Jim Rogers, Adventure Capitalist

I am currently reading Adventure Capitalist, by Jim Rogers, a favorite investment guru of mine. Traveling around the world in a modified Benz in 2003, Jim Rogers describes his journey through the lens of someone seeking environments conducive to free exchange. In other words, the more free a location is of government and/or military coercion, the more desirable it is as a potential investment opportunity. His perceptions on cultures and governments are eye-opening.

...and I am only sixty or so pages into it.

So far, they have entirely covered Europe. They have spent time listening to the Grateful Dead while cruising down one of the world’s best highways in Turkey -- an American made artifact from the Cold War. They have had dinner with American ex-pats in Central Asia -- men incapable of making it on Wall Street during the booming nineties who now have cushy government jobs touting the world about "American capitalism”. From there, they went on to deal with the uninviting mafia-type culture of the “new” Russia and viewed the repercussions of seventy years of Soviet central planning. The ecological disaster that once was the Aral Sea may take another seven thousand to heal. Once a source of an eighth of all fish in the Soviet Union, it now supports no life, drained dry by Soviet-built dams. Jim also describes being the first human being to drive across China three times. (Rogers wrote about an earlier travel in another book Investment Biker.) The incredible changes that have occurred in the short time between his trips are astonishing.

The interesting thing about travel is that our preconceived notions are almost always different than our perceptions once we have actually been there. Unlike most travelogues, I have found his perceptions of Asia to be very similar to those I have from my trips there, so I look forward to his views on the rest of the world.

Like I said, I have just begun this great read. If you like adventure, travel and a unique perspective, this is great stuff. I am guessing I will be elaborating on it more in the future.

One Trillion Dollars (Times Fourteen)

Yes, I talk about debt too much. Maybe I am obsessed -- after all, I do have a widget displaying our national debt on this very page -- but eventually, a day will come when even our government will no longer be able to ignore it.

According to this from the BBC, a presidential panel set up to help trim the US budget deficit is finally calling for steep spending cuts and tax rises. Unlikely to happen of course, but at least the elephant in the room is no longer being ignored.

The article shares a great quote from Honeywell CEO Dave Cote's US Chamber of Commerce speech last month. Here is an extended version:

And how much is a trillion dollars? How do we put that into perspective? We work with millions and billions... but how to explain a trillion dollars to someone and how much that is? This is the best way I have found to get across the enormity of a trillion dollars. If you had spent a million dollars a day, every day, since Jesus Christ was born 2010 years ago, you would still not have spent a trillion dollars. And by 2021, that will be our annual interest bill alone!

There are only three ways to get out of debt: 1) Do the right thing and pay it back; 2) Be ethical, admit you are over-extended, default and declare bankruptcy, or 3) Cheat your debt holders, counterfeit currency and pay back your debts in worthless notes.

Only two of the above choices are ethical and legal, but which one do you think our government will choose?