YOUR LOOK INSIDE REAL PORTFOLIOS
are now staggering. We’ve never seen the likes in the world.
Jim Rogers, legendary investor, co-founder of the Quantum Fund, author of Investment Biker among other books
Porter Stansberry, founder of Stansberry Research For me, I just try to buy a little more gold every year and I keep it in a place that I know is safe and that I control. I’m a huge fan of self-storage locations because they’re all over the world and nobody thinks there’s a box of gold coins under your old clothes or in a dirty sofa. It’s a very simple thing to do and I’d recommend making sure that the executor of your estate knows where that self-storage unit is. I’m also a big believer in real estate. I can imagine that the government is going to try to tax you and is going to try to take things from you at some point to repay its debts, but I think it’s very hard for the government to take agricultural properties in particular. That would be very disruptive to the economy. Timber, soybean farms, corn farms, wheat farms – all great disaster hedges, particularly timber. I think timber is overlooked by a lot of folks. Even more important is real estate in foreign countries. It’s a great asset that you do not have to report to the government as long as it is not producing income. So if you just want to hold a land bank, it’s a great way of parking $1 million or more in a foreign country. Of course, you face political risk in that country, but think about Argentina... There’s no more politically risky place in the world over the last 50, 60, 80 years than Argentina. How many revolutions have they had? How many devaluations? All
I haven’t heard a lot of serious talk about a jubilee anywhere in Asia. I occasionally see it mentioned somewhere in a publication or
something. It’s more likely to be something that would happen in the West or in Japan, rather than {mainland} Asia, because most Asians are still creditors, or even if they have debt, they don’t have massive debt. The Japanese are staggering with their debt. America is the largest debtor nation in the world, and getting higher and higher. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to be a place like that. But the implications are staggering... If there’s no debt and you’re a pensioner, what do you do? You’re dead. You’re bankrupt. You’re starving if you’re on a pension. Now, maybe we’re defining “jubilee” differently, but there is no question that a gigantic trauma is coming in the debt market, and many debts are going to be wiped out... whether it’s by bankruptcy or military action or who knows what. There’s no question about that. Debts are higher than they’ve ever been in recorded history. This is going to end badly. But if the theory is that governments are going to get together and say, “We abolish all debt, voluntarily,” – it could happen, but I’m skeptical. That does not mean that I don’t expect a lot of debt to be wiped out... As I’ve said before, we’re going to have the worst financial crisis in our lifetime because of the debt. That may be part of the factor. There is no question that the debts out there
48 | November 2017
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