As many of you may know,
International Man has its roots in
the book of the same name. It was first published in 1978 by
best-selling author, speculator, and renowned world-traveler Doug Casey.
The original intent of that book was to give readers a general sense of
the exciting and opportunity-rich world that lay outside of their
national borders, with a review of over 100 countries, valuable
"opportunity intelligence," and the resources that anyone could follow
to realize these opportunities.
Even though the book is now clearly out of date, the need for
information on internalization is more relevant than ever, as
governments the world over become more desperate. The purpose of this
website is to preserve the mission of that book and be the premier
location for up-to-date, highly actionable, and practical information on
the topic.
So why is internationalization prudent?
Doug Casey has said over and over that spreading your political risk
beyond one single jurisdiction is the single most important thing he can
recommend today.
Political risk is minimized when you don't depend absolutely on any one
particular country. Having all your eggs in one basket only makes it
easier for someone to grab them all. Being internationalized makes it
much harder for any particular government to control you.
We will no doubt see the major underlying trend of increasing political
risk (especially for Westerners) get worse as governments sink deeper
into fiscal and moral bankruptcy.
It is only prudent and logical to assume that you will, somehow and
someway, continue to be squeezed harder in the pocketbook and subjected
to escalating arbitrary and burdensome regulations and restrictions. In
short, expect more government and less freedom all around.
The window to protect yourself from these risks by diversifying
internationally gets verifiably smaller with each passing week. There
are many ways to internationalize that do not require you to leave your
home country. It is not necessary (at least, at the moment) that you
immediately leave and become an expat.
However,
it is necessary that you develop the options
to internationalize before the government closes the window of
opportunity to do so. If history is any guide, it won't be open forever.
In that sense, it is much better to have developed and implemented many
parts of your internationalization game plan a year early rather than a
minute late.
There are four broad areas of internationalization:
-
Savings: This covers how to setup offshore bank,
brokerage, and financial accounts, foreign real estate and "bolt-holes"
in case of trouble, moving and owning gold overseas, and structures like
foreign trusts that help to legally reduce taxes. Placing your savings
outside the immediate reach of your local government ensures that they
cannot be trapped in the case of capital controls or outright seized at
the drop of a hat, such as what happened when the government became sufficiently desperate in Cyprus.
-
Yourself: Obtaining a second passport from another country and establishing legal residency in foreign countries.
-
Income: The structuring of your cash flows to reduce
dependence on any one source in any one jurisdiction. Establishing
additional sources of revenue, international investment opportunities
and trends, and setting up an offshore company.
-
Digital Presence: This commonly includes your IP
address (which can often pinpoint you to a precise physical address),
email account, online file storage, and the components of
personal/business websites.
Last, I will leave you with a primer on internationalization with Doug Casey.
Please share this article
NOW has rallied from a bottom of $25 in January to a new 52-week high
of $44 in April. Along the way, the stock has formed a nice trendline
of support (blue). Always remember that any (2) points can start a
trendline, but it's the 3rd test and beyond that confirm its importance.
Obviously NOW's trendline is important to the stock since it has been
tested on multiple occasions.
