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Gold and Silver

February 26, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand

It’s “Judgment Day” in Thailand. I wrote about this on Monday– a Thai high court will rule today on the disposition of ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s frozen assets valued at several billion dollars.

According to the mainstream media, the entire country is supposed to erupt in chaotic and violent protests today. Even BloombergTV, which I normally respect, has been running sensationalized stock footage of fires, vandalism, and Thai soldiers shooting semi-automatic weapons in the street.

Without doubt, there will certainly be renewed political turmoil in time… this happens in Thailand about every other Thursday, and they present great buying opportunities. But the reality of the situation on the ground here is anything but chaos. Thais are going on about their everyday business, and today is like any other day.

It just goes to show how unreliable a lot of information out there can be.

On to the questions for this week–
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February 19, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand

I really need to start out today’s letter by expressing how truly humbled I am to be part of such a fantastic community.

Matt and I have spent much of the last few days combing through resumes (200+ so far) for the job openings that I posted on Monday, and the caliber of talent and energy is really impressive.

Applicants vary in age from 17 to 70. They come from all stations of life– corporate executive, successful entrepreneur, student, homemaker; and they  hail from at least 18 different countries, from Guyana to China to the Netherlands to South Africa.

I’ve read every email with great interest and have made difficult choices to narrow down the pool of candidates. If you submitted an email, you might just be hearing from me in the next week or two.

Now… on to this week’s questions.
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February 16, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand

The popular press has been bandying a lot of cute acronyms for the ’sick’ European countries. I have seen PIIGS, STUPIDs, and DUHs… and while the individual circumstances of each country are different, they all have one thing in common–

Their obligations far exceed their assets, and they have to borrow money just to pay interest on the money that they’ve already borrowed.

We don’t need a new acronym because there’s already a word for it: junkie. Before too long, the entire euro zone may be heading in this direction… in fact, while the final nail may be a long way off, markets are clearly starting to build a coffin for the euro.
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February 12, 2010
Pattaya, Thailand

I’m happy to report that I seem to be in the final throes of my Asian jet lag– I finally managed to go to bed and wake up at a reasonable hour.

I appreciate the emails that I received giving me advice about how to deal with it more effectively… honestly though, I think time is the best remedy for everything.  With jetlag, I take a “sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry” approach, and it will work itself out eventually.

Anyhow, as I am out the door and headed to the beach in a few minutes, I’d like to spend some time addressing your questions this week:

Kevin asks: “Simon, I want to purchase a round-the-world plane ticket in order to get a sense of which country I would feel most comfortable living in / retiring outside the US.  Do you have any recommendation on how to find an open-ended round-the-world ticket on the cheap?”

“Round the world” fares are a flexible, cost-effective way to explore the world. Each of the major airline alliances (Oneworld, Star, and SkyTeam) has an around the world program, and the rules are generally the same.

You have to establish your route in advance, i.e. start in Vancouver, travel to Tokyo, then Singapore, then Mumbai, then Abu Dhabi, then Istanbul, then Kiev, then Krakow, then Madrid, then Miami, then Los Angeles, and finally back to Vancouver.

The nice part is that the dates for each flight are completely flexible. If you start in Vancouver and fly to Tokyo first, you can spend as much time as you want in Tokyo. When you get tired of it and are ready to move on, you just call the airline and they will book your next leg of the journey (to Singapore).

There are a few rules– the entire journey can only take up to 1-year, and there’s usually a maximum of 16 stops in total.

Now… here’s how you save money: If you live in North America, try to start your journey in South America. Buy a 1-way ticket to Colombia or Brazil, for example, and begin the routing from there. You will save about $1,000.

Peter asks: “Simon, I’m really interested in Panamanian property; given where I see my country headed, Panama seems like a great place to set up, and I want to get out while I can. I bought the Black Paper, and I am considering going to this International Living conference in April. Do you think it’s worth it?”

Yes. I was friends with most of the IL staff in Panama over the last few years, and I knew the conference organizers quite well. They routinely put on informative events, and if you’ve been strongly thinking about buying property in Panama, the conference is a great way to pack a lot of objective exposure into a short period of time.

Incidentally I may be back in Panama by April, in which case I might attend the conference myself to meet with some subscribers and old friends.

Helen asks: “Simon, when can we hear back from you about the sustainable community, and on the second citizenship programs?”

We have about 750 survey responses from subscribers telling me what they would like to see from a sustainable community in Panama. Clearly this is something that needs to be done. My partner Matt and I are digesting the data and strategizing how we would execute this. I will provide details next week.

