Category: simonblack

Cartagena, Colombia: Because of a $47 dispute the whole world got to know about Cartagena, a city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. For all the wrong reasons, unfortunately.

Two years ago Cartagena hosted the Summit of the Americas, a get-together of all heads of state for countries from North, Central, and South America, bar Cuba.

Before Barack Obama got there a group of Secret Service agents that descended on Cartagena decided to have some fun. And apparently it was a wild night.

It would probably all go down unnoticed – including the summit in Colombia itself – had it not been for a huge ruckus and dispute the next morning with the girls that the agents brought back to their hotel over the payment for their services.

Cartagena deserves its attention for a host of other reasons, however.

It was one of the most important cities during the expansion of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Its port was a major trading hub for gold and silver mined in New Granada and Peru. Galleons loaded with precious metals would depart from Cartagena for Spain.

Because of its economic and subsequent political influence in the Americas the city had a strong presence of royalty and wealthy viceroys. Its riches made it the top target for pirates and Cartagena is THE city most associated with pirates in the Caribbean, and the world.

To defend against the plundering the Spanish have built an elaborate system of walls, fortifications, bastions, and castles. The construction began after the attack by Francis Drake in late 16th century and took an incredible two hundred years to complete.

Thanks to those efforts, however, Cartagena’s old colonial town is today immaculately preserved.

It’s an incredibly charming place full of colorful balconied houses, open plazas, imposing colonial administrative and religious buildings, horse-drawn chariots clomping through the streets, performers, flamboyant fruit sellers, musicians… etc.

The place has a great jovial vibe. But that’s not all there is to Cartagena.

Just a 5-minute taxi ride away and you can change the fairy-tale romantic old town for a Miami Beach-like setting in Bocagrande where new high-rise hotels and apartment buildings are popping up like mushrooms after autumn rain.

No wonder the place is a tourist magnet. Most of them are from other Latin American countries, however. There are hardly any Western tourists here, apart from an odd backpacker.

For now the property market is largely driven by Colombians who have favored this Caribbean town for a long time. It’s still an “undiscovered” investment haven when it comes to foreign, and especially Western investors for now.

That’s something that’s bound to change as Colombia goes through its transformation period and sheds it bad-boy image.

A few European investors have already started coming in. But the potential that Cartagena has is enormous, given its bountiful attributes.

And the time to get in on the action and enjoy the spoils of its rise to prominence again is now, especially as practically no one else is looking at it.

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March 5, 2014
En route to Colombia

President Obama released his 2015 budget proposal yesterday… and as expected, it contained even more language about his MyRA initiative.

As we’ve discussed so many times in the past, IRAs are an irresistible kitty for such a bankrupt government.

The US government itself estimates that over $5 trillion is tucked away in American retirement accounts.

They need that money. Your money.

Think about it– the Chinese are starting to dump their US Treasuries in record numbers. The Social Security trust fund is also on track to start dumping Treasuries in order to pay out record numbers of retirees.

The US government is struggling to come up with new funding sources… and retirement accounts are by far the easiest target.

Why? Because the majority of retirement accounts at trapped at big Wall Street banks, which are all de facto agents of the government. All the Treasury Department has to do is make a phone call.

Of course, they’ll claim that it’s for your own good. I suspect they’ll wait until there’s a big stock market crash and then say “We must protect Americans from such risky investments. And that’s why today we are requiring these banks to invest a portion of the retirement accounts they manage in the safety and security of US government Treasuries.”

A few weeks ago in his Sad State of the Union address, President Obama announced this MyRA program– a new initiative that will “help” Americans invest directly in US Treasuries.

Then he looked everyone in the eye and said, “These accounts will never go down in value…”

Naturally. How could loaning money at rates which don’t even keep pace with inflation to a country that has racked up more debt than any other nation in the history of the world possibly pose a risk?

After announcing MyRA, Mr. Obama took to the streets, and his team took to the media… flooding newspapers and airwaves with MyRA propaganda.

Yesterday’s budget announcement constitutes the next phase: automatic enrollment.

And I suspect that, just like Obamacare, there will soon come a time when it will become MANDATORY to have some sort of retirement plan set up, naturally with the government option at people’s fingertips.

