how the field of economics seems to be in the middle of a crisis of its own.

Excerpts from this : "Following its failure to fix the current mess, economics has tumbled into a full-blown existential crisis...

...late last year, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chief and high priest of capitalism, was forced to admit in a Congressional hearing that he had "found a flaw" in the foundations of his economic understanding...

...The problem, said the experts, was a "failure of the collective imagination of many bright people" (by which they presumably meant themselves)...

...Despite this ineptitude, it is going much too far to conclude that economists are good for nothing. The primary purpose of what its practitioners call "the dismal science" has never been to predict the future. But somehow, this was the idea some in the trade propounded, and the rest of us were taken in....

...But in a strange way, the by-product of this financial collapse has been to free economics of this burden. In the corridors of the Bank of England and Treasury, there is a distinct whiff of excitement. For the first time in decades, economists have been able to throw away their textbooks and go back to first principles; to exhume once-sacrilegious figures such as John Maynard Keynes or Friedrich Hayek. It is unsettling, no doubt, but this is a fertile moment, an opportunity from which may be born a better model of how to run an economy. "

That's a century old ecomomist's debate on the Keynesian thought of govt intervention in markets vs. capitalism's free market theory (Hey.. I wrote a paper on this in my business school ! and do think it was fun reading and writing about the different theories) . But theories are what they are, and reality doesn't fit any one particular theory - though you can draw parallels and conclusions of the best fit model for a given time.

The root cause of what happened and still happening can be attributed to the slippery slope we are on with respect to :
> Greed & Conspicuous consumption,
> Lowering moral values & Integrity
> Missing accountability and lack of common sense
> Finally, the lack of courage to standup and do what we think is intuitively right for "collective we", rather than following the diluted dose of truth that will satisfy "selfish me".

These are traits not influenced by economists or economic theories, but are side-effects of the perilious path we have chosen as collective humanity while in aggressive pursuit of self-interests.

This crisis shows the nature's power of self-correction in an effort to bring things back to equilibrium.. may be here I am migrating from economics into realm of thermodynamics or even better philosophy, so time to say Adios..

My Run for India

Finished my first half-marathon on July 4th of this year at Sauvie Island, Oregon.