In regards to second citizenship opportunities– I plan on rolling out quite a bit of information later this month, probably the week of the February 22nd. Stay tuned.

“LookingToLeave” asks: “Simon, do you have any suggestions for someone who plans on possibly using physical gold as a way to move their wealth out of the U.S.?”

Transporting gold is a great way to move wealth– a mere six pounds is over $100,000. There are three things you need to keep in mind:

First, the US government (and Canada too) does not consider gold to be a monetary instrument, so technically it would not be reportable… but be prepared to tap dance in case some Neanderthal government agent becomes suspicious about it.

I say this because in my travels recently, nearly every border guard I’ve come across has wanted to know one thing: “How much money are you carrying?”

Second, don’t forget to check the regulations on your destination country. Some places, like Uruguay, require you to declare gold upon arrival.

Third, do not underestimate security. If you’re confident, you can carry it yourself, but consider engaging a company like ViaMat to securely transport it for you.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll talk again on Monday.

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February 11, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand

Years ago, when I was a bright-eyed lieutenant anxious to defend the world against evil and tyranny, the government decided to ship me off to become an intelligence officer.

I remember a lot of the classroom training, learning about the enemy’s order of battle and maneuver capabilities. Ironically, we were still studying Soviet tactics at the time, even though the Berlin Wall had become a tourist attraction over a decade prior.

During my field training, we focused on collection efforts and intelligence gathering. My instructors would continually hammer into us the importance of ‘indicators,’ signs or symptoms that strongly imply a future action or trend.

According to our threat doctrine, for example, a small isolated scout platoon would be an indicator for a heavily armed vanguard only a few kilometers behind. Ground commanders would rely on these indicators to make tactical decisions, e.g. reinforcing defensive positions in expectation of the vanguard’s attack within the hour.

In his book Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote, “Intelligence is the most important work, because the entire force relies on it for every move… It is the essence of strategy.” Outside of war, the same holds true in finance. Savvy investors rely on market and economic indicators to provide intelligence on future trends.

Part of the trick is differentiating the valuable indicators from the worthless ones… and too many people pay attention to worthless indicators.  Government-manufactured statistics like inflation and unemployment rates, for example, are merely comical charades masquerading as economic indicators.

To get an indication of where the economy is headed, you have to listen to the economy. To get an indication of where the market is headed, you have to listen to the market.

I’ll give you a few examples:

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January 25, 2010

Panama City, Panama

A few weeks ago, I told you about a new private vault facility that was opening soon in Panama called “Best Safety Boxes.” At the time, I had not personally checked out the facility but at least wanted to make you aware of its opening.

Late last week, I had the opportunity to meet with the owners and take a personal tour of the facility. In full disclosure, I have decided against renting a box at the facility simply because I refuse to submit my biometric data for storage.

Furthermore, to make things even more clear, I want you to understand that I am receiving absolutely no compensation to say this, and I have no interest in the company, financial or otherwise.
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I’m heading out the door to Africa, so I’m keeping it short today… hopefully I won’t get lost in the mountains this time, wish me luck.

Last week I wrote about four jurisdictions that I am comfortable with to store gold overseas– Panama, Austria, Hong Kong, and Singapore.  Remember, one of the key benefits to trading paper currency for gold is that it anonimizes your money. Storing it overseas in a private facility keeps it outside of the financial system.

As last week’s letter was just a short overview, I promised that I would shortly send you my updated report on moving and storing gold overseas.

As promised, I finished the update and am making it available for you to download here:

http://www.SovereignMan.com/gold%20report%202010.pdf

I hope you find the information valuable– it discusses the four jurisdictions in more detail, plus a few more, and also provides some specific tips for actually moving precious metals overseas.

Let me know what you think and if you have any additional questions.

Additionally, I received a few emails from subscribers who had trouble listening to the interview with the international tax attorney from yesterday– if you want to download the audio file, you can do so here:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/withoutborders/OffshoreStructures.mp3

all you have to do is “Right Click” (or “control” + click if you have a Mac) then “Save As” to save the file to your computer.

If you own a business or are planning to start one, you absolutely will not want to miss that interview (unless you enjoy overpaying your taxes or don’t care if you get sued). We discuss how you can set up a business overseas, reduce your tax burden, and safeguard your assets.

Tomorrow I plan on sitting down and answering some overdue questions, so stay tuned for that.

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If I have been too subtle in the past, let me be absolutely clear this afternoon: the time to do something, the time to take action to safeguard your future and your families livelihood, is NOW.

