Tag: frontier markets

Profiting in Paradise

While Mark and Chris are up to their necks in salt water and coconuts at the Fiji Meet-up, I wanted to discuss an interesting opportunity in Fijian tourism. No, I’m not going to babble on about gorgeous scenery and warm water whereby those who start a tourism company will bloat

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Burmese History – A Guide for the Future?

I wrote recently about the “crowd” high-tailing it out of Mongolia for Myanmar. They’ve gone to poke around and will likely leave the country with tales of beauty and opportunity, but not much else. Hot money (or in the case of Myanmar, hot money investors) will ruminate on how to

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Beating the Bank… Lessons from Mongolia

Having lived in several Frontier Markets, I’ve oft observed that when wacky rules are put into place, creating inefficiencies and costing people money, the free market almost always finds a way around it. This goes for everything from selling vegetables roadside without a permit, hocking gasoline out of soda bottles

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Mongolia – Where Did Everybody Go?

Myanmar!!! The crowd has disappeared from Mongolia like a fart in a windstorm. 2011 was “The year of Mongolia”, where asset prices skyrocketed and it was hip to have an operation on the ground. Now, many of those who made (or tried to make) their mark in Mongolia have flown

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Myanmar – In the Mix

(China, Missionaries, Methamphetamine and the CIA) As is often the case when investing in Frontier markets it is important to get a grip on what has come before, the current reality and what to be scared s*#tless of. Mark and I spend a great deal of time attempting to figure

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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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