Category: Trends & News

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One government that’s doing a lot of things right

June 3, 2010 Washington, DC As a permanent traveler with no fixed home, I’m fortunate to be largely insulated from the incompetence and negative consequences of most governments. Through the proper use of internationalization techniques, I’m able to reduce my tax burdens, increase my privacy, protect my assets, take advantage of more opportunities,

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The future is bright in this country

June 2, 2010 Washington, DC A few days ago, Colombian voters went to the polls for the first round of their quadrennial presidential elections. For many, it will be the most important decision of the new century thus far. The current President, Alvaro Uribe, leaves office later this summer after two consecutive terms

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Crime and Safety around the world

June 1, 2010 Undisclosed Location I had a really great long weekend in Chicago (hence the day off yesterday) and was fortunate enough to meet up with a couple of very interesting subscribers. President Obama was even in town, and the entire city was in a heightened state of security. Regardless of the

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Not as advertised

May 27, 2010 Chicago, IL, USA Uruguay is one of the countries that generally receives a lot of praise and positive commentary in the expatriate blogosphere. It’s often referred to as the “Switzerland of South America,” or compared directly to Paris… probably by people who have been to neither Switzerland nor Paris. The

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Is Canada an option for you?

May 26, 2010 Chicago, IL, USA If you’re shopping around for a tier 1, first world second citizenship, you might find a solution in Canada (unless of course you’re a native Canadian). In my view, Canada offers two key advantages. First, a Canadian passport is an incredibly valuable travel document– Canadians are generally

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Jobs in Amerika

May 25, 2010 Chicago, IL, USA I woke up this morning to a rather interesting newspaper headline: “Private Wages Fall in Historic Pay Shift” The article went on to explain how wages from the private sector, as a percentage of total US personal income, have shrunk to their lowest level in history. In

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Shortcut to a second passport

Are you Jewish? Do you want to be? If so, you’re entitled to an Israeli passport. In Israel, the “Law of Return” provides means for all Jews, and individuals of Jewish ancestry, to acquire Israeli residency and citizenship. Israeli law defines Jewish ancestry as having at least one Jewish parent or grandparent. In

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Questions: Advice for a young man, and more

May 21, 2010 Quad Cities, IA, USA It’s been a lovely few days here in America’s heartland… I’ve been able to catch up with some of my friends, but to be honest with you, I’m aching to get back on a plane and get out here. I’ve decided to wait it out for

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A good reason to head to New Zealand

May 20, 2010 Quad Cities, IA, USA The New Zealand government just announced something that I find rather surprising… but a step in the right direction. Concerned about debt levels, both public and private, they’ve announced changes to the tax code which encourage savings and investment, and discourage consumption. Specifically, the government is

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Why this may be the Great Deleveraging Part Zwei

May 19, 2010 Quad Cities, IA, USA I wanted to send you a short note today from America’s heartland to tell you what I’m doing with my investment capital, and why. I’m closing out almost all of my speculative positions and going to sit on the sidelines for a bit because I’m concerned

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Tell me what’s holding you back

I generally don’t spend very much time in the US. I think there are more desirable places out there… and to me, the US is just like any other country in decline like Italy or Spain– I really enjoy it as a tourist, I just don’t care enough for the politics or media

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The real risk in Thailand

May 17, 2010 Undisclosed location You’ve probably seen some clips on the news about the political current unrest in Thailand, and some headlines like “CHAOS IN THAILAND!” These headlines are inaccurate. Thailand, the country, is not in chaos. The political unrest is taking place in a small section of Bangkok, and this is

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What nobody says about the death of the dollar

May 13, 2010 Undisclosed Location Ask yourself an important question: how will you know when the proverbial fat lady is about to sing? In our regular conversations, we talk a lot about the importance of being prepared… history is full of examples of pigs that got slaughtered for not being prepared, for not

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