I’m more impassioned than usual this morning… and with reason.  Reluctantly, I tuned in to Team Obama’s press briefing last night about the ongoing saga of the Nigerian underwear bomber.  Obama’s is clearly trying to cultivate a fear of al-qaeda while simultaneously building blind trust in his government.

After the President’s remarks, his Homeland Security Secretary and Deputy National Security Advisor took the stage to unveil a series of proposals to ‘improve security.’

I’ll spare you the details as you have probably already heard them, but the bottom line is simply more government– a bureaucrat’s ultimate and only solution. This means more TSA, more air marshals, more undercover agents, more gun-toting soldiers, more pat-downs, more scanners, more searches, more scrutiny, more suspicion, etc.

How do you spell police state?

I’m ordinarily laid back about this sort of thing. I can afford to be since I’m a safe distance from all of that stupidity… but in this case I looked down to find that my knuckles were turning white, clenched around my glass of 2005 priorato.

I set my wine down and remarked to my friends who were watching with me, “What is it going to take for people to wake up and get the hell out of town? Do they need legions of storm troopers marching down the street before they realize it’s time to go??”

I was positively exacerbated.  The US is turning into a police state, and I’m not even saying this specifically to Americans living there. Many countries around the world are following close order behind Uncle Sam.

Once again, the time to act is now.  So what should you do?

First, make sure you have access to funds outside of your home country. This is one of the most important flags that you can plant.  You should open a foreign bank account (like I discussed in the Panama Black Paper), and/or consider storing precious metals in a private storage facility overseas.

Later this quarter, I plan on releasing a new Black Paper that contains actionable information to open an account at safe foreign banks that still take US customers.  You haven’t heard of most of them, and would probably never hear about them because it’s actually illegal for foreign bank to advertise in the United States in most cases.

Stay tuned for that.

Second, you should really be thinking hard about foreign property. Why? Because it can be a great investment; it’s an easy, non-reportable way to move money overseas; and it can be your escape hatch when you’re finally ready to hit the eject button.

Remember, I’m not talking about a 50 million euro villa in Monaco; you can pick up cheap land in Latin America for less than $50 per acre, and I’m pretty sure that everyone reading this letter has at least 50 bucks to spare.

Also, as I’ve discussed in the past, you can buy foreign property using your tax-deferred retirement savings, and I plan on revisiting this topic in short order because it is an absolute no-brainer.

Additionally, if there’s interest, I may also explore the idea of building a small, cost-effective, subscribers-only development.  It would likely be on the outskirts of Panama City and include self-sustaining fresh water and agricultural resources.

Third, if you have the means, you should really consider obtaining second (or third, fourth, etc.) citizenship. Second citizenship can be the ultimate emergency exit if things get really bad, and it effectively serves as the most comprehensive insurance policy you could even have.

I have a lot of contacts in this field, and my colleagues and I are currently experimenting with a few options that I plan on bringing to you soon.  I won’t bring you a passport program unless one of us has gone through the process ourselves, so give me some time while we play guinea pig.

Fourth, give serious consideration to your finances; unless you are already independently wealthy or have sustainable income streams, think about what you would do to earn money if you lost your job today.

Think about what skills you have– what problems can you solve that other people are willing to pay you for? What opportunities to you see around you that can be quickly and profitably exploited?

I guarantee you that there is opportunity everywhere around you. For example, a friend of mine is an intelligent, 22-year old girl who lives in Minsk, Belarus– the last bastion of the Iron Curtain.  While Belarus is not the totalitarian state it once was under the Soviet Empire, it’s pretty close.

And yet, despite living under a tyrannical yolk, my friend has become quite a successful entrepreneur, launching a successful brick-and-mortar company and several profitable web sites just within the last few months.

I raise this simply to point out that if an inexperienced but intelligent and energetic young girl can find opportunity in a place like Belarus, then I would wager that there is a plethora of opportunity out there in places like Panama, Abu Dhabi, Chile, China, Angola, Thailand, Bulgaria, and even the US/Europe.

In fact, I know this to be true because I see so much of this opportunity when I travel.

So those are the top four things I would recommend you do in making your own personal preparations. I clearly have a lot of work to do between the real estate, the citizenship programs, and the banking Black Paper… but after seeing the writing on the wall so plainly last night, I will be refocusing my efforts to get these moving quickly for you.

In the meantime, let me know your thoughts– I’m frankly curious to know what you would like to see in a real estate development, and at what, if anything, it would take for you to hit the eject button.

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