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Date: October 20, 2011 Reporting From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon Black today.] You can hardly go a day without hearing about a new protest… hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of people marching in the streets railing against various policies. They want answers. They
If you’re an eager expat looking for inexpensive adventure and opportunity, you might want to think about Cambodia. I’ll run down a few of the highlights– First, it’s important to get a clear understanding of where you’re starting from. Cambodia is an incredibly poor country. Like much of Southeast Asia, it’s had an
October 18, 2011 Phnom Penh, Cambodia In his seminal work The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer recounts how the struggling Weimar Republic printed its way out of reparation debt from World War I. Out-of-control printing caused the German mark to fall from 75 per dollar in 1921, to more
October 14, 2011 Pattaya, Thailand We recently received a note from a German journalist writing for a national paper there. He asked, “Simon, German politicians swear to support the well-being of the German people. Given this, what would you advise the German government about the euro– keep saving it? Or let everything fail
October 13, 2011 Pattaya, Thailand Parts of Thailand have experienced terrible flooding lately, and much of the country’s production shut down as a result. Thailand makes everything from tire factories to hard disk drives to rice… and given the slowdown in the economy, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Not to
October 12, 2011 Pattaya, Thailand If you’ve followed this letter for any length of time, you know that I hardly spend any time in the United States. Sure I visit friends and family from time to time, but professionally I’m much more interested in what’s happening outside of North America. You might be
About two weeks ago, GoldMoney sent out an apologetic email to all of its Dutch customers. The email explained how the Dutch financial regulator (AFM) considered GoldMoney to be in violation of various licensing rules and compliance requirements. Among other things, AFM indicated that GoldMoney was selling ‘investment objects’ without a license… something
October 10, 2011 Bangkok, Thailand Let’s pretend for a moment that Greece is a human being. I’ll call him George. George is a hairdresser and makes $40,000 per year. George has limited assets. He has zero savings, no precious metals, and is way underwater on his mortgage. His credit card debt is over
October 10, 2011 Vejen, Denmark [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose reporting] I’m sitting on a train en route from the southwestern part of Denmark (near the German border) to Copenhagen. Across the aisle from me, a man is reading a book called The Post-American World. Opposite him sits another fellow sipping a Starbucks coffee.
October 7, 2011 Hong Kong Before getting in to this week’s questions, I want to comment about the Wall Street protests in New York. There’s no question that people are sick and tired of the status quo all over the world. Their apathy has turned to anger, and their anger is turning into
Reporting from Hong Kong It’s the Chung Yeung Festival holiday in Hong Kong today… it’s nothing but an excuse to go shopping (and sing Elvis tunes in public). Think Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) in the US or Boxing Day in the UK on steroids. One of the big differences is that, aside
October 4, 2011 Hong Kong Still a bit bleary eyed from last night’s 12-hour flight from Johannesburg, I decided to walk off the jet lag this afternoon by taking a stroll down Queen’s Road in Hong Kong’s Central district. If you’ve never been, the streets are lined with banks (and shopping malls), meaning
September 29, 2011 Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa I want to address a question we’ve received a lot lately about Chile– why did I select Chile for the site of our resilient community, and how can I be certain that the government there won’t go crazy too? Look, there’s no such thing as
September 29, 2011 Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa I don’t do well driving on the left side of the road. A lot of folks in North America and Europe think that it’s just those misguided Brits and Irish who drive on the left (i.e. ‘wrong’) side of the road… but truthfully it’s a
September 28, 2011 Cape Town, South Africa Around 11:15 this morning, I left my flat and headed towards the Cape Town Gold Coin Exchange to check out their kruggerrand prices today. (Note: They charge around 10% over spot, and buy coins for about 1% over spot. This is inclusive for all major coins