[TacticalCoder]

> Second, it had the effect of ruining the lives of ordinary Americans living abroad who, while by no means wealthy, were working middle class. People like myself had our bank accounts closed...

Yup. Many banks in the EU simply said: "Screw that, we're not complying. We just kick all the US citizens out and close their account and refuse to ever deal with any US citizen now". I've had several bankers at different banks tell me the same. Now none of them told me they were consider these accounts as belonging to tax evaders: it's just that the complexity of complying was crazy.

You see the same on some website: some sites in the US simply don't want to bother complying with EU laws, so they just give the fingers to anyone coming to the site from an IP address in the EU.

That's the thing: a state or supranational entity like the EU can come up with any law it wants, private companies in other states aren't forced to comply. They can just give the middle finger and say: "if that's how you want to play it, then your citizens are out".