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May 26, 2011 Hong Kong One of the most interesting things going on here in Hong Kong at the moment is the gradual displacement of the US dollar, and even the local Hong Kong dollar, by the Chinese Yuan. Walking around town, the signs are obvious: from shops that gladly accept Chinese Yuan
May 25, 2011 Santiago, Chile Debt is slavery… or at least indentured servitude of the worst kind. That looming mortgage, the high interest credit card debt, the short-term car loan– these are the forces that keep people from breaking free and taking action. Ironically, debt begets more debt. According to FinAid, the average
May 24, 2011 Santiago, Chile Just about every day now, a ‘crisis’ unfolds somewhere in the world as if carefully adapted from the pages of Atlas Shrugged. It’s such a massive aberration and departure from the free market… yet amazingly enough, this elitist system of sociopathic narcissism passes as democracy– “rule of the
May 23, 2011 Santiago, Chile The world is now divided into essentially three categories: (1) those nations that can effectively sidestep catastrophic meltdown; (2) those nations that cannot avoid meltdown, but can afford to kick the can down the road (3) those nations that must face their grim, unavoidable meltdown reality now The
May 19, 2011 Hong Kong [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today who is out looking at property for the next several days.] Two days ago I hit the banks along Des Voeux Road in Central Hong Kong to check out what gold bullion coins are available, and what the
May 18, 2011 Santiago, Chile Take a moment and conduct a mini thought experiment. Imagine that you’re from the future many hundreds of years from now, researching what life was like in the early 21st century. You pull up an archive of newspaper headlines from the year 2011 and read the following: “US
May 17, 2011 Santiago, Chile There are certain times in life when a man is faced with overwhelming adversity… times when he has no reason to adhere to society’s norms anymore. It is in these instances that the true quality of his character comes shining through. One of these situations is when he’s
May 16, 2011 Santiago, Chile On June 10, 1215 AD, after prolonged rebellion and frustrating negotiation, a group of England’s most influential barons entered London to force the disastrous King John Softsword into accepting a revolutionary charter of individual freedoms. Five days later in the Runnymede meadow of Surrey County, John affixed his
May 13, 2011 Santiago, Chile Have you heard the rumors about the Iraqi dinar? Week in, week out, we receive at least 2-3 questions about this. The ‘word on the street’ is that the Iraqi government is set to “increase” the value of the dinar, essentially re-peg it against the dollar by 2,
May 11, 2011 Santiago, Chile Following in the footsteps of a rather ignominious list of nations like Argentina and Hungary, the government of lreland is set to take its ‘fair share’ of private retirement funds. Drowning in debt and faced with unpopular, unrealistic, ridiculously unpopular austerity measures, the government has announced that it
by Tim Staermose May 10, 2011 Manila, Philippines Reading the local papers in Manila today, with their blaring headlines celebrating the latest boxing conquest of Filipino boxing phenomenon Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, I couldn’t help but be struck by the symbolism. Here’s a guy who grew up dirt-poor, in one of the poorest parts
May 10, 2011 Santiago, Chile I call Chile the new America, and if you’re looking for a place where you can be expected to take care of yourself, where you are responsible for your own successes and failures, and where the government stays out of your business, this is your place. One of
May 9, 2011 Santiago, Chile With great regret, I must report that one of my closest friends was laid to rest yesterday morning in New York City. Yury was aged only 49 years, and his untimely departure from this physical world will undoubtedly leave a void of class and humanity in our society.
May 6, 2011 Punta del Este, Uruguay My time in Uruguay has been all too short, mostly because I was ill for the majority of the trip. If Ben Bernanke were a physician, he surely would have described my bug as ‘transitory,’ though it proved to be anything but… This evening, I’m heading
May 5, 2011 Punta del Este, Uruguay As I travel throughout the world, I pay very close attention to price levels. I don’t believe a word of it when monetary authorities play down inflation concerns or tell me that rising prices are “transitory”. My boots on the ground observations tell me otherwise. It’s