This isn’t some far-fetched conspiracy theory. In fact, it’s already happened in so many countries over the last few years– from Argentina to Ireland to Poland.

In fact, even the Treasury Department grabbed government pension funds at least three times since 2011 in order to plug temporary funding gaps.

The Federal Times, a publication for senior government managers, ran a story back in 2011 entitled “Treasury raids your pension – but don’t worry, Geithner says”.

This idea is no longer theory or conjecture. It’s happening, and the conclusions are all supported by the data.

Anyone who thinks ‘that will never happen here’ is really fooling themselves… and playing very dangerous games with their hard-earned savings.

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March 5, 2014
En route to Colombia

“Putin: Unconstitutional coup is taking place in Ukraine. The U.S halted military cooperation and trade negotiations with Russia”

That’s the headline from a Beijing newspaper– and no surprise that it leans slightly to the Russian side.

The article goes on:

“Russian president Putin said on 4th March that unconstitutional coup is taking place in Ukraine and Russia will only use the army to Ukraine under “the most extreme situation”. This was the first time that Putin declared this publicly since the escalation of the situation in Ukraine.”

“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened on March 2nd that the U.S and allied countries will take a series of actions including visa ban, capital controls, economic and trade sanctions, etc.”

“The White House issued this in a joint statement signed by the Group of Seven member countries and accused Russia of violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The White House also declared temporarily not to participate in the preparation for the G8 summit scheduled for June in Sochi, Russia.”

– and of course :

“Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Liu Jieyi called for dialogue of all sides to resolve differences and maintain regional peace and stability. The united nations security council held an emergency meeting on the Ukrainian situation. Liu Jieyi said in the meeting that China is deeply concerned about Ukrainian situation and condemn the extreme violence in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Russian newspaper Itar Tass had this headline (loose translation):

“Putin: Those [foreign nations] who are talking about imposing sanctions on the Russian Federation should first consider the impact of those sanctions”

The article goes on:

“President Putin told reporters that the damage to all countries involved is mutual:

“We can cause damage to each other– mutual damage. And this needs to be thought about. . . We believe our actions are fully justified. And any threats to Russia are counterproductive and harmful.”

Mr. Putin added that Russia is still preparing for upcoming G8 meeting.

“If [the other countries] do not want to come, they don’t have to,” he told reporters .

The Russian President also expressed the opinion that the U.S. has historically created its own geopolitical goals, and then dragging along the rest of the world underneath them:

“Our partners, especially in the U.S.– they always clearly formulate their geopolitical interests and pursue them very aggressively. Guided by the well-known phrase, “you are either with us or against us,” they drag the rest of the world along, underneath them. And whoever doesn’t go along is beaten and usually killed,” the President told reporters.

He emphasized that Russia’s actions come from legitimate grounds.So on one hand, the Chinese are essentially making the West out to be the belligerents, the Russians to be defending their interests, and the Chinese as the strong diplomats who are pushing for peace.

And on the other hand, the Russian papers are highlighting the utter hypocrisy of US foreign policy– it’s OK for America to invade whatever country it likes, but not for Russia to defend its own interests.

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March 4, 2014
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

Warren Buffet sees a different America than I do. I would wager he sees a different America than untold millions of people do too.

And with due respect to the kind-hearted Mr. Buffet, who is undoubtedly an accomplished and savvy investor, the man has been a major beneficiary of the greatest monetary fraud ever pulled in the history of the world.

In his most recent annual report just released yesterday, Mr. Buffet lauds the United States of America, writing:

“Indeed, who has ever benefited during the past 237 years by betting against America? If you compare our country’s present condition to that existing in 1776, you have to rub your eyes in wonder. And the dynamism embedded in our market economy will continue to work its magic. America’s best days lie ahead.”

Such language is typical for Mr. Buffett, he is one of America’s biggest cheerleaders. Again, with good reason.

For one, the unprecedented monetary expansion over the last decades has created a major boon for Mr. Buffet and his net worth.

His company Berkshire Hathaway has a balance sheet worth $485 billion. 25% of that is simply invested in the stock market with big chunks of Coca Cola and American Express.

