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July 25, 2013 Vienna, Austria Gold owners are almost universally familiar with the story of Franklin Roosevelt criminalizing the ownership of gold back in 1933. Executive Order 6102 was signed on April 5, 1933, and it forbade the “Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States.” Roosevelt
July 24, 2013 Dublin, Ireland We received a lot of questions from an article last week about obtaining residency from Portugal’s housing market. Let’s explore a bit further– If you have the means, having a second residency makes a world of sense. For one, if your home country goes down the tubes quickly,
July 22, 2013 Reykjavik, Iceland Without doubt, Iceland was the canary in the coalmine for the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding across the world right now. It was the first place to go bust, crumbling under the weight of a credit-fueled boom that brought down most of the country’s banking sector and
July 19, 2013 Reykjavik, Iceland Decades ago, John Maynard Keynes famously wrote in his book The General Theory: “If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with bank-notes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal-mines. . . and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes
July 18, 2013 Lisbon, Portugal Yesterday afternoon while strolling around Lisbon, I happened upon a row of antique stores. Like most retail storefronts in the city, the proprietors were in a serious cash crunch and looking to quickly liquidate some inventory. I found this to be an exciting opportunity given that collectibles are
June 16, 2013 Lisbon, Portgual As far back as ancient times, whenever civilizations fell into great crisis, people in desperation have almost invariably turned to a single individual who promised them better times. Both the Greeks and Romans often conveyed dictatorial powers to someone in whom they entrusted people’s security and livelihood. Typically
July 12, 2013 Nicosia, Cyprus It’s been said that goldfish have the shortest memory of any animal– only about three seconds. But a few years ago, scientists from Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology conducted an experiment which put to rest this erroneous myth. Based on their research, it turns out that goldfish have
July 11, 2013 Athens, Greece My friend Illias took a drag of his cigarette as he contemplated my question. “Our government tells us that this will be a better year. No one really believes them. But all we can do is be optimistic. Too many people are committing suicide.” His statement probably best
July 9, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Ukraine is really a great place that I’ve been coming to for nearly 10 years… arguably one of my favorites in the world to visit. Here in Kiev, the city is just beautiful; it’s over 1500 years old, and the cityscape is rich with architectural character. And there’s
July 8, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Last week, in a very, very quiet release, the US Federal Court system published its annual Wiretap report to Congress. This is something that is required by law; the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) must annually report the number of federal and state applications for
July 5, 2013 [Editor’s note: What follows is a letter that Simon Black wrote from Egypt two years ago after the last ‘revolution’. The names have changed, but the story is the same.] Originally published September 7, 2011 from Cairo, Egypt Revolution. It’s a funny word when you think about it. In political
July 4, 2013 Eastern Poland Amid all the barbecues and fireworks today in the Land of the Free, it may be worth a short pause to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson some 237-years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
July 3, 2013 Frankfurt, Germany I’ve landed this morning in Frankfurt… financial capital of one of the few remaining ‘healthy’ countries in Europe able to inspire a modicum of confidence among investors. As southern Europe buckles under the weight of unserviceable debt and 60%+ youth unemployment rates, Germany is coasting along with an
July 2, 2013 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil A few friends sent me a disturbing, shocking, gut-wrenching video yesterday. It’s amateur footage of police officers from a LA metro-area unit shooting, and killing, a man’s dog. While they were arresting him. For the crime of… recording them. Apparently the cops were in the neighborhood
July 1, 2013 Buenos Aires, Argentina Well… this has turned out to be one of those epic fail travel stories. I was supposed to be in Cape Town this morning, where the entire city has been shut down due to the presence of Barack Obama. But apparently when you fly to South Africa
