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August 4, 2014 Kiev, Ukraine There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary government measure, as the old saying goes. I was reminded of it when I came back to Kiev over the weekend and that the Ukrainian government imposed a series of “temporary” taxes to help the war effort. And
“Let us learn our lessons. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer
August 1, 2014 Tallinn, Estonia What a disaster. For the second time in the last fifteen or so odd years, Argentina has defaulted on its debt. And as we reported a few weeks ago, there was no easy way out. Years ago, most of the creditors that Argentina had stiffed
July 31, 2014 Tallinn, Estonia In the absurdly best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey wrote about abundance vs. scarcity. With the abundance mindset, people confidently view the world as full of resources and opportunities… that there’s more than enough to share… and that more
July 30, 2014 En route to Estonia The last few years have not been kind to European property markets, to put it mildly. Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, for example, experienced property bubbles and collapses even more severe than what happened in the US. It was gruesome. But while some areas
July 29, 2014 Kharkiv, Ukraine Looking back over the past ten years, I can’t even begin to describe all the experiences I’ve had in Ukraine. For a while, I actually owned a business based here. I’ve been travelling here frequently for years. I still have many friends here. Some of
July 28, 2014 Kharkiv, Ukraine It was a different world in 1983. Michael Jackson invented the Moonwalk. Return of the Jedi opened in theaters across the world. IBM released its most advanced personal computer yet– the XT, with a standard 10 megabyte hard drive. And after nearly a decade of
July 25, 2014 Prague, Czech Republic Less than four weeks after starting his new job, Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela already has a serious challenge to deal with: empty grocery shelves. This is largely a self-inflicted wound that was bound to happen. Fresh on the heels of his victory in
July 24, 2014 Barcelona, Spain Ten dark suited men entered the premises of FBME bank in Cyprus on Friday afternoon and took it hostage. It must have looked like a scene from the Matrix. And given the surrealism of how this conflict is escalating, maybe it was. The men were
July 23, 2014 Barcelona, Spain Sadly today I am reporting to you yet another development that seems as if we are all living within the pages of Ayn Rand’s seminal work Atlas Shrugged. You may recall from the book that John Galt, the enigmatic protagonist, started off as a young
July 22, 2014 Andorra Leopold Kohr was a rather obscure Austrian economist from the early 20th century who spent the better part of his career railing against the ‘cult of bigness’. Kohr’s fundamental premise was simple: Big doesn’t work. Big corporations. Big governments. Big countries. There are just too many
July 21, 2014 Andorra la Vella, Andorra Russians aren’t exactly known for having a great sense of humor. But the language is full of bizarre, often hilarious expressions like “perebrasyvanie kakashkami”. Literally translated this means “throwing shit”. And it applies right about now—when a bunch of people is standing around
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