These stock prices have boomed in an era of unprecedented money printing, adding billions to Mr. Buffett’s net worth.

Second, it’s important to note that over 75% of Berkshire’s revenue comes from highly regulated, absurdly profitable, tax advantageous businesses that are simply not accessible to the average guy.

For example, Mr. Buffett gleefully writes about the $77 billion ‘float’ from his insurance businesses.

This is money that is collected from insurance customers. And while he might have to pay out insurance claims someday, for now he gets to borrow from that kitty at 0% and generate higher returns elsewhere.

On top of this, Mr. Buffett has been able to defer a full $57 billion in tax, indefinitely kicking the can down the road on his IRS bill thanks to industry-specific tax rules.

Again, you and I couldn’t do this because we don’t have access to these special privileges. Warren Buffett does.

Warren Buffett also has special access to lawmakers in the US who clamor to be in his favor.

During the early days of the financial crisis in 2008, for example, Buffett was getting desperate phone calls from the Treasury begging him to make investments in the financial system.

And as a result, he was able to arrange sweetheart deals, brokered by the US government.

It also may just be a wild coincidence that the US government has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline… and Mr. Buffett’s railways just -happen- to be among the prime beneficiaries.

Yes, I think if we all had the special privilege, access, and benefit that Warren Buffett enjoys, we too would all be jumping for joy about America.

But Uncle Warren lives in a different America– the America of the past.

With due deference to his investment acumen, Mr. Buffett should know that no nation in history has been able to -permanently- stand atop the world’s economic mountain.

Like human beings ourselves, nations also rise, peak, and decline. It is their own life cycle.

And the America that Mr. Buffett doesn’t acknowledge is the one that is in debt past its eyeballs.

It is the America that spies on its citizens and threatens people with imprisonment for victimless crimes and administrative transgressions.

It is the America that conjures trillions of paper dollars out of thin air in total desperation, sending the labor force participation rate to multi-decade lows.

It is the new America that exists for a tiny elite at the expense of everyone else.

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March 4, 2014
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

This is just too funny… not in that ‘ha ha’ funny way, but a very ironic funny. It’s British humor, folks.

The White House announced on Saturday that President Obama had a 90 minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.

Now, I’m going to play Captain Obvious for a moment and point out the unmistakable truth that the US government doesn’t care about Ukraine. They just don’t like the idea of a tough-guy Russia.

But here’s the funny part, because I’m sure we’ve all been on long, boring conference calls before.

I have this image in my mind of Putin putting Obama on speaker phone during this call, hitting the ‘mute’ button, and having an aggressive round of drinking games while they all make fun of POTUS and take turns doing Obama impressions.

And as Obama hit the high note, Putin probably gave signal to his generals right then and there, in the middle of the call, to push troops forward into Ukraine.

Because the sad part about this is that Mr. Obama actually believes that Putin gives a damn what the US thinks about Russia.

Seriously, if the shoe were on the other foot, would Mr. Obama care what the Russians thought if the US decided to invade… Syria? Oh, wait.

Yes, this is a movie we’ve all seen before. It’s entitled “Too broke for war”, and I personally like the British version the best.

You probably recall, the British government was too broke for war back in 1956 to seize control of the Suez in Egypt after Nasser nationalized the canal.

Or the Spanish version of the same episode– back in 1898 when the Spanish government was too broke (and broken) to maintain its global colony network. They ended up losing Cuba, the Philippines, etc. to the upstart US empire.

The US has reached that point– too broke to project any power overseas.

Mr. Obama was already stopped by Russia from invading Syria late last year, and at this point the Russians know that Mr. Obama is armed with little more than harsh words and a mean jump shot.

In fairness, it’s unlikely that Mr. Putin has any intent to Annex greater Ukraine. Ukraine is viewed as a quaint, somewhat backward place by Russians. There is no great pan-Slavic nationalism at play here.

This is nothing more than a strutting peacock show right now, and it will end once he has proved his point. But unlike France, the US, the UK, etc., Mr. Putin actually has the funds to do it.

But the most ironic part of this sad little episode is that the US government was caught totally off guard… completely unaware of Russian troop movements.

