Latest Articles

Last week we saw how quickly a currency crisis can destroy someone’s savings.

In just one week, the value of the Turkish Lira plummeted over 30% after the US imposed sanctions against Turkey.

So anyone holding all of their savings in Turkish Lira got hammered.

This was an unfortunate reminder of the importance of a Plan B – an insurance plan to make sure your wealth and your family are safe no[...] Click here to continue reading

It’s been a hell of a week here in the Italian countryside. I’ve been treating my team and some friends to a sort of mini-vacation at a 400-year old wine and olive estate that we’ve taken over.

The views, the food, the wine, the company… it’s all incredible. Each night about two dozen of us dine outside under a canopy of grape vines, and the conversations are so stimulating that the dinners often last[...] Click here to continue reading

It was late October, 1989.

East Germany was disintegrating, and the Berlin Wall was days away from coming down.

The Soviet Union was just starting to fall apart.

George H. W. Bush (the elder) was President of the United States.

And the #1 movie in the world was John Travolta’s Look Who’s Talking.

It was during that month that the US stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 index,[...] Click here to continue reading

Let me say up front-- I know I’ve been a bit quiet lately.

It happens every year around this time when I hold the annual Liberty and Entrepreneurship Camp that I’ve been sponsoring for the past nine years.

The event is incredible: I bring in top entrepreneurs and business executives, plus students from all over the world-- places like Ivory Coast, Brazil, Singapore, Russia and the United States.

It’s five days of[...] Click here to continue reading

For the remainder of this week and through the weekend, I’m in Trakai, Lithuania – just outside the capital of Vilnius – for our 9th annual Blacksmith Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp.

Each summer, I host 60+ students from around the world in this picturesque setting.

But these aren’t your normal “students.” These are entrepreneurs.

Some have already started businesses and are seeking the next step in their professional development. Others are still[...] Click here to continue reading

Yesterday, I shared how you can get a Brazilian passport for your entire family by having a baby within the country’s borders.

Today, we’ll continue our discussion of building a proper Plan B. Again, a Plan B is simply an insurance policy.

So many people have the vast majority of their assets in their home country. But that puts you and your assets at tremendous risk.

If anything goes wrong in your[...] Click here to continue reading

I’ve been talking a lot about economic and market risks in Notes lately.

But there’s a potentially even larger risk that you’re completely ignoring today.

If you live, work, invest, own a business, bank or hold assets in a single country, you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket.

You’re making a very large bet that everything will be alright in that one country – forever.

It would only take[...] Click here to continue reading

Sometimes I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe… it’s like the financial version of the ‘upside down’ from Stranger Things.

Case in point: last night the infamously loss-making electric car maker Tesla announced its quarterly earnings.

As usual, the numbers were gruesome. Tesla’s net loss was TWICE AS BAD as the previous quarter, a record NEGATIVE $717 million. That’s a LOT WORSE than analysts were expecting.

After adjusting for various[...] Click here to continue reading

In a world full of reckless and extreme monetary policy, Japan no doubt takes the cake.

The country has total debt of more than ONE QUADRILLION YEN (around $10 trillion) pushing its debt-to-GDP ratio to a whopping 224% - that puts it ahead of financial basket case Greece, whose debt-to-GDP is around 180%.

Japan spent 24.1% of its total revenue (appx. 23.5 trillion yen) last year servicing its debt – both paying down[...] Click here to continue reading

In a major victory for common sense, a group of cosmetologists defeated an insanely stupid regulation passed down by the state of Louisiana.

Louisiana, just like the other 49 states in the Land of the Free, governs licensing requirements for dozens… hundreds of professions… ranging from athletic trainers to tour guides to barbers and cosmetologists.

And most of the time the licensing requirements are just plain idiotic.

In Louisiana, for example, the[...] Click here to continue reading