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January 16, 2014 Santiago, Chile There’s a nasty little parasite that exists in nature known as the nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) which typically infects grasshoppers and crickets. Once fully grown, the worm is able to profoundly affect the behavior of its host; most notably, the worm can actually compel a grasshopper to throw
January 15, 2014 Santiago, Chile In 1892, 17 year old Pascual Baburizza stepped off the boat in what looked like an unwelcoming, arid landscape in the north of Chile. Baburizza had just spent several weeks on a boat travelling from his home island of Koločep, Croatia, which was then part of the dying
January 13, 2014 Santiago, Chile In the 3rd century AD, Emperor Caracalla famously remarked of Rome’s tax policy: “For as long as we have this,” pointing to his sword, “we shall not run out of money.” (Of course, Rome did run out of money. ) At the time, Roman taxation was so extractive
January 10, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile There’s no doubt that one of these days (hopefully very soon), our current monetary system will be viewed as one of the most absurd financial experiments in history. Consider the monetary system for what it really is– politicians award unelected central bankers with the power to
January 7, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Later this year, Google will celebrate its 10th anniversary as a publicly-traded company. And the conventional wisdom is that GOOG has been one of the best performing investments of the last decade. If you had invested $85 in the Google IPO back in 2004, your investment
January 6, 2014 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.] On December 31st, 1964, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 874. On December 31st, 1981, it stood at 875. In Buffett’s words, “I’m known as
January 2, 2014 Santiago, Chile 1) Politicians believe there are no consequences for destroying our liberty… Stimulus and response. That’s the easiest way of summing this up. When politicians steal, and there are no consequences, they’re going to keep stealing. Cyprus proved this point handily. The government froze bank accounts for everyone in
December 31, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile The other night I played my first game of Monopoly in probably 20 years. One of my friends gave me the infamous board game for Christmas, and as I’ve had a lot of guests down here over the last few days, we all thought we’d give
December 27, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile In September 1939, six days after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, Charlie Chaplin began filming one of his most epic films ever… and the first “talkie” for the silent film star. It was a courageous project– the ‘Great Dictator’ directly poked fun at Adolf
December 20, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile In investing, it’s often said that nothing goes up or down in a straight line. Stocks, bonds, commodities… they all go through periods of growth, correction, collapse, mania, etc. We’re seeing this right now with respect to a substantial decline in the nominal gold price after
December 19, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile You probably heard the announcement yesterday: the Fed decided to reduce its unprecedented bond-buying program from $85 billion a month to “only” $75 billion. The reaction all around the world from financial analysts and commentators shows that decisions made behind closed doors by a handful of
December 17, 2013 Santiago, Chile According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, just 33% of Americans think their children will have a better life than they did. On the other hand, 62% believe their children will be worse off. They’re likely to be right. The typical American family has seen
December 16, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Though still a week shy of its centennial anniversary, the US Federal Reserve will hold a celebration this afternoon in Washington DC. (They’re even live-streaming it… http://www.ustream.tv/federalreserve) Just imagine the scene– a bunch of current and former central bankers slapping each other on the back, congratulating
December 13, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile One of the things we talk about routinely in this column is the fraudulent nature of the global monetary system. When you step back and look at the big picture, it seems ludicrous. We have essentially awarded totalitarian control of our money supply to a tiny
December 12, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile The IMF just dropped another bombshell. After it recently suggested a “one-off capital levy” – a one-time tax on private wealth as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability across insolvent countries – it has now called for “revenue-maximizing top income tax rates”. The IMF’s team
