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October 4, 2011 Hong Kong Still a bit bleary eyed from last night’s 12-hour flight from Johannesburg, I decided to walk off the jet lag this afternoon by taking a stroll down Queen’s Road in Hong Kong’s Central district. If you’ve never been, the streets are lined with banks (and shopping malls), meaning
September 29, 2011 Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa I want to address a question we’ve received a lot lately about Chile– why did I select Chile for the site of our resilient community, and how can I be certain that the government there won’t go crazy too? Look, there’s no such thing as
September 29, 2011 Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa I don’t do well driving on the left side of the road. A lot of folks in North America and Europe think that it’s just those misguided Brits and Irish who drive on the left (i.e. ‘wrong’) side of the road… but truthfully it’s a
September 28, 2011 Cape Town, South Africa Around 11:15 this morning, I left my flat and headed towards the Cape Town Gold Coin Exchange to check out their kruggerrand prices today. (Note: They charge around 10% over spot, and buy coins for about 1% over spot. This is inclusive for all major coins
September 27, 2011 Cape Town, South Africa If you’ve followed this letter for any length of time, you know that I tend to roam around the world with great frequency; we’ll typically have these conversations across 40 to 60 countries in 6 continents over a year’s time. Lots of international travel means lots
September 26, 2011 Undisclosed location, Southern Africa For the last week or so, I’ve had the good fortune to be out in the jungles and savannah brush of southern Africa. If you look up “the middle of nowhere” in Google maps, you’ll probably find where I’ve been. In fact, when I took a
[Editor’s note: Simon is still out in the jungle and should be back on Monday. Meanwhile, we wanted to pass along a note he wrote over a year ago warning that governments would go back in time to pass retroactive tax hikes and regulatory changes. He was right. Since this letter last summer-
September 21, 2011 Auckland, New Zealand We’ve written before here at Sovereign Man that as long as the public is not in precious metals in a big way, it’s hard to see that the market has begun topping out. Yes, gold has been in a bull market for more than 10 years. This
September 20, 2011 Johannesburg, South Africa Earlier this month, some economic luminaries in the United States Congress introduced a new bill, H.R. 2835. The bill intends to “establish a joint select committee of Congress to report findings and propose legislation to restore the Nation’s workforce to full employment…” Great idea, fellas. After failing
September 19, 2011 Franschhoek, South Africa I had a really bizarre weekend involving a rather drunk, unkempt, American celebrity who happened to be visiting Cape Town, and also watching a group of Southern Right whales off the Cape of Good Hope. The whales were more interesting, they’re some of the world’s oldest permanent
September 16, 2011 Cape Town, South Africa I had breakfast this morning with the head of business development for one of the world’s largest travel companies, and he told me an absolutely hilarious story that I wanted to share with you. The company has aggressively expanded into Asia, often in places where
September 14, 2011 Cape Town, South Africa Three years ago today, my best friend called me and told me to turn on my television. I remember the way he described it– “Lehman is finished.” The TV showed guys packing up their desks on Sunday afternoon, moving out of their offices forever. That was
September 13, 2011 Manila, Philippines I came across an interesting real estate deal the other day here in Manila. It was for a tiny, one bedroom condo of 45 square meters (just under 500 square feet). The building is under construction and isn’t -scheduled- for completion until late 2012 or early 2013. Asking
September 12, 2011 London, England Speaker’s Corner is a lively section of Hyde Park (the London equivalent of New York’s Central Park) where debate and impromptu speeches take place. It’s a public forum in its purest sense– people literally stand on a small box or stool to speak their minds about anything, often
September 9, 2011 London, England I wanted to dedicate today’s Q&A to a topic that we have been receiving a huge volume of questions about lately: passports. This subject is becoming quite popular as the developed world continues to deteriorate, and I wanted to shed some light on the issue based on my
