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December 10, 2012 London, England [Editor’s Note: Tim Price, Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management and frequent Sovereign Man contributor, is filling in for Simon today.] Clearly, investing is a probabilistic endeavour. There are no certainties to speak of. We can only operate on the basis of rational analysis and prudent, considered
December 7, 2012 7th Region, Chile It seems these days I spend at least 50% of my time looking at farms for sale in Chile. And with good reason. I’ve written before at length why agriculture seems like the no-brainer investment of the decade: given the fundamentals of supply and demand, the absolute
December 5, 2012 Hong Kong [Editor’s Note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] Since 2009, the benchmark Shanghai Stock Exchange index has been in a deep funk. Last week, in fact, the index hit 4-year lows and dipped below the psychological 2,000 level. Further, a recent
If you want to send a roomful of 100 wealth managers into an icy chill, have Russell Napier address them. This is exactly what happened at Citywire’s Smart Beta retreat at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hampshire recently. Napier’s presentation, “Deflation in an Age of Fiat Currency,” is thought-provoking, and the precise polar
December 3, 2012 Santiago, Chile Chile is a great place to be an entrepreneur and start a business. Perhaps the biggest reason is that it’s overly abundant with compelling, lucrative opportunities. I would group these into three main categories: 1) Products and services targeting the domestic market. Chile already has the most robust
November 28, 2012 Santiago, Chile We don’t have control over the circumstances of our births. And let’s face it, some people hit the lottery right out of the gate, born into loving families, big inheritances, or well-developed countries full of opportunity. When I was a kid, the United States was one of those
November 13, 2012, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. [Editor’s note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] Surabaya in East Java is a glamorous old city that became a colonial stronghold during the time of the Dutch East Indies. It was also the starting point for the Indonesian
October 4, 2012 Santiago, Chile “Corruptissima republica plurimae leges. [The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state.]” -Tacitus, the Annals ca. AD 69 The nature of what is ‘legal’ has become a truly bizarre concept these days. Developed nations of the west have hundreds of thousands of pages of rules, codes,
September 24, 2012 London, England Never try to teach a pig to sing, advised Robert Heinlein. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig. Similarly, never try to convince a central banker that his policies are destructive. After five years of enduring crisis, market prices are no longer determined by the considered assessment of independent
August 31, 2012 Rome, Italy My 2-year old nephew in Australia loves getting postcards. He already associates me with frequent traveling. I’m referred to as “Tim Hong Kong jet plane.” So before leaving Italy today, after a fantastic week in the Umbrian countryside with our Total Access members, I set out to mail
August 13, 2012 Ubud, Bali, Indonesia A sprawling archipelago of more than 14,000 islands, Indonesia is home to some of the most beautiful, exotic, and alluring places in the world. Yet it’s so huge… so diverse, with different languages, cultures, and religions, to even call Indonesia a single country demonstrates how antiquated the traditional concept of geography
I don’t get angry very often, but here’s something that managed to really push my buttons. Around America the same phenomena are occurring: In some of the nation’s poorest towns, it’s becoming illegal to be resilient. This is absurd! The people who need to harness the power of self-reliance the most are being denied
In 2007 John McAfee explained in Fast Company, “Success for me, is can you wake up in the morning and feel like a twelve year old?” However, that was right before he lost 95% of his net worth. He explains in Robert Frank’s book, The High-Beta Rich, that he was living through a second childhood, wasting money on
Did you know that, according to Capgemini and the Royal Bank of Canada’s latest World Wealth Report, there are now more millionaires in Asia than North America…? An estimated 3.37 million individuals in the Asia-Pacific region have a liquid net worth of over US$1 million. That compares to 3.35 million in North America. The same
July 16, 2012 Hong Kong A few days ago in Indonesia’s Lampung province, I was following a sprightly Chinese woman, well into her 70s, as she showed me around her thriving home appliances and furniture shop. It was an amazing thing to see. The three-story shop-house was both the family home, and business premises. Yet every
