Category: Trends & News | Page 101

And the award for “Americans’ favorite government agency” goes to…

James Hickman November 24, 2014

November 24, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Gallup recently conducted a poll asking Americans to rate thirteen of the most visible agencies/quasi-agencies of the United States government. These included: US Postal Service (USPS) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Here’s the most bizarre currency you’ve probably never heard about.

James Hickman November 21, 2014

November 21, 2014 Santiago, Chile John Lynn was bound and gagged, as the angry mob tied him to a tree and poured a barrel of scalding hot tar over his freshly shaven head and coated him in feathers. It was June 1794 and the crowd was absolutely frantic. They were taking justice into

Four countries you need to know about that will revolutionize food production

James Hickman November 20, 2014

November 20, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile As we discussed yesterday, the world has certainly gotten itself into a serious pickle. World population growth and economic trends are causing food demand to soar. Demographers tell us that over 200,000 people will be present at the dinner table tonight who weren’t even alive yesterday.

The US is losing 9.5 acres of farmland per minute

James Hickman November 19, 2014

November 19, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile More than six thousand years ago, the most advanced civilization on planet was Sumer, rulers of the fertile plains of ancient Mesopotamia in modern day Iraq. The Sumerians weren’t powerful from their military strength or political system; rather, it was agriculture that developed their civilization. Quite

Civil Asset Forfeiture: What you can do about it

James Hickman November 19, 2014

November 19, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Tan Nguyen was stopped on the highway for driving three miles over the speed limit. The policeman searched the car and found a briefcase of money that Tan said he just won at a casino. There weren’t any drugs to be found, but suddenly the cop

WARNING: new international gang of thieves make the IS and Somali pirates look like amateurs

James Hickman November 18, 2014

November 18, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile When the two young petty thieves, Rinconete and Cortadillo, came to Seville they were quickly censured for stealing. To their surprise, it wasn’t for the theft itself, but instead because they were not registered with the local thieves’ guild. In this upside-down world imagined by Miguel

You have two options. One can bring you a world of opportunity.

James Hickman November 18, 2014

November 18, 2014 Santiago, Chile Walking across a bridge with ornate classical Roman sculptures trimmed in gold, I turned down a little Italian street to meet up with a friend for lunch. As the aroma of pizza wafted around me, I couldn’t help but feel that something was out of place. It wasn’t

Mission Accomplished: Stock market, number of homeless children, both reach all-time highs.

James Hickman November 17, 2014

November 17, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture. In a report just released today by the National Center on Family Homelessness, a team of academics has demonstrated that the number of homeless children in the Land of the Free now stands at 2.5 million. This is far

Here’s what I think the financial system will look like in the future

James Hickman November 12, 2014

November 12, 2014 Santiago, Chile Thousands of years ago whenever the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt passed away, they were buried with all of their gold in a specially constructed tomb. The idea was to ward off thieves with booby traps and other perils so that these perceived demigods could enjoy their riches for

Three super safe and private facilities to store gold abroad

James Hickman November 12, 2014

At USD $1160, a lot of gold owners are looking at the paper price right now and panicking. The conventional wisdom is that, because it takes fewer pieces of paper to buy an ounce, gold is a bad ‘investment’. This isn’t the right idea. It shouldn’t be viewed as an investment at all.

Historical figures’ salaries in gold: Mozart and Beethoven

James Hickman November 12, 2014

November 12, 2014 Santiago, Chile When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first came to Prague on 11 January 1787, he was an absolute sensation. His smash hit opera Le nozze di Figaro had been released in the city a few months prior, and the people were absolutely wild about it. So this time, in 1787,

Brazil builds its own fiber optic network to avoid the NSA

James Hickman November 11, 2014

November 11, 2014 Santiago, Chile This past week Brazil announced that it will be building a 3,500-mile fiber-optic cable to Portugal in order to avoid the grip of the NSA. What’s more, they announced that not a penny of the $185 million expected to be spent on the project will go to American

Avoid this accident waiting to happen in investment markets

Tim Price November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: This letter was written by Tim Price, London-based wealth manager and editor of Price Value International.] In 1975, Charles Ellis, the founder of Greenwich Associates, wrote one of the most powerful and memorable metaphors in the history of finance. His essay is titled ‘The loser’s game’,

Into the Unknown

Tim Price November 3, 2014

November 3, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: This essay was penned by Tim Price, a London-based wealth manager and editor of Price Value International.] Strange things are happening in the bond market. Few of them are stranger than the reports Jeremie Banet, a French fund management colleague of former Pimco executive Bill Gross,

No inflation Friday: How sport salaries reveal the true rate of inflation

James Hickman October 31, 2014

October 31, 2014 Santiago, Chile The new NBA season started this week. And with it the new salary cap for 2014-15 entered into force. It increased by 7.5% and is now at a record high of $63 million. Yet another “all time high” in a world where everything seems to be hitting the