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I vividly remember having a conversation several years ago with a woman about her real estate investments in the United States. It must have been around 2005 or 2006… the peak of the property bubble. She was a psychologist from somewhere in the midwest, telling me about how she was
In the spring of 1871 after a miserable defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Paris plunged into a major crisis as local citizens revolted against the government. Financial markets went berserk as a result, and the prices of French government bonds plummeted. There’s an old story that an heir to a
Quite literally as a I write these words to you, the heads of the world’s largest central banks are packing their bags and heading home after a three-day symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Central bankers aren’t exactly mega-celebrities, so their conferences don’t make international news outside of financial circles. But
One of the truly mind-boggling absurdities in modern finance has been the creation of ‘negative interest rates’ around the world. Negative interest rates are particularly prominent in Europe. Starting back in 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) slashed its main interest rate to below zero. One bizarre effect of this
Chances are you probably use a cloud service to store at least a portion of your files. Dropbox. iCloud. Microsoft’s OneDrive. Mega. Box. There’s so many of them these days. And a few of them, like Switzerland-based Tresorit, focus heavily on privacy and security to keep your data safe. But
In 1886 there were only 38 states in the United States. Electric power was still cutting edge technology that few people had ever seen. The Statue of Liberty hadn’t even been dedicated yet. But it was that year that a man named Richard Sears founded a small retail company in
There’s something I’ve always found mesmerizing about watching animals in the wild. They have the most incredible instincts, honed from countless generations of survival against constant threats. Animals have a keen sense of danger. They know immediately when something doesn’t feel right, and they act on it without hesitation. I
There may perhaps be no other group of investors that’s more DESPERATE today than pension funds. Pensions, of course, are the giant funds responsible for paying out retirement benefits to workers. The idea is that both the employer and the employee typically contribute a set percentage of the employee’s salary
About a month ago I joined the Board of Directors of a publicly-traded company that invests in US real estate. The position brings a lot of insight into what’s happening in the US housing market. And from what I’m seeing, the transformation that’s taking place today is extraordinary. Buying and
A few weeks ago the Board of Trustees of Social Security sent a formal letter to the United States Senate and House of Representatives to issue a dire warning: Social Security is running out of money. Given that tens of millions of Americans depend on this public pension program as
What’s money worth if interest rates are negative? Interest rates, after all, are the “price” of money. When we borrow money from a bank and pay interest on the loan, it means that the money we’re borrowing has value. That –capital- has value. Negative interest rates, on the other hand,
After roughly two months away in Europe and Asia, it’s great to be back here at my favorite place on earth. I’m not talking about Chile– although I do enjoy the country. I’m talking specifically about this farm. It’s the perfect place for me. The views are sensational. I’m surrounded
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