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October 31, 2013 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Just 18 months ago, Brazil’s Eike Batista was one of the richest men in the world with an estimated fortune of over $34 billion, nipping at the heels of Bill Gates and Carlos Slim. To put this figure in perspective, his wealth exceeded the GDPs
October 30, 2013 Santiago, Chile [Editor’s note: Darren Kaiser, author of Sovereign Man’s Chile Property Investment Black Paper, is filling in today while Simon is en route to Asia.] Look around the world from an investment perspective these days, nothing seems particularly cheap. And finding safe places to park capital is a little
October 28, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile You know the old rule of thumb about laws– The more high-sounding the legislation, the more destructive its consequences. Case in point, HR 3293– the recently introduced Debt Limit Reform Act. Sounds great, right? After all, reforming the debt seems like a terrific idea. Except that’s
October 24, 2013 Hong Kong [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today.] China’s major cities have a huge air-pollution problem. And in other breaking news, the Pope is Catholic. It’s obvious that all the heavy industry, coal-fired power plants, and choking traffic congestion, etc. have
October 23, 2013 Santiago, Chile In the 13th century, Marco Polo wrote with utter astonishment at the paper currency standard he witnessed in China: “[a]ll these pieces of paper are, issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver… and indeed everybody takes them readily. .
October 22, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile At our workshop in Chile some months ago, European MEP Nigel Farage blasted French President Francois Hollande as leading the pack “in the modern day Pantheon of idiots who are running countries around the world…” You can see Nigel’s scathing remarks below, about 35 seconds in
As we’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Federal Reserve, one thing has become abundantly clear– these guys are horrible at their jobs. According to the popular lie, the Federal Reserve was supposed to have been established to smooth out the economic cycle, thus preventing booms, busts, recessions, and
October 18, 2013 Santiago, Chile Last night I had drinks with a few of our premium members who were in town visiting Chile. This is one of the great pleasures of my life; I feel incredibly lucky that I get to spend time with the amazing, sophisticated people in our community. One of
October 17, 2013 Santiago, Chile “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” The dialogue above is from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. It’s often attributed to Mark Twain or F. Scott Fitzgerald, or misquoted as something like “At first you go bankrupt
October 15, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Apparently the IRS has fallen on hard times in light of all this government shutdown and sequestration nonsense. Too bad. According to a recent report from the Treasury Department, ‘enforcement revenue’ at the IRS has fallen for the second straight year. Enforcement revenue is what the
October 14, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile It’s become almost cliche these days to point out how many governments are broke beyond belief. In Japan, where the country’s debt level already exceeds 200% of GDP, the government has to finance 46% of its budget by issuing more debt. In the United States, the
October 10, 2013 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, frequent Sovereign Man contributor and Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management in the UK is filling in for Simon today.] Despite nearly $17 trillion reasons, there are investors stupid enough to believe that debt issued by the world’s largest debtor country (i.e. US
October 9, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Pencahue, Chile In August 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson walked into the main branch of Kreditbanken bank in central Stockholm, Sweden and attempted to rob the place at gunpoint. He failed miserably. When the police arrived in short order, Olsson opened fire and injured one of the cops. This
October 7, 2013 Sovereign Valley Farm, Pencahue, Chile “Diminishing Superpower” This was the headline streaking across the weekend edition of the Jakarta Globe, one of the largest newspapers in Indonesia. The photo beneath was of Barack Obama, his lips pursed and eyes steeled as if he was fighting back tears. Or perhaps staring
October 4, 2013 Santiago, Chile It takes a lot of courage to go against the crowd. Whether in investing, or acknowledging that your country is heading towards an epic fiscal crisis, it isn’t easy to stand alone… especially when everyone else is betting the other way. Have you ever noticed, for example, that