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August 2, 2013 Trakai, Lithuania In any discussion about privacy, there’s invariably someone who says, “Well, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” What a bunch of baloney. This may be one of the most ignorant statements ever uttered yet it’s held by a wide majority of people who
August 1, 2013 Trakai, Lithuania Today is one of my favorite days of the year. If you’re a long-time subscriber, you may know that I hold an annual ‘Liberty and Entrepreneurship Camp’ every summer in Lithuania. This year’s camp starts today. Overall it’s the seventh camp that I’ve participated in, and the fourth
July 30, 2013 Vilnius, Lithuania Is there such a thing as a ‘safe’ fiat currency? The term itself is as intellectually disingenuous as terms like ‘fair tax’ or ‘government innovation’. But as we’ve been exploring recently why modern central banking is completely dysfunctional, it does beg the question– is any currency ‘safe’? Let’s
July 29, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Here’s a question– if you’re in the Land of the Free, do you think those green pieces of paper in your wallet are dollars? They’re not. A US dollar was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 as 416 grains of standard silver. No, those green pieces of
July 26, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Over the past several decades, people around the world have become so brainwashed that few people really give much thought anymore to the safety of their currency. It’s not something people really understand… there’s apparently some Wizard of Oz type figure at the top of the hill pulling
July 25, 2013 Vienna, Austria Gold owners are almost universally familiar with the story of Franklin Roosevelt criminalizing the ownership of gold back in 1933. Executive Order 6102 was signed on April 5, 1933, and it forbade the “Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States.” Roosevelt
July 24, 2013 Dublin, Ireland We received a lot of questions from an article last week about obtaining residency from Portugal’s housing market. Let’s explore a bit further– If you have the means, having a second residency makes a world of sense. For one, if your home country goes down the tubes quickly,
July 22, 2013 Reykjavik, Iceland Without doubt, Iceland was the canary in the coalmine for the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding across the world right now. It was the first place to go bust, crumbling under the weight of a credit-fueled boom that brought down most of the country’s banking sector and
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