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July 7, 2014 London, England [Editor’s Note: Tim Price, frequent Sovereign Man contributor and Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management, is filling in today while Simon is traveling in Iraq.] Lord Overstone said it best. “No warning can save people determined to grow suddenly rich.” Case in point– CYNK Technology Corp, a
July 3, 2014 Kiev, Ukraine In the fall of 1239 AD, Batu Khan and his Golden Horde were making great progress in their rapid advance into Europe. The Mongol Empire was in the midst of global conquest, and Batu’s army had been devastating cities across the Russian plain. He stopped briefly after taking
July 2, 2014 Vienna, Austria There’s an old joke here that Austria is famous for two things: convincing the world that Adolf Hitler was German (he was Austrian); and convincing the world that Beethoven was Austrian (he was German). Frankly one of the things that Austria should be more famous for is its
July 1, 2014 Vienna, Austria If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive. This was how Dale Carnegie titled the first chapter of his 1936 personal development masterpiece—How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie had sensible advice: if you want to keep people on your team, first and foremost
June 30, 2014 Rome, Italy As of today, I am $250,000 richer than I was last week. And thanks to the magic of economics, I didn’t even have to do anything. You see, following the lead of the Italian and British governments, I’ve taken the liberty of ‘rebasing’ my net worth. In their
June 30, 2014 London, England [Editor’s Note: This column was written by Tim Price, frequent Sovereign Man contributor and Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management in the UK] “We are currently on a journey to the outer reaches of the monetary universe,” write Ronni Stoeferle and Mark Valek in their latest, magisterial
June 25, 2014 Yangon, Myanmar Well, at least someone gets it. While just about every other central bank on the planet is giving everyone two thumbs up on the economy, the deputy chair of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Lim Hng Kiang) said last night at a dinner that “an uneasy calm seems
June 24, 2014 Yangon, Myanmar When I was a kid, I had a 4800 baud modem. At the time, it was about the most whiz-bang rockin’ modem on the street, and everyone would coo over its blinding speed. If you’ve never heard the term ‘baud’ (i.e. you’re under 25 and have never known
June 23, 2014 Undisclosed location No one ever thinks about the water. Or the toilet paper, as it were. But these are among the many, many staples that become luxuries when one’s nation is in crisis. Hours ago, the local gas company in Kiev (Kyivenergo) announced that they would be shutting off the
June 20, 2014 Bangkok, Thailand With a nod to the absurd, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen freely admitted earlier this week that the Fed really has no idea what’s going to happen to the economy. Bear in mind this is the person who controls interest rates in the United States, effectively setting the
June 18, 2014 Bangkok, Thailand “Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.” — George Orwell Wise words indeed as they aptly describe misguided confidence in the US dollar. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which helps manage the global banking system, tells us that US dollar
June 17, 2014 Shanghai, China In one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted of China’s bubblicious property market, Professor Gan Li at Texas A&M University estimates that there are a whopping 49 million vacant homes in China right now. As a percentage, this is twice the vacancy rate that the US housing
June 17, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s note: This letter was written by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose.] 49 million empty houses and apartments. That’s the situation in China according to new research from Gan Li at Texas A&M University. Professor Gan conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of the Chinese
June 16, 2014 Shanghai, China Here’s the good news: Nie Zhenbang, a Chinese agronomy expert and former director of the Chinese State Grain Administration, recently announced that 2013 was a record year for Chinese grain production. Here’s the not so good news: “Although the number is huge,” said Nie, “it still could not
June 12, 2014 Florence, Italy In February 1964, a 22-year old Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) faced off against a gigantic Sonny Liston, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Liston was an imposing opponent. I mean– this was a guy with mob ties who learned to box while serving hard time in