Dateline: Singapore As a contrarian entrepreneur and investor, I like to zig where others zag. Especially in lower-end businesses, many just follow the herd mentality and don't...
High taxes, government inefficiency, and the Four Minute Mile Effect
Dateline: Singapore Westerners have been taught from day one that high taxes and government inefficiency are simply the "price we pay for civilization". If you believe that,...
How to avoid the coming global wealth tax
Dateline: Singapore While Singapore isn’t exactly my cup of tea as a permanent residence, it’s always a pleasure arriving here for business. I flew to Singapore from Indonesia...
Find The Best Business Idea and Start a Business Overseas
Dateline: Jakarta, Indonesia I had planned to stay in Jakarta for most of December before darting over to spend Christmas in the Philippines with some business contacts....
10 Countries with the Fastest Internet in the World
Last updated February 10, 2021 Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia In this day and age, having fast internet is a necessity. Whether you’re a serious location independent...
Living in Indonesia: Jakarta’s cheap cost of living
Dateline: Jakarta, Indonesia I have friends who, despite my commandment to never live or do business there, still live in Southern California. I lived there myself for seven...
Chinese Flying Money: don’t make this funny money mistake
Dateline: Jakarta, Indonesia The cafe scene here in Jakarta is quite something. Like many cities in Asia, some of the best casual and upscale dining is done in shopping malls. As...
How to hire a virtual assistant: 3 tips to increase productivity
Dateline: Jakarta, Indonesia I was talking to some locals here over the weekend, and we got to discussing the cost of doing business here in Jakarta. As it turns out, doing...
The Indonesian currency revaluation: how not to profit from central banks
Dateline: Jakarta, Indonesia I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jakarta. Indonesia, which east-to-west spans about as much of the Indian Ocean as Australia, is an intriguing and...
The Best Offshore Havens for Bank Secrecy
Last updated November 14, 2020 Bank secrecy has long been a target of international groups opposed to offshore tax havens. The argument goes that if governments don’t know who...
What are “American Values”? Are they just clinging to the past?
Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia We hear a lot these days about "American Values". Everyone from politicians of every stripe to talk show hosts extol these mythical virtues with...
Expat health care: how getting sick outside the US saved me $2,000
Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I was reminded of an important lesson yesterday. It all started with my coming ill on Friday. Really ill. I spent the weekend in bed, sick as a...
Are high interest rates on emerging market currencies worth it?
Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Jim Rickards recently said that with the central bankers' madness infecting the Australian dollar, there were only three strong, stable...
Buying Foreign Real Estate to Get Airbnb Rent Yields
Reporting from: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia A few months ago, I met with several expat entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Among all of the business talk, they threw out one...
Are Diplomatic Passports a Legitimate Second Citizenship?
Last updated February 10, 2021 Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Malaysia is a melting pot of people from around the world – Malay, Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, and more....
The mystique of country borders and the best government mafias
Dateline: Johor Bahru, Malaysia I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of borders. Growing up on the United States, we learned early on about The Land of the Free’s only two...
How to own a market as a frontier market entrepreneur
Reporting from: Vientiane, Laos For a moment today, I thought I was in New York City. I was on my way to meet a contact I made in the Laos real estate industry, and I didn’t know...
Is it too late to buy real estate in Thailand?
Reporting from: Bangkok, Thailand Property is all the rage here in Bangkok. In the last fifteen years or so, the country has seen a major recession, the bird flu and a coup. And,...
How Hard Is It to Open a Singapore Bank Account Now?
Reporting from: Bangkok, Thailand Remember when you were a little kid and you'd go to your friends' birthday party to eat cake and play party games? Even at seven years old, I...
When bond markets have their fill of Obama and quantitative easing
Reporting from: Bangkok, Thailand After my excellent, Obamacare-sidestepping experience at the hospital yesterday, I had to go back today for a few additional, more in-depth...
