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February 14, 2011 Northern Araucania, Chile As I was exploring property in the region over the weekend, an earthquake whose epicenter was in nearby Concepcion shook the ground with a magnitude beyond 7.0. This was about as powerful as the earthquake that destroyed Haiti last year, plunging the country into complete turmoil. So
February 11, 2011 Temuco, Chile I’m spending a long weekend in the beautiful city of Temuco, located in Araucania, Chile’s southern lakes and volcanoes region. The further south you go in this country, the more the climate and geography changes from desert and semi-arid to something that looks like New Zealand’s south island.
February 8, 2011 Santiago, Chile In the late 1920s, the economy of the Weimar Republic was beset by numerous fiscal troubles. The global depression spread quickly to Germany, undermining the government’s ability to make its reparation payments from the Great War. Fearing a return to hyperinflation, many Germans who had spent the last
February 8, 2011 Santiago, Chile Somewhere in China, an economist lost his job today… it was the poor guy who had been predicting manageable levels of inflation despite rapid headline GDP growth and even more rapid monetary expansion. Yet, staring at reports which show inflation at a 28-month high, officials at the People’s
February 7, 2011 Manila, Philippines Hi this is Tim Staermose, the newest addition at Sovereign Man– Simon asked me to fill in for him today as he is currently hard at work on his presentations for the upcoming workshop. I wanted to tell you a bit about a business opportunity I just came
February 1, 2011 La Serena, Pacific Coast, Chile Mervyn King is Britain’s chief central banker and a key figure in the global financial system. Last week, after surprising reports surfaced that the British economy had once again contracted in the 4th quarter of last year, King delivered a stern, sobering message to his
January 31, 2011 Valle de Elqui, Chile The need for most species to gather into larger collectives is a primal, animalistic instinct. Whether flocks of birds, schools of fish, colonies of ants, or packs of wolves, it is a natural inclination for animals to form larger units for their mutual protection and productive
January 27, 2011 Valle de Elqui, Chile Chile is an exceptionally long country of about 2,650 miles. To put it in perspective, this is roughly the distance from Mexico’s central Baja peninsula all the way up the California Oregon, and Washington coastline, into British Colombia, and finally on to southeastern Alaska. As you
January 27, 2011 Undisclosed location Moscow erupted in pandemonium this week as a bombing attack at the city’s busiest airport claimed the lives of at least 40 people on Monday. Nobody seemed to notice the bombing in Manilla, Philippines only hours later. Two people were killed on Tuesday when an 81mm mortar was
January 25, 2011 Santiago, Chile US General George S. Patton is often credited with saying “No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.” Perhaps Patton was correct. But a lot of poor bastards had a significant impact on security policies by blowing themselves up for their cause. Yesterday’s suicide
Japan is causing its own demise January 24, 2011 Santiago, Chile Most people have never heard of Lee Kuan Yew… but he’s an incredibly important figure in one of the world’s most cutting-edge economies. As Singapore’s first prime minister, he governed for 3 decades, overseeing his country’s transformation into a modern, developed economic
January 21, 2011 Santiago, Chile I had a rather interesting meeting last night with a notable Chilean attorney who is the chief legal counsel of one of the country’s largest telecom firms. We talked about the growth of the local economy and the lengths to which the government here is trying to attract
January 20, 2011 Santiago, Chile On November 4, 1979, a battalion-sized group of militants who became known as the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line descended upon the American embassy in Tehran, Iran. They eventually suppressed the guards and seized control of the compound. For 444 days, fifty-two diplomats, soldiers, and their
January 18, 2011 Santiago, Chile Laos is a small, landlocked economy in Southeast Asia that’s often overlooked in favor of its neighbors: Thailand, China, and even Cambodia. But there are a few important factors that set Laos apart and lead me to believe that, when it comes to inflation, the country is the
January 14, 2011 Santiago, Chile I want to start out this end-of-week missive by reiterating one immutable fact: no place is perfect… and in these tumultuous times which I call the ‘Age of Turmoil,’ no country is going to be completely immune to the looming problems which face the world, namely rising prices