I mean, seriously, why in the world are they spending tens of billions of dollars a year to spy on the whole world? They’re archiving all of our emails, listening to our phone calls, hacking our webcams… and they can’t put 2 and 2 together to figure out that Putin is going to invade Ukraine?

Talk about an utter intelligence failure.

It’s national security theater of the absurd, brought to you by the same folks who can’t put a website together.

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March 3, 2014
London, England

[Editors note: Tim Price, Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management and frequent Sovereign Man contributor is filling in for Simon today.]

A few weeks ago, William White (former economist at the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, and Bank of International Settlements) made a frank admission.

And while we search for assets whose prices are less obviously distorted by malign government intervention, it’s refreshing to hear a mea culpa from a member of the economics “profession”.

White said:

“The analytical underpinnings of what we [mainstream economists] do are actually pretty shaky. A reflection of that fact, is that virtually every aspect you can think of with respect to monetary policy, about best practice, has changed and changed repetitively over the course of the last 50 years. So, this stuff ain’t science.

“Think about what’s happened recently. One, its completely unprecedented. People are making it up as they go along. This is hardly science – building on the pillars of the past.

“Secondly, what they’ve been making up as they go along actually differs across central banks [The Bundesbank, for example, is fighting the threat of high inflation, whereas the Fed is more concerned about the prospect of deflation]. They can’t even agree amongst themselves about what’s the best way to do things.

“I’m becoming more and more convinced that all of the models we use are basically useless.

“It’s surprising that we’ve had this huge crisis that the mainstream didn’t predict. It’s gone on for years, which the mainstream absolutely didn’t predict. I would have thought this was a basis for a fundamental rethink about what we used to think we believed. But that hasn’t happened.

“The policies that we’ve followed – on the monetary side at least – since 2007 are just more of the same demand-stimulating policies that we’ve been following, I think, erroneously, for the last 30 years.

“We’ve got the potential to do so much harm by not getting the creation of fiat credit and money right. We’ve got the capacity to do so much harm that we should be focusing much more on making sure that doesn’t happen.”

[End quote]

Doctors at least have the Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm. If only economists and central bankers had a similar ethic.

But they don’t. So they continue ‘making it up as they go along’, as Mr. White suggests, applying failed ideas with impunity and continued authority to an unquestioning public.

Warren Buffett famously compared financial markets to the card table, observing that if you’ve been playing poker for half an hour and you still don’t know who the patsy is, then you’re the patsy. It seems we are all patsies now.

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February 28, 2014
Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile

“Hey I just wanted to let you know, a guy from the local government was here today…”

That was one of the first phone calls I received from the manager of this place just a few days after I had taken over this farm a couple of years ago.

A visit from the government seemed harmless enough. My friends back in the US who were farmers always complained about incessant, nonstop visits from various federal, state, and local agencies ranging from immigration to census workers to food inspectors.

“How often do they come around?” I asked, hoping the answer would be something like ‘monthly’ or ‘quarterly’.

“I haven’t seen anyone from the government in eight years…”

Nice. And he was right.

In the years since then, there was only one ‘emergency’ instance in which some guys from the Agriculture Department came to warn us about a plant disease going around which might damage the grapes.

As they drove off I thought of that old Reagan quote– “wow, they’re from the government and really were here to help…”

In stark contrast, a rather depressing story emerged from the Land of the Free this week demonstrating how the FDA is taking a very heavy hand to American farmers.

The LA Times reports that federal agents are swarming onto private properties across the countries to regulate how Mom and Pop farmers grow their organic produce.

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Of course it’s all in the name of protecting the American people. Just like the body scanners they installed at airports, why they spend hundreds of billions on foreign wars, why they read all of your email, and why they’ve launched a government retirement program. For your protection.

So now there’s a bunch of bureaucrats dictating everything from how organic farmers are allowed to compost, to how close animals can be to the crops.

(Naturally the big guys like Monsanto get a pass…)

Unfortunately it’s pushing small farmers out of business. Don Bessemer of Akron, Ohio recently called it quits after the government bureaucrats proved too much to handle:

“We haven’t poisoned anybody with an ear of corn for 117 years and we’ve shipped it all over. . . I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard what are you going to do?”

