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July 19, 2013 Reykjavik, Iceland Decades ago, John Maynard Keynes famously wrote in his book The General Theory: “If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with bank-notes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal-mines. . . and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes
July 18, 2013 Lisbon, Portugal Yesterday afternoon while strolling around Lisbon, I happened upon a row of antique stores. Like most retail storefronts in the city, the proprietors were in a serious cash crunch and looking to quickly liquidate some inventory. I found this to be an exciting opportunity given that collectibles are
June 16, 2013 Lisbon, Portgual As far back as ancient times, whenever civilizations fell into great crisis, people in desperation have almost invariably turned to a single individual who promised them better times. Both the Greeks and Romans often conveyed dictatorial powers to someone in whom they entrusted people’s security and livelihood. Typically
July 12, 2013 Nicosia, Cyprus It’s been said that goldfish have the shortest memory of any animal– only about three seconds. But a few years ago, scientists from Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology conducted an experiment which put to rest this erroneous myth. Based on their research, it turns out that goldfish have
July 11, 2013 Athens, Greece My friend Illias took a drag of his cigarette as he contemplated my question. “Our government tells us that this will be a better year. No one really believes them. But all we can do is be optimistic. Too many people are committing suicide.” His statement probably best
July 9, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Ukraine is really a great place that I’ve been coming to for nearly 10 years… arguably one of my favorites in the world to visit. Here in Kiev, the city is just beautiful; it’s over 1500 years old, and the cityscape is rich with architectural character. And there’s
July 8, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Last week, in a very, very quiet release, the US Federal Court system published its annual Wiretap report to Congress. This is something that is required by law; the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) must annually report the number of federal and state applications for
July 5, 2013 [Editor’s note: What follows is a letter that Simon Black wrote from Egypt two years ago after the last ‘revolution’. The names have changed, but the story is the same.] Originally published September 7, 2011 from Cairo, Egypt Revolution. It’s a funny word when you think about it. In political
July 4, 2013 Eastern Poland Amid all the barbecues and fireworks today in the Land of the Free, it may be worth a short pause to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson some 237-years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
July 3, 2013 Frankfurt, Germany I’ve landed this morning in Frankfurt… financial capital of one of the few remaining ‘healthy’ countries in Europe able to inspire a modicum of confidence among investors. As southern Europe buckles under the weight of unserviceable debt and 60%+ youth unemployment rates, Germany is coasting along with an
July 2, 2013 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil A few friends sent me a disturbing, shocking, gut-wrenching video yesterday. It’s amateur footage of police officers from a LA metro-area unit shooting, and killing, a man’s dog. While they were arresting him. For the crime of… recording them. Apparently the cops were in the neighborhood
July 1, 2013 Buenos Aires, Argentina Well… this has turned out to be one of those epic fail travel stories. I was supposed to be in Cape Town this morning, where the entire city has been shut down due to the presence of Barack Obama. But apparently when you fly to South Africa
June 26, 2013 Maule Region, Chile One of my favorite things I do each year is our annual Liberty and Entrepreneurship camp, which we hold each summer in Europe. It’s predominantly for younger people in their early to mid 20s, and one of the things that we drive home each and every year
June 17, 2013 Santiago, Chile In remarks given late last week to the curiously named United States Institute for Peace, the head of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) vociferously denied any attempts at regulating digital currency… specifically Bitcoin. The speech, entitled “The virtual economy: potential, perplexities and promises”, can be downloaded
June 13, 2013 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management in the UK and frequent Sovereign Man contributor, is filling in for Simon this morning.] As Ben Graham, the father of value investing, observed, an investment operation “is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal
