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April 8, 2014 Santiago, Chile Pop quiz: how much do you weigh in kilograms? If you live in just about every country on the planet, you know the answer immediately. But if you live in the United States, you’re probably pulling out a calculator right now. That’s because the US is one of
April 7, 2014 Santiago, Chile Over the weekend, Nigeria’s government made an accounting adjustment in how it calculates its GDP statistics. By changing the base-year in GDP calculations from 1990 to 2010, Nigeria increased the reported size of its economy by 89% over the weekend. So with a stroke of a pen, the
April 3, 2014 Santiago, Chile Buying movie tickets online hardly seems like an earth shattering concept. The idea has been around for at least a decade or more, especially if you’re from North America or Europe. But in parts of Latin America, they’re still working out the kinks. And that created an opportunity.
April 2, 2014 Santiago, Chile I’m really humbled and grateful for all the emails from well-wishers who wanted to know if we were OK. In case you hadn’t heard, there was a pretty massive earthquake yesterday evening in northern Chile off the coast of Iquique near the Peruvian border. According to the University
April 1, 2014 Santiago, Chile In an absolutely astounding announcement today, Janet Yellen made a stern and heartfelt apology for 100 years of asset bubbles, depressions, recessions, panics, banking crises, and all-around inflation caused by the Federal Reserve. Flanked on both sides by former Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, and Paul Volker,
March 31, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile There’s nothing like a nice cup of reality first thing on Monday morning. If you’ve been a reader for any length of time, you know one of the things I periodically do is scan headlines for phrases like “record high” or “all time high”. The results
March 28, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile How do you define wealth? Most people think of wealth as represented by numbers on a bank account statement. That’s not really what wealth is, however. Having lots of ‘money’ doesn’t equate to being wealthy. It only means you have a large quantity of paper currency
March 27, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Today just happens to be the 160th anniversary of Britain and France’s declaration of war on Russia in what would eventually become known as the Crimean War. Part 1. At the time, Russia was a rising power. By the 1850s, Tsar Nicholas I had expanded Russia’s
March 26, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Bitcoin tax rules finally came to the Land of the Free yesterday. And I have to imagine there are some not-too-happy campers this morning, if they even know about it. Bitcoin taxes were inevitable. I’ve written about this numerous times, and have even gone so far
By the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become a has-been power whose glory days as the world’s superpower were well behind them. They had been supplanted the French, the British, and the Russian empires in all matters of economic, military, and diplomatic strength. Much of this was due to the Ottoman Empire’s
March 24, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile When it comes to investing money, there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Even the ‘safest’ investment in the world (US Treasuries) is anything but safe. I mean… on what planet does it make sense to loan your hard-earned cash to the biggest debtor that
March 24, 2014 Bali, Indonesia Palladium is like the Rodney Dangerfield of precious metals. It never gets any respect. If you ask someone about precious metals, in fact, just about everyone has heard of gold and silver. And occasionally platinum. But palladium is one of those obscure precious metals that few people think
A few months ago, I told you about a bold report published within the IRS that absolutely blasted the agency’s mafia tactics. In its 2013 annual report to Congress, the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate wrote that the IRS shows “disrespect for the law and a disregard for taxpayer rights.” Further, the report
As any long-time reader of this column knows, we routinely draw from historical lessons to highlight that this time is not different. Throughout the 18th century, for example, France was the greatest superpower in Europe, if not the world. But they became complacent, believing that they had some sort of ‘divine right’ to
March 19, 2014 Santiago, Chile Truth can be a damn difficult thing to digest sometimes. Some of us have been there. You get that news from the doctor that you, or a loved one, has just been diagnosed with a serious disease, and it hits you like a ton of bricks. Several years