Huge Currency Moves Will Cause Trouble

We have got huge currency moves all over the world. The Japanese Yen is down over 50 percent in 2 years. The Euro Currency has collapsed, the Canadian Dollar, the Australian Dollar, the Ruble is certainly one the big ones.

We are going to have some more big dislocations in the world economy because when major currencies, the Japanese Yen for instance is one of the most important currencies in the world, when you have these dislocations, somebody is on the wrong side of the trade. I don`t know who they are obviously, but somebody is long and somebody is short. And the people that are long currencies, when huge moves like these take place, are in trouble.

If you owe a lot of U.S. Dollars for instance, you are suffering right now, wether you are in Japan, in Russia, in Venezuela, wherever you happen to be.

Can Russia Diversify From Oil?

Russia can. Russia has vast alternative assets. They have got huge agriculture prospects, metals, minerals. Look at the map. You will see they have just about everything and they probably have things they don`t even know about yet.

You look at Venezuela, or Iran, or Mexico. It is much, much more difficult for them to switch quickly from oil to something else. But even for Russia, you do not do this overnight. Yes, Russia can change.  Will they do it quickly? Of course not. It takes a long time.

Related exchange traded fund: Market Vector Russia ETF Trust (RSX)

Looking For Russian Stocks To Buy

I am looking for Russian stocks to buy as this happens. For instance, I am a director of a large Russian fertilizer company, one of the largest in the world. They sell in U.S. Dollars, their expenses are in Rubles. This helps people like that. Now, there are not many people in Russian that particular circumstance.s but if you find companies like that, that are selling their products in U.S. Dollars and their expenses are in Rubles, my Godness! This is a bonanza for them.

I am looking at companies that are not oil related because there are plenty of ways to invest in oil but trying to find companies such as PhosAgro, which is the company I have become a director, which have these particular circumstances.

Related stocks: PhosAgro OAO(MCX:PHOR)

Related ETFs: Market Vector Russia ETF Trust (RSX)

Ruble Collapse: The Central Bank Is Doing The Right Things

Most governments do panic and try to do things that make the situation worse. I am very favorably impressed with the Russian Central Bank. They are letting the market do it, they are not bringing exchange controls, they are doing exactly the right thing.

Related trading instruments: Russian Ruble, Market Vector Russia ETF Trust (RSX)

Currencies: Russian Ruble Collapse

Topics: Discussing the Russian Ruble collapse

Related trading: Russian Ruble, Euro Currency, U.S. Dollar

Countries To Invest Around The World

I own shares in Ghana but Ghana had many periods of disaster. It has been less badly run than some of the others but when I think of countries to invest around the world, Ghana is not the first that pops to mind. Much more of my effort is in Asia than is in Ghana or Africa.

Macro Views: Latin America

Latin America historically should be a land of great opportunity. All those countries in latin Maerica have huge natural resources, weather, population, etc. Unfortunately most of them have been badly managed. For the most part of the last 400 years.  I am not sure why they`ve been so badly managed. You look at Venezuela...no country in the world has better opportunities, and they keep messing it up over and over again.

Argentina the same way. 125 years ago, people in Europe deciding to emigrate, the choice was either the U.S. or Argentina. Many of them went to Argentina. Argentina has gone straight to hell since 125 years ago. So many of these Latin America countries have great opportunities, great assets, unfortunately they have not run them very well for most of the time. That usually leads to opportunities because when there is a disaster, if nothing else, things are going to get better for a while.

Related exchange traded funds: iShares MSCI Brazil Index ETF (EWZ),  iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index ETF (ILF)

U.S. Debt: The U.S. Dollar Will Ultimately Have Serious Problems

The U.S. Dollar is and has been the world`s reserve currency for maybe 60, 70 years now. It took over from the Pound Sterling which had been the world`s reserve currency itself for 160 years.

Unfortunately the U.S. Dollar, and I am an American citizen, is a terribly flawed currency. We are the largest debtor in the world and the debts are going higher and higher. Countries that get themselves into these kind of situation ultimately have serious problems with their currencies and something comes along to replace it.

Investing: Why Agriculture Is The Smart Play

Topics: Investing in agriculture

Related trading instruments: PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA)

Forex Outlook: U.S. Dollar Will Continue Strong

Topics: U.S. Dollar outlook, forex markets;

Related forex crosses: AUDUSD, EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCAD;

Will Oil Fall To 40 Dollars A Barrel?

