Record numbers of Americans living abroad are now renouncing their citizenship

The number of Americans giving up their passports has shot up, from less than 1,000 a year in the late 2000s to a record 3,415 in 2014. 

A new spur is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) of 2010, which makes it a lot harder for Americans overseas to get (or keep) bank accounts, pensions and mortgages, because foreign financial firms don’t want the administrative hassles that FATCA throws up. 

The law also increases filing requirements for citizens—and thus stokes fears that honest mistakes will be punished .... http://www.economist.com