Unified Korea: It's Going To Happen Anyway

Of course it's a delay but it's something that's inevitable, it's going to happen. It's just a delay, you know, life is full of delays and mistakes and problems. It's not the first time I've seen delays and problems.  We're gonna have an open and unified Korea. 

The Koreans have been here for 5,000 years. The Americans have been here for 70 years. Don't worry, it's going to happen. North Korea wants it, South Korea wants it, China wants it, Russia wants it. It's going to happen! It's a bump in the road it's a delay, it should be happening right now. Now we have to go through all sorts of delays and changes and discussions and talk and waste of time but it's going to happen.

Central Banks Are Buying Gold

Yes, there are central banks buying gold but whether do we like it or not you know gold has been around for a few thousand years and many people like it.

Academics can say that gold is meaningless, gold is, you know, all the things that some academics say about gold but like it or not you cannot tell a French peasant that he shouldn't buy gold you cannot tell me that I shouldn't buy gold. 

So, like it or not people for historic reasons, emotional reasons, insane reasons for whatever reason there are many people who know or think they know that in a crisis gold and silver are the places to be.

So it's not going to end, not in my lifetime anyway, not in your lifetime. Gold has been around a few thousand years and it will continue to be around. Yes, there will be people who will sell it at times. There are a lot more French peasants than there are intellectuals from Ivy League universities and when I say French peasants I mean common people all over the world.

The Secrets To Success

Focus of course is extremely important and everybody who is successful is focused. I would add or maybe substitute the word focus with persistence. Persistence may be the same thing as focus in this case. 

We all know smart people that are not successful, we all know educated people that are not successful, we all know beautiful people that are not successful and we all know talented people that are not successful.

The ones who are successful are the ones who never give up. So, you don't have to be educated in order to be successful. You don't even have to be beautiful if you persist or if you focus.

Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets

Jim is about to launch a new book, “The Future of Japan and the World That Will Be Read Through the Flow of Money.” and we will be sharing a few of the best reviews from his earlier works.

Street Smarts is his most recent book and here's one of the most comprehensive reviews:

I have read every book Jim Rogers has written and this book rates as one of my favorites. (Here's) some of the excerpts that give you a look into Jim Rogers investment lessons:

"I learned that everything is connected. I learned that a revolution in Chile was going to affect the price of copper, and thus the price of electricity and the price for houses-the price of everything- all over the world, having an impact on everyone, including Toledo. I learned, also, that if you could figure out that a revolution in Chile was coming, you could earn a pretty good living".

"You have to stay ahead of events. The action is never ending. It is like a four-dimensional puzzle, linked to volume and time. Every day you come to work and find that they have moved the pieces on you-somebody dies, there is a strike or a war, weather conditions have shifted. Things change, no matter what. Investing lacks the rhtym of other endeavors, and therefore never stops testing you."

"Study of History and Philosophy were indispensable to me as an investor."

"The conventional wisdom that existed at the start of each decade was shattered over the following decade".

"If History teaches us nothing else, it teaches us this: what appears undisputed today will look very different tomorrow."

Japan Is Risking A Decline In Standards Of Living

“You either have babies, immigrants or declining standard of living. You have decided to have declining standard of living. If that’s what Japan wants, do it. Seventy-thousand immigrants a year for a country of 125 million people doesn’t solve the problem.” 

- in Japan Times

Related trading instruments: iShares MSCI Japan ETF(EWJ), Nikkei 225 Index

How A Trade Deal May Impact The Stock Market

Jim Rogers gave a recent interview to The Japan Times where he commented the current state of the markets including on how a trade deal between the United States and China could cause a temporary, non-lasting euphoria in the stock market. You can read the complete article here: "American investor Jim Rogers warns of severe economic downturn and forecasts grim future for Japan"

Bear Markets Are Not Fun

Rising interest rates going to be the main problem and they're going to be serious but the trade war... Nobody's ever won a trade war and trade wars have never been good for anybody. So, that could be another problem and all of these things coming together. 

When you have bear markets everything goes wrong. When we are in a bull market everything goes right, bad news comes out and everybody says "Don't worry, we can solve this!"and stocks go up.

In bear markets, bad news starts coming out and people say "Oh my gosh! Guess what just happened" and then something else happens and it gets worse and worse. That's the way bear markets are. They're not fun but that's the way they are.

Interesting reading:

An interesting blog post from Peter Schiff on what he really considers to be the real national emergency apart from building the border wall: The Real National Emergency 

and also some interesting principles from Ray Dalio:

"Two people who collaborate well will be about three times as effective as each of them operating independently." : Principle Of The Day (4.5A & 4.5B)

And also why smaller groups seeking answers will perform better than larger groups: Principle Of The Day (4.5A & 4.5B)