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September 20, 2013 Santiago, Chile One of those generally accepted truths that most people believe is that banks are safe. We seem to be told this for our entire lives… that banks, in their grandiose buildings and marble floors, are veritable rivers of money. We’re also told that bankers are conservative fiduciary stewards,
September 19, 2013 En route to Chile “Truth. noun. The quality of state of being in accordance with fact or reality.” This is how my dictionary defines truth: it can be ‘fact’. But it can also mean ‘reality’. The people who control the system have figured this out– if they can change someone’s
September 17, 2013 En route to the United States In mathematics, the term ‘linearity’ describes a relationship in which the rate of change for a variable is constant. If you’re driving from Paris to Frankfurt at 100 kilometers per hour, then this is a linear system– your rate of change (speed) is constant.
September 16, 2013 Tokyo, Japan Suicide has long played a bizarre role in Japanese culture. In feudal Japan, for example, dishonored samurai would often commit seppuku, a suicide ritual that involved ceremonial disembowelment. It was torturous pain lasting for hours. In World War II, the Japanese military churned out suicide attackers known as
September 13, 2013 Hong Kong Financial circles in Hong Kong are buzzing today on the new Goldman Sachs projection that gold may drop below $1,000 an ounce. And in merely suggesting such a death sentence for the metal, Goldman’s pronouncement pushed the paper price of gold contracts down $20+. Many technical indicators underscore
September 12, 2013 Hong Kong In the summer of 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, sparking a worldwide crisis. The Suez links the Mediterranean to the rest of the world, and it’s one of the most important maritime thoroughfares in international trade. So this was a big deal. Britain
September 10, 2013 Bangkok, Thailand It’s a weird indicator, but I sometimes measure the strength of the US economy by the weight of my carry-on bag. You see, friends of mine who don’t have medical insurance (most of them in the US) often ask if I can bring them discounted pharmaceuticals from Thailand.
September 9, 2013 Bangkok, Thailand “Ladies and gentlemen. For the safety and security of all passengers, please remove your shoes as you enter the security checkpoint…” How many times have we heard that? Anyone who has traveled in, out, or through the Land of the Free, or airports just about anywhere in the
September 6, 2013 Singapore “At what point do we just start calling these guys the Stasi,” asked a friend of mine over coffee today. He was, of course, referring to the latest news out of the Guardian– the same British paper that published Edward Snowden’s original whistleblowing interview. First the world learning that
September 5, 2013 Singapore Asia is a damned excited part of the world. And Singapore is the financial epicenter of all of it. For the last 24-hours, banker and fund manager friends of mine have been telling me stories about oil refinery deals in North Korea, their crazy investments in Myanmar, and the
September 4, 2013 Singapore Several weeks ago, I received some disturbing news from some of my closest advisers (all professional tax attorneys) regarding IRAs. They told me that suddenly, practically overnight, many IRS employees at the agency’s call center who assign tax ID numbers were refusing to issue a federal tax ID for
September 3, 2013 Singapore A few months ago, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, released its annual report for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2013. And the results were ‘shocking’, at least for those of us who read central bank annual reports cover to cover like a Harry
September 2, 2013 En route to Singapore After two months of criss-crossing Europe on somewhat of a bankrupt nations tour, the chilly autumn weather that has settled upon much of the continent is my cue to beat feet out of here for the steamy, humid energy of Southeast Asia. So I’m presently sitting
August 29, 2013 Rome, Italy As everyone is now completely distracted with the looming prospect of yet another illegal war to be waged by the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, let’s look at a few other things going on while no one is looking. Gun control Today, the Obama administration announced fresh measures
August 28, 2013 Spoleto, Italy There’s a common expression that military commanders like to use in times like this– ‘you can’t be a little bit pregnant.’ Translation: you either go to war, or you don’t. You can’t halfway go to war. You can’t ‘sort of’ go to war. And if you do, it’d
