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December 1, 2011 Santiago, Chile My business partner Matt is a great friend and hell of a guy. He’s also a big technology buff and is an early adopter of new products. A few weeks ago he gave me a Kindle Fire, Amazon’s new touch-screen digital reader. It’s great. Fabulous, actually. I used
November 28, 2011 Santiago, Chile If the global financial crisis has taught the world anything, it’s that there is massive weakness running through western banking systems. The big banks in New York and London, once considered to be the strongest and most stable in the world, have been completely exposed for what they
November 27, 2011 Santiago, Chile Some friends and I spent most of the weekend touring the future site of our resilient community in central Chile, just a few hours’ drive south of Santiago on a very modern highway. As I’ve mentioned before, the site sprawls across roughly 1,000 acres in a gorgeous setting;
November 25, 2011 Santiago, Chile I can’t even begin to describe how happy I am to be back in the land of the free… and yes, I’m talking about Chile. I arrived a few days ago to beautiful summertime weather (remember, the seasons are flipped down here in the southern hemisphere). As usual,
November 24, 2011 Santiago, Chile Today, a lot of readers are enjoying time with friends, family, fowl, and football. Others are perhaps commemorating the first day of the Roman solstice holiday Brumalia. Still others may be celebrating Teacher’s Day in the Republic of Turkey. And for others, it’s just Thursday. Here in Chile,
[Editor’s note: Simon’s friend Tim Price is a delightfully witty fund manager in the UK, one of the few free-thinking individuals in all of institutional finance. His recent thoughts below on the euro debacle, gold, and hyperinflation are some of the best ever written on the topics.] “We think we have an agreement, but we
November 22, 2011 Dallas, Texas, USA There are a lot of things to detest about traveling in, out, and through the United States. Coming in through customs can be one of the most demeaning experiences ever as the agents from the Department of Homeland Security tend to treat everyone like criminal terrorists. Then
November 21, 2011 Dallas, Texas, USA Did you hear about the latest civil unrest in Syria? Police in full riot gear swarmed peaceful students who were staging a completely non-violent, human-chain sit-in at a university campus. The Syrian police came up at point-blank range and hosed these kids down with pepper spray. If
Denver based Barnhardt Capital Management is a futures brokerage firm that focuses on agriculture, round-the-clock broker access, and inexpensive commissions. At least, it used to be. Barnhardt shuttered its operations yesterday after six-years in the business. The firm’s founder Ann Barnhardt posted the reasons online for the entire world to see: “I could
I had lunch yesterday with one of the sharpest financial minds I’ve met in a long time at a rather picturesque setting overlooking Evergreen Lake, west of Denver. The restaurant patrons were all well-to-do residents of this wealthy community… in fact, the whole area is like a bubble, largely shielded from any negative
November 16, 2011 Golden, Colorado Longtime readers know that I don’t spend much time in the United States; I usually swing by for a month or so each year to visit friends and family, and the period in-between visits can often stretch 6-months or more. This is sufficiently long enough that I notice
November 14, 2011 Manila, Philippines [Editor’s note: Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon Black today.] In the back of a chauffeured SUV limo, my friend Phil recently told me, “What I love about coming to the Philippines is that I feel like a rock star… not like at home where I’m a
November 11, 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada There’s a lot to cover today, so let’s dive into this week’s questions. First, Charles asks, “Simon, when you write about international diversification, I appreciate that you have so much personal experience. Multiple passports, overseas business, foreign bank accounts, storing gold abroad, etc., you’ve actually done it
November 10, 2011 Manila, Philippines There’s a key concept in economics called the law of diminishing returns. It sounds complex, but it’s actually very easy to understand. Imagine for a moment that there are two towns cut off from each other by a vast river. Communications and trade are infrequent at best. But
Christina Romer is the most dangerous woman in America right now. As an economics professor at the University of Berkeley, she’s charged with educating the next generation of productive citizens. She also formerly chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama. One would think that a person with that level of influence
