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January 7, 2010 Reporting from: Estepona, Spain I’ve long believed that exchange controls will eventually return to the developed world, specifically in the United States and Western Europe. Struggling to find buyers of their debt, these governments will likely impose strict penalties for net outflows and retail currency transactions. Unfortunately, most people will
January 6, 2010 Reporting from: Estepona, Spain I’m sitting now in lovely Estepona, Spain– a coastal town on the Mediterranean that experienced a massive property boom over the last decade. The community I’m in is anchored by a five-star Ritz Carlton golf resort, and surrounded on all sides by the mountains or the
January 5, 2010 Reporting from: Estepona, Spain I’ve spent a lot of time lately sitting on the terrace of my coastal villa here in southern Spain, enjoying great conversations with friends, pondering the markets, and making significant investment and business decisions. I’ve found that it’s much easier to do this in a peaceful
I’m sitting on a sunny terrace overlooking the Gulf of Taranto in Italy’s southern Puglia region, and it’s absolutely spectacular. If the world goes to hell in 2010, this will be on my short list. Puglia is Italy’s breadbasket– staple crops here grow like wild flowers due to the temperate climate and rich
I receive a lot of subscriber questions, and while I cannot answer them all, I wanted to specifically address three of them that key in on recurring themes in this community– second citizenship, investing, international opportunities, corporate structures, banking, and gold/silver storage. 1) Paul asks– “I was wondering what your 1st choice would
Somewhere after paying over $100 for a tank of gas, $35 for a haircut, and $15 for a fast food sandwich, it dawned on me last week. The euro is terribly overpriced against the dollar. I wrote about this extensively last week, arguing that, because of a litany of taxes and fees, and
In my Sovereign Man daily e-letter, I like to discuss real solutions to the issues and challenges we all face… often these solutions include things like business opportunities overseas, great investment ideas, and profiles of different foreign countries. Occasionally, the solutions that I present are a bit… sensitive. Today and tomorrow I am
We all know that Google is in bed with the government… I suppose it’s nice that CEO Eric Schmidt is at least open about it. In a recent interview with CNBC, Schmidt effectively admits that Google archives everything about a user– web searches (google), email and contact lists (gmail), online office documents (google
So much for BMW’s run-flat tires. Believe it or not, I’m actually sitting on the side of the A3 motorway in central Germany, about halfway between Frankfurt and Munich, waiting for the tow-truck to arrive. Apparently you’re supposed to be able to drive on these tires even when they’re flat… and with such
I spent a couple of days this week in a fast BMW with Matt, my friend and business partner. We had a meeting in southern Spain yesterday with a key figure in the world of second passports, and we raced at speeds up to 250 km/h so that we could make the meeting
It took three speeding tickets in the south of France on the way from Monaco to Barcelona, but we made it to Spain late yesterday evening. I had forgotten how expensive it is to drive in France. Fuel is among the most expensive in Europe thanks to a series of extraordinarily high taxes.
I hold it as a guiding principle that there is quite literally a world of opportunity out there… and this goes especially for business. Years ago, there were limited consumer markets available where entrepreneurs could sell their products and services. Today, the playing field has truly leveled. Emerging Asian economies have a burgeoning
It’s true what they say about the Autobahn… there really is no speed limit. I’ve been in the car all day with my close friend and business partner Matt, racing our BMW from Stuttgart to Monaco. Our goal is to reach Spain by the end of this week where we have some important
Over the weekend in Vienna, I had the pleasure of dining with a very interesting gentleman (I’ll call him “Chris”) who is a subscriber and new inductee into the Atlas 400 club that I’ve mentioned before. Chris travels extensively, like me, and we discussed how many countries are quickly becoming police states. In
Seriously… isn’t it time the investment community stopped listening to the rating agencies? Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P– these are the usual suspects who completely missed the boat on the US sub-prime debacle. Back in 2005, they gave pristine credit ratings to risky mortgage portfolios stuffed full of borrowers who are notorious for not
