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Myanmar is among the hottest “frontier” investment markets today. The country is going from an authoritarian regime to democracy, from a conflict situation to a situation of relative peace, and, most importantly, from a closed economy of state-owned companies, to an open, free market economy. Such positive change all at once in one
May 20, 2013 Hong Kong In what may go down as one of the most obtusely out-of-touch policy memos ever written, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recently released a paper entitled “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security.” http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e.pdf For 171 pages, the paper argues for insect-based diets, explaining
May 17, 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh Well, you have to admit one thing– the United States Senate certainly has its priorities straight. Early last week they passed S.743, the Marketplace Fairness Act. This bill requires US-based online merchants to charge, collect, report, and pay sales tax to the roughly 9,646 jurisdictions within the Land
May 16, 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh As I’ve been traveling across Asia recently, one recurring theme I’ve been seeing are these constant headlines that ‘inflation is under control.’ Across the region, and in fact across the world, the official statistics tell us that inflation is moderate, so it’s OK to continue printing more money.
May 15, 2013 Dhaka, Bangladesh The only English word my taxi driver knew was “shit”. And perhaps, given the state of his vehicle and road conditions, it was the most appropriate. I lost count of the number of pedestrians we nearly mowed down on the way from the airport; it was difficult to
May 14, 2013 Manila, Philippines Some days one can’t help but look at the headlines and think of Ayn Rand. With all the destructive measures by desperate governments from Cyprus to Argentina, it seems sometimes like we’re reading from the pages of her seminal work, Atlas Shrugged. But what we’re seeing now seems
May 10, 2013 Singapore Each time I’m in Singapore, I’m continually impressed at the country’s extraordinary growth. Friends of mine tell me about their experiences growing up here in the 1940s and 1950s. The downtown area that is now covered with soaring towers of steel and glass were once repugnant cesspools devoid of
If I told you that your bank only held 1% of its customer deposits in reserve, would you feel that your money was safe? If I told you that the insurance fund which backed your bank deposit only had enough cash to bail out 0.35% of the banking system, would that make you
[Editor’s note: Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, is filling in for Simon today from Hong Kong.] It took me two attempts. But, today I opened an account at the Bank of China. The reason? They’ll no longer buy gold bullion from you unless you bank with them. I wasn’t selling personally.
May 1, 2013 Bangkok, Thailand I really hate to be negative… but this is positively revolting. Disgusting. Indescribably offensive. In the Land of the Free recently, a California couple had their child kidnapped by the state. At gunpoint. It all started in mid-April when Anna and Alex Nikolayev took their 5-month old son
Reporting from Sydney, Australia Switzerland is the place that has traditionally stood above all the rest in its reputation for financial stability. Why? Because the currency was well-managed, the banking system was sound, and the country had a long tradition of treating capital well. Over the last few years, however, these advantages have
April 15, 2013 Sydney, Australia Somewhere, Paul Krugman is smiling. The Nobel Prize winning economist, whose brilliant ideas include: spending your way out of recession borrowing your way out of debt conjuring unprecedented amounts of currency out of thin air without consequence staging a false flag alien invasion of planet Earth is perhaps
April 11, 2013 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management and frequent Sovereign Man contributor is filling in while Simon is viewing agricultural property today.] These are certainly days of miracle and wonder. Well, of absurd and extraordinary financial experimentation, at any rate. Last week, for example, saw the
April 10, 2013 Santiago, Chile A few days ago, Italian authorities stopped a man who was making his way across the border into Switzerland with his wife and three children. They searched his car and found, literally, a ton of gold bars hidden in a floorboard storage compartment. Needless to say, the gold
Though Australia’s national balance sheet is comparatively quite strong, the government has been running at a net deficit for years… and they’re under intense pressure to balance the budget. The good news is that Australia now has a goodly number of investor-friendly immigration programs designed to bring productive foreigners into the country, similar
