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Congress proposes bill to restore First Amendment rights… then kills it

January 23, 2015 Santiago, Chile To this day, many governments around the world maintain a tight grip on dissent. Students in Thailand have been arrested for using a three-fingered salute they saw in the movie Hunger Games. In Turkey, Twitter, Youtube, and other social media sites have been blocked. And in Russia the

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United States economy

11 facts that won’t be in tonight’s State of the Union address

January 20, 2015 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile When President Obama ascends to the podium this evening to deliver his State of the Union address, he’ll undoubtedly shine a spotlight on the many strengths of America. And to be fair, he’s right: the United States has a lot going for it. Cheap energy, rapid

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Presenting the decline of the West in just 6 seconds

January 19, 2015 Santiago, Chile Savino Gugliemetti stared down the 20-meter lane towards his destiny. He could hear his pulse pounding amid the deafening silence of the auditorium, and feel the sweat dripping from the intense LA heat outside. He let out a powerful exhale, leaned forward, and began to charge the outstretched

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About that “strong” dollar

I’ll admit that I wasn’t much of an athlete as a kid, at least in any traditional sport. (I famously struck out a tee-ball when I was five years old, managing to hit the stationary tee three times in a row. I’m not sure this feat has ever been duplicated before or since.)

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What we can learn from the richest man in Asia

January 15, 2015 Santiago, Chile It was nine months ago when we reported that Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Asia, had sold all of his major assets in China. In 2013 when he started dumping his Chinese property holdings he was being ridiculed and criticized. Everyone was bullish on China’s real estate

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Ban secure communication

British government wants to outlaw secure communication

January 14, 2015 Santiago, Chile Well at least someone finally had the candor to just come out and say it. In the wake of recent terror attacks in Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron has called for an end to secure communications technology. In other words, he wants to ensure that you will

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Ouch. Ukraine’s foreign reserves collapse 54% in the last quarter

January 15, 2015 Santiago, Chile What a surprise! It turns out that endless military conflict, corruption, and epic fiscal mismanagement can take a serious and rapid toll on an economy. Ukraine started off last quarter with $16 billion in foreign reserves; today they have $7.5 billion. That’s a 54% decline in just 3

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China flag

China’s stock market just went full retard

January 13, 2014 Punta Arenas, Chile Well if this isn’t a screaming indicator, I don’t know what is. China’s stock market has long been known as somewhat of a casino. Because of the nature of the Chinese writing system, stock symbols in China are numbers, not letters. And as a rather superstitious lot,

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Birthday

This may be the most important transaction in the history of finance

January 12, 2015 King George Island, Antarctica Six years ago today, Satoshi Nakamoto, the developer and founder of Bitcoin sent ten units of the cryptocurrency to his colleague Hal Finney as a test. This was the very first bitcoin transaction ever recorded. And it may possibly go down as one of the most

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Voltaire Candide Freedom

Voltaire would certainly be in his element

January 12, 2015 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] On All Saint’s Day, 1st November 1755, an earthquake measuring roughly 9 on the Richter scale struck the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. At least 30,000 people are estimated to have perished. A little over half an

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