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This one’s hot off the presses. Just yesterday, our friends at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a press release on its latest ruling related to foreign ‘money service businesses (MSBs).’ An MSB is a private company that provides certain financial services like check cashing, money orders, title pawn, payday loans, travelers’
February 15, 2012 Santiago, Chile The Foreign Account Tax Compliance act, or FATCA, is one of the most arrogant pieces of legislation ever conceived. President Obama signed the Act into law in 2010, and there are a some key provisions that are important to understand. Reporting Requirements of US Tax Serfs holding Foreign
February 14, 2012 Talca, Chile One of the local papers here in Chile ran an interesting story a few days ago about the number of young Spanish immigrants coming to Chile in search of work. Fed up with the ridiculously high unemployment rate in Spain, and tired of being shut out of every
February 13, 2012 London, England [Editor’s note: Professional money manager Tim Price is filling in for Simon today from London. His thoughts below on gold, bonds, and the false pretext of investing in equities is delightfully insightful.] For value investors of a certain age (e.g. mine), discovering that Warren Buffett could be wrong
February 10th, 2012 Santiago, Chile One of the greatest thinkers of all time was Austrian economic Friedrich Hayek, and his work The Road to Serfdom is an absolute must-read. Hayek’s writings are incredibly powerful in these times. In light of the countless recent examples of governments changing the rules whenever/wherever it suits them
February 9th, 2012 Santiago, Chile After more than a decade of year-over-year appreciation, many people are wondering if gold is just another bubble waiting to burst. No commodity or asset class in our historical record has ever shown such long-term growth, and consequently the “B-word” is being tossed around regularly in financial media.
February 8, 2012 Santiago, Chile One of the most terrifying aspects of George Orwell’s seminal work 1984 was his description of how society had turned into one giant police agency. People were encouraged to rat each other out, groomed since childhood to be unpaid government spies: “[Children] adored the Party and everything connected
[Editor’s Note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.] Hong Kong’s total population is around 7 million. The workforce is 3.75 million. So generous are the tax breaks and allowances, only about 1.5 million people pay any tax at all. A single person can earn HK$108,000 a
February 6th, 2012 Santiago, Chile In one of the most shamefully disingenuous reports we’ve seen in years, the US Labor Department released the latest employment figures on Friday showing that the headline US unemployment rate had fallen to 8.3%. Champagne and sound bites were pre-positioned in Washington as the self-congratulatory praise flowed like
February 3rd, 2012 Talca, Chile After a week away, I’m really happy to be back down on the farm in Chile. This is one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been on the planet… and each day, it’s becoming more and more a place where all of the fiat bubble kleptocratic nonsense
February 2, 2012 Undisclosed location If you’re like almost every single Internet user on the planet, you probably use Google for something. Maybe Gmail, maybe Google search, maybe Google Docs, maybe Google Voice… or maybe all of the above. Google recently began circulating a new privacy policy that will take place effective March
February 1st, 2012 Location Undisclosed The latest Case-Shiller numbers released yesterday showed that the US residential housing market is still very weak. After three straight months of declines, home prices are now at 2003 levels. Duh. To some, it was a shocking revelation. The pundits I saw discussing it yesterday practically had a
January 31, 2012 Nassau, Bahamas Wegelin & Co used to be Switzerland’s oldest private bank. Founded in 1741, they managed to survive every threat across three centuries: revolution, financial disaster, and war… from being invaded by Napoleon to the Sonderbundskrieg civil war to Adolf Hitler. Every threat except for one, that is: the
January 27, 2012 Manila, Philippines [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose is filling in today while Simon is at the farm in Chile.] There is a delicious irony in the world of economic policy at the moment. Back in 1997 and 1998 I had a ringside seat to the Asian financial crisis from my trading
[Editor’s Note: Simon’s friend Craig Ballantyne is filling in today to talk about the importance of the internet in generating independent income] In the late 1970’s one of my best friends and his family escaped from Armenia, then under communist rule. In fact, his father bought their way to America via Italy, eventually