Anything can happen in the markets. But will it? Probably not. I do know when markets go too far up and when they go down they go down more than they should. I do not know how low it will go but I do know there is momentum on the downside now and the Saudis continue to dump.

Related stocks: Exxon Mobil (XOM), Marathon Oil (MRO), ConocoPhillips (COP),

Related exchange traded funds: United States Oil Fund LP ETF (USO), Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE)

Video: Sell-Off In Crude Oil Prices

Topics: Jim explains the decline in Crude Oil Prices in a video interview with NDTV.

Related stocks: Exxon Mobil (COM), Marathon Oil (MRO), ConocoPhillips (COP), Halliburton (HAL)

Related exchange traded funds: United States Oil Fund LP ETF (USO), Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE)

Commodities Outlook: Iron Ore

Related topics: Commodities investing, outlook for Iron Ore;

Precious Metals Outlook

Topics: Precious metals outlook and agriculture commodities

Related exchange traded funds: SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD), iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV)

Index Investing Is The Best Way For Most People

Topics: Index investing versus active management;

Related exchange traded funds: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM), PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA)

Ways To Invest In Agriculture: Stock Picking

Topics: Ways to invest in agriculture, stock picking in agriculture stocks;

More Bullish on Agriculture Than Anything

Topics: Investing in agriculture, farmland, agriculture oriented countries;

Related trading instruments: PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund(NYSEARCA:DBA), iPath Bloomberg Livestock Total Return Sub-Index ETN(NYSEARCA:COW), Potash (POT), Mosaic (MOS), Deere (DE);

Crude Oil: All Major Oil Fields Are In Decline

All the major oil fields in the world are in decline, except the shale boom in the United States. Bur everything else has declining reserves. And we are not replacing still those fields where else.

Related stocks: Exxon Mobil (COM), ConocoPhillips (COP), Marathon Oil (MRO), Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO), Halliburton (HAL)

Related exchange traded funds: Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE),  United States Oil Fund LP ETF (USO)

Geopolitical: South China Sea Military Moves

China historically has not been a very aggressive nation. There are very few international wars, even when they were great sailors, they did not go over and claim colonies, or go to war with the places they visited. So, historically, China has not been a nation that had international wars.

They have slaughtered each other, they have had civil wars, but they had internal wars at times, but they have not been very aggressive on the international scene.

Yes, I see what is happening in the South China sea now, I do not really know who is right or who is wrong here, they all claim that, "You are wrong!",  "You are wrong!". It seems a little absurd that anybody is ranging over a few rocks in the middle of the ocean.

The World Needs An Alternative To Fiat Currencies

We need something to get rid of the fiat currency, we need to produce something to discipline politicians. Unfortunately nobody has ever come up with a successful method yet.

Related trading instruments: EURUSD forex cross, USDJPY forex cross, USDCAD forex cross, AUDUSD forex cross;

Crypto Currencies: Governments Will Figure A Way To Make Them Unsuccessful

As far as crypto currencies I don`t know. I know the theory and I don`t know why they would not work. My suspicion is that if they work, and they seem to be working, the governments are going to get very agitated because the governments like to have monopolies on money and they will do something to make them illegal or tax them. They will figure out some way to make crypto currencies not successful.

Currencies: The Origin Of The Term Debasement

The romans figured out ways to debase their currency, gold coins disappeared in Rome because the Roman government was debasing the currency, so everybody took the gold and hide it at home.

The term debasement in fact comes from what the Romans were doing because they put base metals, lead, copper, whatever into the silver coins and so if you look back, historically, at one point silver coins in Rome were 100 percent silver. By the end, silver coins in Rome had less than 0.2 percent. They were essentially base metals in the end. That is where we got the term debasement. So even silver coin, even gold has been debased because politicians knew ways to rob all of us.

Related trading instruments: iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV), SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)

All Fiat Currencies Eventually Lose Value

For those of you that don`t know, fiat currencies are basically paper money not backed by anything. That includes all currencies in the world, as we speak. History shows that all fiat currencies, all paper money eventually goes to the value, which is nothing, the value of the paper. And so, there there is no paper money, there is no fiat currency which has lasted very long, in the sense of history, more than 200, 300 years has been the longest lasting.

India Is A Nightmare For Business

As far as doing business, India is a nightmare. I have been around the world a couple of times and I will tell you, the most horrendous bureaucracy in the world is in India. I mean, the Indians learned bureaucracy from the English and than took it to a higher place still.

Related Exchange Traded Funds: WisdomTree India Earnings Fund ETF (EPI), iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM)