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January 9, 2015 En route to Antarctica When the Soviet Union was dying out and privatization schemes and free market measures were being implemented, it was like the Wild West out there. With a bit of street smarts, insights, the right contacts, information, and access to capital, you could grab or build a
January 8, 2015 Punta Arenas, Chile Kiera really liked making things react together and was going to try to make a baking soda and vinegar volcano, but the teacher said that was for kids in lower grades. As an honor student, she wanted to do something impressive, so she looked around for something
January 8, 2015 Punta Arenas, Chile Frank Bourassa was a hustler. He’d tried every shady deal out there—from marijuana to jacked cars. This was a guy who knew how to make a quick buck. Literally, as it turns out, when he realized one day that with each of these schemes he was aiming
January 7, 2015 Santiago, Chile It’s been 66 years since George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 was published. In it, Orwell depicts a future where the UK (and the whole world really) descends into a totalitarian regime that’s in a perpetual state of war, propaganda, and persecution. One of the most disturbing aspects of
January 5, 2015 Santiago, Chile Each year governments around the world seem to compete with one another to come up with the dumbest and worst policies possible. But which one is the stupidest? The competition is indeed tight as there are just so many terrible entries to consider. But my team and I
January 5, 2015 Santiago, Chile In one of the best summations of 2014, and the West in general, English filmmaker Adam Curtis asks some very basic questions of the British economy– questions that really apply to the entire Western World. How is it, for example, that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne
[Editor’s note: The following note was originally penned by Simon Black on July 2, 2012 from Chisinau, Moldova.] Ah Moldova… the poorest country in Europe, which just so happens to have had a Communist party majority in its parliament since 1998. These two points are not unrelated. Despite having achieved its independence from
December 22, 2014 Santiago, Chile I want you to imagine this nightmare scenario for a moment. You walk into the grocery store and head down the aisles, family in tow, procuring your normal ration of foodstuffs for the fortnight. Something doesn’t make sense. Aisle after aisle you wander, the same sneaking suspicion tugging
December 19, 2014 Santiago, Chile You may not have realized it, but you are regularly being swindled by your washing machine. That’s right. According to Bureaucrat Man, by using too much energy your washing machine is stealing money from you each month. Of course you already have the option to buy a more
December 19, 2014 Santiago, Chile Edith had been saving up wherever she could. She only prepared meat once a week for the family and she’d spent many extra hours mending the children’s clothing so they wouldn’t have to buy any new things this year. So when she and her husband had finally saved
December 16, 2014 Castries, Saint Lucia Last night, the Russian central bank announced a shock decision to hike up its key interest rate from 10.5% to 17%, effective immediately. Incredible. On Monday alone the ruble declined more than 9% against the dollar, and almost 50% in 2014. It looks like a massacre. If
December 16, 2014 Sydney, Australia [Editor’s note: This letter was penned by Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist, Tim Staermose] As I was preparing to go and meet a friend who runs a nascent fund management business in Sydney yesterday, I noticed there was a lot of unusual activity going on a block or
December 15, 2014 London, England [Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] “[W]e want to use our reserves more constructively by investing in development projects around the world rather than just reflexively buying US Treasuries. In any case, we usually lose money on Treasuries, so we need
December 12, 2014 Santiago, Chile Long ago I sold almost all my possessions and left the Land of the Free. It was a decision of optimism and adventure—I realized that there were much richer and more rewarding opportunities to do business, invest, and spend time abroad. The only asset I keep there is
December 12, 2014 Santiago, Chile In the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire it was a familiar site to see a muhtesib or “market inspector” making his way through the stalls. They were in charge of making sure that everything in the marketplace adhered to state regulations. Accompanied by some members
