Year: 2012

Myanmar, Hillary, God & Muhammad

It must be so…customs and immigration officials upon acceptance of employment are required to sign a mandatory statutory declaration before commencing their professional duties. In my estimation this is a declaration of unquestionable sullenness, objectionability, lack of common decency and an intolerance to humour. It also involves immediate termination of

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The “Informal Economy” – Makeshift

Today’s post comes to us from our on-the-ground man in SE Asia, Scott. You may remember Scott, who is now an integral part of our team, from his post Why I Ditched California for Mongolia. Before Scott left for Asia earlier this year he met an interesting guy. I’ll let

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Shut up & Grow Some Balls!!

Over the weekend I was watching a movie with my kids…”How to Train a Dragon”. In the story, a tribe of Vikings live in a particularly inhospitable part of the world. They have some enemies…dragons in this case. Their homes are continuously destroyed and their cattle stolen by these fire-breathing

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This is Who Will Save The World!

Japan has just shocked the market with…you guessed it, a widening trade deficit. We spilled a fair bit of digital ink explaining why the Japanese Government fiscal situation is a moth in search of a flame. Our complimentary report which you can download, print and doodle on anytime you please…(really we’ll take

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Don’t Write Off Cambodia…This Place is Remarkable!

With the Mongolian meet up now over, one of the countries we are going to hone in on is Cambodia. It’s a sleepy SE Asian “powerhouse-to-be” in our opinion. Unfortunately, the place gets a bad rep due to its past. Too many people hear Cambodia and think land mines and

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Laos – Good News and The Good News!

Firstly the good news…I contained myself from throttling a mindless bureaucrat at the Thai embassy in Vientiane…just! 7 hours of queues (yeah you read that right, 7 freaking hours)…with kids in tow! I relish this with the same enthusiasm I typically reserve for chronic constipation. Combine the already tedious, non-sensical,

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Mongolia – It’s a Wrap!

Well, that was exciting! Mark and I just spent an amazing month on the ground, networking and digging in with some of Mongolia’s best and brightest. A few days ago we concluded our first Frontier Markets Meet Up in Ulanbaataar, the capital city. To say that it was a success

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Predatory Capitalism and Market Perception

Mark and I are heading into our second week on the ground here in Mongolia, enjoying the beautiful summer weather. In the last few days we’ve met with a young American who recently launched a forex operation, travelled out to the countryside to do preliminary due diligence on a small

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