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Author: Lief Simon

12 Apr
The World’s Best Foreign Residency Options

The World’s Best Foreign Residency Options

There's No Such Thing As The "Best" Way To Go Offshore I have a friend who is pursuing multiple residency options concurrently. He's in different stages of trying to establish residency in several different countries with an eye to eventually obtaining citizenship in each one, as well. He figures that at least one of the [...]
29 Mar
Why Global Diversification Is The Key To Protecting and Growing Wealth In The Current Age

Why Global Diversification Is The Key To Protecting And Growing Wealth

I Make No Guarantees (And Neither Should Anyone Else) If re-elected, President Sarkozy of France is promising a new global tax on French corporations. He's also alluded to changing the country's approach to personal income tax, so that French citizens would be taxed on their global income, as U.S. citizens are. If you're shopping for [...]
26 Mar
Data-Mining In Counter-Terrorism Analysis

Data-Mining In Counter-Terrorism Analysis

Incremental Degradation Civil rights took another hit in the United States last week, as the incremental degradation of the average American's right to privacy marches on. Last week, Obama signed new guidelines allowing the "intelligence" community to retain electronic data believed potentially useful in the "War on Terrorism" for five full years (up from the [...]
22 Mar
Expat Life In Santiago, Chile

Expat Life In Santiago, Chile

Pinochet's Legacy Last week's trip was my first to Chile and, therefore, my first visit to Santiago. Santiago is a large, modern city where things generally work. New highways have been built and more new highways continue to be built to combat the traffic. The city boasts a clean, well-functioning subway system. And an economy [...]
19 Mar
Property Investing In Argentina

Property Investing In Argentina

Prediction: Buy Argentina In 2013 A colleague here in Mendoza, Argentina, where I've spent the weekend, has been talking about this country's last financial crisis, in 2001, which started with the unpegging of the Argentine peso to the U.S. dollar. "Those who didn't have some money outside the country were devastated," he explained. "But Argentines [...]
15 Mar
second citizenship and passport

The Benefits Of Holding A Second Passport

Reciprocity...And Other Reasons To Carry A Second Passport Panama is truly a convenient place to live if you want to travel around Latin America. Our flight on Tuesday from Panama City to Santiago, Chile, wasn't short (at seven hours), but it was painless. On-time departure from Tocumen International...good service from Copa in the air...on-time arrival [...]
08 Mar
Michigan Lottery Winner Accepting Food Stamps

Michigan Lottery Winner Accepting Food Stamps

Why Did Ireland Implode? (And What Can We Learn From That Debacle?) A top news story this morning is about a woman in Michigan who won US$1 million in the lottery. She took the lump-sum payout option and, after taxes, came away with US$500,000. The story isn't about her winning the lottery, but about the [...]
23 Feb
Investing In The Iraqi Dinar

Investing In The Iraqi Dinar

Can You Trust Me?...And Other Reader Comments Monday's e-letter hit a nerve with reader L.S. in the United States:"Dear Mr. Simon, "With all due respect, you have not a clue as to the IQD and its stated re-valuation. Your lack of knowledge and understanding of the IQD since 1992 to date and its current status brings [...]
20 Feb
A man with a bag in a ferry station

Avoiding Scams Overseas

Iraqi Currency Plays...And Other Scams "I'm moving to Panama (or some other country) as soon as my Iraqi dinars revalue."I've heard this comment maybe a half-dozen times over the last year or so. Someone (I don't know who) came up with a great, plausible scenario to get people to "invest" in the Iraqi currency. Telling [...]