This is central planning at its finest. And it’s a pretty sad state of affairs when the only options are (1) going out of business, or (2) dealing with bloodsucking bureaucrats who know nothing about your business.

The truth is, though, those aren’t the only two options. As we tell our students each year at our summer entrepreneurship camps, there’s an entire world out there full of incredible opportunities.

Colombia, where my team and I just came from, is a place with amazing undiscovered possibilities. Here in Chile is another that I discuss frequently.

The world is full of thriving nations with boundless opportunities where you don’t have to serve feckless bureaucrats.

This is a hard mental adjustment. We’re programmed to view anything outside of our home country as perilous and to fear the unknown. So many folks would rather suffer in a place they know rather than take a chance on a place they don’t.

Fortunately it’s rather easy to overcome this mental hurdle by starting slowly. I’ve seen hundreds of people take their first trips overseas and be shocked at how modern and civilized many foreign countries are.

They find out it’s not so scary after all. And it sure beats the slow grind of watching your freedom and livelihood erode.

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February 27, 2014
Medellin, Colombia

$1 billion.

That’s how much the old Medellin drug cartel under Pablo Escobar used to lose annually to rats that would eat the currency stored in their warehouses.

At its height, the cartel was smuggling 15 tons of cocaine per year into the US. And its leader Pablo Escobar was one of the richest men in the world… so rich, in fact, he offered at one point to pay off Colombia’s $10 billion national debt.

At the time their home base of Medellin was the most violent city in the world owing to urban wars among Colombia’s rival drug cartels. The city’s people mostly stayed at home and there was hardly any social life.

But things started to change dramatically with the death of Pablo Escobar in 1993, and even more after 2002 when Colombia’s president Álvaro Uribe used the military to disband urban militias.

Today, Medellin is one of the most vibrant cities on the South American continent. The crime rate is now lower than in most US cities. Over the past 20 years it has gone through a remarkable urban renewal and revitalization.

The city’s parks have been brought back to life, urban transport is widespread and efficient, including a metro system and cable cars that ferry people up and down the hillside.

Most importantly, the people have shrugged off worries and dark memories of the turbulent past and now look into the future with excitement and optimism.

There is a very noticeable ‘can do’ mentality here, which stands in stark contrast to some other places in Latin America.

The city lies about 1,500 m high in the Andean mountains and the sky is quite literally the limit here.

In 2012 Medellin was named as the most innovative city in the world in a competition sponsored by The Wall Street Journal and Citi, beating New York and Tel Aviv as the other finalists.

It boasts 32 universities, a technological innovation hub, and a manufacturing cluster—it’s the top exporting region of Colombia. International companies are increasingly choosing Medellin as their Latin American headquarters.

Foreigners are slowly getting taken over by the charms of the city—its perfect climate with stable year-round temperatures of 16-28 degrees and no humidity despite being near the Equator.

Medellin has an exciting, vibrant culture and social life… not to mention tremendous opportunities as Colombia shrugs off its outdated stigma. The country is truly emerging as one of the most exciting investment and business environments in the world.

In fact, Medellin’s property market is one of the most attractive I’ve seen.

For a city of its size, its increasing economic might, and its allure for foreigners, it’s incredible that you can still find beautiful bargain-priced apartments and penthouses in the best areas of the city for around $1,000 per square meter.

If you’re in search for attractive and exciting investing, business and lifestyle opportunities, Medellin should definitely be on your radar.

[Note to Premium Members: We’ll be discussing all of these in an upcoming Alert.]

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February 26, 2014
Medellin, Colombia

Pop quiz: When really nasty criminals and dictators want to hide their illicit gains, which country do they go to?

I’ll make this easy for you– multiple choice:

a) Switzerland
b) British Virgin Islands
c) Hong Kong

With all the drama, history, and stigma surrounding Switzerland, most people would choose (A).

Yet over the last few years, Switzerland has worked hard to shed this reputation, even going so far as to propose laws making it easier for them to freeze dictators’ funds.

But in reality, the correct answer to the question is (D), none of the above. It’s the United States of America.

Despite being at the forefront for every other country in the world to eradicate banking privacy, the US government has hardly done a thing about the huge cracks in its own banking system… at least when it comes to foreigners.

