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April 28, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: This letter was written by Simon’s colleague Tim Price in the UK, who is currently Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management] As contrarian investments go, we’re probably in three of the biggest. As regular readers will be aware, gold is one – subject to the
[Editor’s note: Michael O’Brian is a European private banker] One of the founding fathers of the United States famously remarked that death and taxes are the only certainties in life. And as tax day rolled around once again in the US, individuals the length and breadth of the country were participating in the
April 24, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Folks… you just can’t make this stuff up. A few days ago the President of the United States signed into public law bill S. 2195, now known as Pub.L. 113-100. The law aims to “deny admission to the United States to any representative to the United
April 23, 2014 Santiago, Chile “Why does Obama suck?” If you’re not sure, ask Google. It seems that millions of Americans already have asked this question, along with: “Why does the government want to kill us?”, and “Can the government take your gold?” These are among the jewels of Google autocomplete– instantly displaying
April 22, 2014 Molina, Chile Thirty-six year-old Koo Bon-hee recalled hearing a loud bang, when suddenly the ferry he was on tilted drastically in the water. The Sewol ferry, traveling from Incheon to Jeju Island in South Korea, was starting to sink, and it was sinking fast. Those still standing after the impact
Stephen Roach is one of the top economists in the world and former Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley. This is a great, very recent interview. I recommend skipping to 13:05 for about 30 seconds of brilliance if you’re pressed for time: “The market has been distorted by far bigger forces than flash trading.
April 21, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Having traveled to well over 100 countries, I have seen some pretty shocking signs of poverty around the world. In parts of Asia, it’s not uncommon for parents in poor villages to sell their children for bags of rice… or for children to be stolen outright
April 18, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile In the Land of the Free, people grow up hearing a lot of things about their freedom. You’re told that you live in the freest country on the planet. You’re told that other nations ‘hate you’ for your freedom. And you’re told that you have the
April 16, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Here’s a guy you want to bet on– Li Ka-Shing. Li is reportedly the richest person in Asia with a net worth well in excess of $30 billion, much of which he made being a shrewd property investor. Li Ka-Shing was investing in mainland China back
April 15, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Among all the great stories and conversations passed down from the ages, probably my favorite is one from the ancient historian Lucius Cassius Dio about Roman emperor Caracalla. Caracalla ruled in the second century AD, and he was notorious for bankrupting the Roman treasury and waging
April 14, 2014 Buenos Aires, Argentina Two bright white eyes looked at me inquisitively through the small hatch in the nondescript metal door. I quickly glanced around the dark, empty streets of the Palermo district in Buenos Aires and whispered the password. The door clanked open, revealing a small antechamber and a phone
[Editor’s note: This column was written by Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose] Earlier in the year I published a piece, setting out why I thought a weaker Australian dollar was inevitable. In light of the recent bounce in the Australian dollar, some people have asked me about it. My views have
April 12, 2014 Buenos Aires, Argentina Two. Billion. Hours. That’s how much time people in the Land of the Free waste each year preparing and filing their tax forms to the IRS– roughly 13 hours for each of the ~150 million individual returns filed. And if you’re doing your own taxes this weekend,
April 10, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s Note: Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] In a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia on Hainan Island today, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced a significant step toward the opening of China’s capital markets. In short, it will soon
April 9, 2014 Santiago, Chile Imagine that your country and banking system are so broke that you have to receive approval from a special committee just to send your own money to your kids who are away at university… Crazy, right? But that’s exactly what’s going on in Cyprus. And it all happened