USA Patriot Act

Yeah, that was the Act that ensured the New England Patriots would win every Super Bowl from that year forward. Eh, okay…maybe it only seems that way. Brady still gets his mail at the Super Bowl.

So…the Patriot Act. What is it, and how does it affect our lives?

Let’s start by setting the stage. September 11, 2001. Planes piloted by al-Qaeda hijackers fly into the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Mass devastation. Thousands of lives lost. Panic. Heart-rending sadness. Anger. Fear that it would happen again. That next time, it would get us, or our loved ones.

Enter the Patriot Act, created by the U.S. government to deter terrorist activity and funding. And, believe it or not, “USA PATRIOT” is actually an acronym: “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” Kind of rolls off the tongue. As long as, uh...you’ve first basted your tongue with coconut oil. But yeah, that was the idea: to make it as inconvenient and difficult as possible for anyone with ill intent to harm our country.

Sounds like a noble and worthy bit of legislation. And yet the Act has met its fair share of resistance. Why? Well, some people feel like it gives Uncle Sam a little bit too much permission to go, uh…wiretapping their bathrooms, or rooting through their sock drawers, or taking whatever steps deemed necessary, whenever suspicion has been aroused.

The idea of the Act is that Americans should be willing to sacrifice some of their rights to privacy and due process for the sake of the nation’s safety. Civil rights tradeoff. Because yeah, we in this country are big on our free speech and privacy, and those things are great, and are a huge part of our national identity...but should they come at the cost of would-be terrorists having the freedom to train and purchase supplies right under our noses? Shouldn’t our government be able to step in and investigate, without warrant if the circumstances call for it, in a situation where the likelihood of illicit activity is high? Where does that line get drawn?

So yeah, the Act has not been universally popular. But it’s also tough to say it hasn’t been effective, since we haven’t had any 9/11-esque episodes on U.S. soil since 2001.

So what are we doing talking about this act in a finance glossary? Well, direct your attention to Title 3 of the Act: the International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act. This is the part that requires banks to report suspected money-laundering activities, and to create tougher rules to prevent money laundering in the first place. It also makes it tougher to do some types of banking between U.S. banks and financial institutions around the world.

So yeah, the world of finance got rocked a bit in the wake of 9/11 as well, although not as badly as the Buffalo Bills did last Sunday. Man, those Pats are tough to beat.