Many states ranging from Delaware to New Mexico boast corporate entities that can be completely private, especially for foreign shareholders.

Not to mention, attorney-client privilege laws in the US mean that a lawyer can be inserted between a foreigner and their Delaware bank account, making the funds virtually untraceable back to the original shareholder overseas.

Last– the US banking system is so large with hundreds of billions of dollars of inflows and outflows, it’s quite easy for several hundred million to slip right past the radar.

So if you’re a villainous dictator who has plundered your citizens’ wealth, you’d be a fool to stash that cash away in Switzerland. Wall Street banks are waiting with open arms, and Saul Goodman is just a phone call away.

None of this, by the way, is any wild conspiracy theory. It’s all fact… validated by the US government itself.

You see, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the US Treasury Department, sent out a rather frantic email blast to banks across the United States yesterday about former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Mr. Yanukovych recently fled his home country and is on the run from mass murder charges. And as you can imagine, he has spent years plundering the wealth of Ukraine.

FinCEN recognizes that Yanukovych has substantial assets stashed away in the Land of the Free… and they’re keen to avoid yet another embarrasing public scandal in which the US banking system is caught financing a fugitive dictator.

So their email yesterday was a not-so-subtle suggestion to banks across the country that they should sound the alarm bells with respect to “suspicious movements of assets related to Viktor Yanukovych. . . and other senior officials resigning from their positions or departing Kyiv.”

It certainly begs the question– why would FinCEN send out such an admonishment to US banks?

Simple. Because while ordinary citizens are treated like dairy cows and medieval serfs, FinCEN knows that the United States is the #1 financial safe haven in the world for foreign criminals and dictators.

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February 25, 2014
En route to Colombia

Li Mi-Yung just wanted to be free.

This 55-year old widow in North Korea had spent the last 18-months building up an off-grid residential homestead. She was, for the most part, fully independent.

She collected rain as a source of water. She had her own waste disposal. She generated her own electricity from the sun.

Sounds pretty admirable, right? Especially in a place where so few people are independent.

Unfortunately, upon finding out about Ms. Li’s living situation, the local authorities in North Korea dispatched entire teams of government workers to Ms. Li’s home, attempting to evict her and haul her in front of a tribunal.

Truly despicable. You’d think that the North Korean government would be eager to learn from her so that everyone else’s lives could be improved.

But alas, what else can one expect from the government of North Korea…?

There’s just two minor corrections I need to make to this story before I go on, though.

Li Mi-Yung is really Ms. Robin Speronis. And she does not live in North Korea. She lives in Cape Coral, Florida… in the Land of the Free. Everything else is true.

Yes, rather than try to learn from Mr. Speronis in an effort to improve the city’s public services, she was apparently branded as some kind of criminal mastermind who must be stopped at all costs.

When they heard last November that she was living off-grid, the city posted a notice of eviction, citing numerous code violations. They concluded that her dwelling (which she had been living in since January) was “unfit for human habitation.”

Furthermore, she was told that continuing to live at (or even ENTERING) the property would constitute misdemeanor trespassing and subject her to arrest.

Days ago, the case was heard in front of a special magistrate. City officials read off a seemingly endless list of code violations, and expert witnesseses were paraded into the court to confirm her nefarious deeds.

Naturally. Someone who unplugs from the system can only be trouble.

At the end of the hearing, the judge waived his hand, finding her guilty of some violations, not guilty of other violations, and then ordered her to at least partially plug back in to the grid.

I wish I could use a word like “amazing”, “unbelievable”, or “incredible” here. But I can’t. Because this is now par for the course in the Land of the Free.

Collecting rainwater now constitutes a crime. Being free and independent gets you threatened with eviction and hauled into court.

In the Land of the Free, you are unfit to decide for yourself how you want to live. And the government has all the power in the world to forcibly bend you to its will, even if it means terrorizing citizens into using public utilities.

It’s quickly getting to the point where anyone who wants to take back any personal freedom is going to have to seriously consider heading overseas to places where governments leave you the hell alone to live your life in peace.

Yes, it’s a radical thought. But so many great civilizations before were founded by intrepid free men and women who left their home countries in search of liberty and opportunity.

Why not now?

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