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December 11, 2014 Santiago, Chile Exactly 199 years ago, in 1815, a “temporary” committee was established in the US Senate called the Committee on Finance and Uniform National Currency. It was set up to address economic issues and the debt accrued by the US government after the War of 1812. Of course, because
December 10, 2014 Santiago, Chile As the holiday season approaches you might have mistletoe on your mind for cheery, romantic reasons. What you might not have known however is that the festive flora and its relatives are all actually parasites. Unable to photosynthesize to feed itself, mistletoe latches on to a host plant
December 10, 2014 Santiago, Chile When Karl Marx wrote about the bourgeoisie as the “unproductive class” he was writing from personal experience. The foremost champion of the proletariat, Marx never actually belonged to the working class himself. Born into a well-off middle-class family, Marx ascended up the social hierarchy by marrying into Prussian
December 9, 2014 Santiago, Chile When Gregor MacGregor returned to London he was a real celebrity. He had just come back from the New World, where he had a number of successful exploits fighting in the South American struggle for independence and was made the Major-General of the Venezuelan republican army by Simon
December 8, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] You can be for gold, or you can be for paper, but you cannot possibly be for both. It may soon be time to take a stand. The arguments in favour of gold are well
December 5, 2014 Santiago, Chile It seems rather appropriate that just seven days after the US government hit a whopping $18 trillion in debt, mainstream financial media has picked up the IMF’s recent World Economic Outlook report, which puts the US economy as #2 in the world. There’s no shortage of ostriches out
December 5, 2014 Santiago, Chile Making up the highest stratosphere in Japanese society, the samurai had quite a reputation to uphold. Beyond honor and loyalty, they had to keep up appearances by wearing only the highest quality clothing and by being seen in only the best establishments. The samurai image did not come
December 3, 2014 Santiago, Chile When Francisco Pizarro returned to Spain from the New World in 1528, he told King Charles I of the vast material riches that were found in abundance on Peru’s shores. He petitioned for permission to conquer the new lands in the name of the crown, and was granted
December 2, 2014 Santiago, Chile On October 22, 1981, the government of the United States of America accumulated an astounding $1 TRILLION in debt. At that point, it had taken the country 74,984 days (more than 205 years) to accumulate its first trillion in debt. It would take less than five years to
December 1, 2014 Santiago, Chile Over four centuries ago, the Dutch East India Company made history as the world’s first IPO. Known as VOC in the Netherlands, the company was one of the most successful ventures in the last several hundred years. When adjusted for inflation, its highest market capitalization would be worth
December 1, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] So the Swiss have decided not to force their central bank into underpinning its reserves with harder assets than increasingly worthless euros. At least they had the chance to vote. But in the bigger picture,
November 28, 2014 Santiago, Chile Walking down the streets of Constantinople in the early Middle Ages, you would have immediately felt the energy and prosperity. Constantinople was one of the wealthiest, most advanced cities in the world, and some historians estimate its population could have been as high as 500,000 people. Byzantine architecture
November 28, 2014 Bali, Indonesia [Editor’s Note: This missive was penned by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose] I spent two days in China earlier this week. Among other things, I wanted to get a feel for where people on the ground see the currency heading. My personal view is that, as
November 24, 2014 Santiago, Chile Science is about truth. It’s about fact. It’s about forming hypothesis and either proving or disproving that hypothesis through what we can observe, test, and measure. For thousands of years it’s been through this method that humanity has progressed. And history shows that every time “authorities” get involved,
November 24, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] On Monday 15th November 2010, an open letter to Ben Bernanke was published: “We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such
