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Myanmar is among the hottest “frontier” investment markets today. The country is going from an authoritarian regime to democracy, from a conflict situation to a situation of relative peace, and, most importantly, from a closed economy of state-owned companies, to an open, free market economy. Such positive change all at
May 20, 2013 Hong Kong In what may go down as one of the most obtusely out-of-touch policy memos ever written, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recently released a paper entitled “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security.” http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e.pdf For 171 pages, the paper argues for
May 17, 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh Well, you have to admit one thing– the United States Senate certainly has its priorities straight. Early last week they passed S.743, the Marketplace Fairness Act. This bill requires US-based online merchants to charge, collect, report, and pay sales tax to the roughly 9,646 jurisdictions
NEWSFLASH: In another demonstration that the United States is no longer the Land of the Free, the Department of Homeland Security has just seized the US bank accounts belonging to Mt. Gox, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange. This certainly underscores the importance, once again, of diversifying internationally. The Department of
May 16, 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh As I’ve been traveling across Asia recently, one recurring theme I’ve been seeing are these constant headlines that ‘inflation is under control.’ Across the region, and in fact across the world, the official statistics tell us that inflation is moderate, so it’s OK to continue
May 15, 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh The only English word my taxi driver knew was “shit”. And perhaps, given the state of his vehicle and road conditions, it was the most appropriate. I lost count of the number of pedestrians we nearly mowed down on the way from the airport; it
May 14, 2013 Manila, Philippines Some days one can’t help but look at the headlines and think of Ayn Rand. With all the destructive measures by desperate governments from Cyprus to Argentina, it seems sometimes like we’re reading from the pages of her seminal work, Atlas Shrugged. But what we’re
May 10, 2013 Singapore Each time I’m in Singapore, I’m continually impressed at the country’s extraordinary growth. Friends of mine tell me about their experiences growing up here in the 1940s and 1950s. The downtown area that is now covered with soaring towers of steel and glass were once repugnant
If I told you that your bank only held 1% of its customer deposits in reserve, would you feel that your money was safe? If I told you that the insurance fund which backed your bank deposit only had enough cash to bail out 0.35% of the banking system, would
May 8, 2013 Singapore The worldwide movement to tax, confiscate, and regulate everything imaginable turned a new page earlier this week when the “Marketplace Fairness Act” passed in the US Senate. The bill still needs to clear the House of Representatives. But its fundamental purpose, enforcing state sales tax for
Reporting from Hanoi, Vietnam I’m not much of a fiction reader, but about two years ago a friend turned me on to a couple of books by Daniel Suarez– Daemon, and its sequel Freedom. I won’t ruin the plot, but it’s an excellent story with gripping insights into what the
[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today from Hong Kong.] It took me two attempts. But, today I opened an account at the Bank of China. The reason? They’ll no longer buy gold bullion from you unless you bank with them. I
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