I will be heading to Panama in July to attend an event with my good friends at Obris. Obris (formerly Seraph) is a membership syndicate of high-net-worth investors. I  have attended several of their events over the years (Mongolia, Colombia, Austin) and have always met interesting people while learning something new along the way. I will be speaking at the Panama event and would Read More

I will be speaking at the Seraph Global Investment Summit in Austin, Texas from March 5-8. More importantly, it’s an excuse to go to Austin and check out a place that I’ve always wanted to visit. If you want to come along, click this link and sign up. https://seraph.vc/2018-seraph-austin-meet-up/ Ohh… there will also be many other smart people speaking there as well. Kuppy

To see part 1, click here To see part 2, click here No economy can recover without a functioning banking system. Greece’s banks have been in chaos for nearly a decade, during which time roughly 45% of all deposits fled overseas, forcing the need for over 120 billion Euros of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) from the ECB while new loan issuance ground to a Read More

To see part 1, click here   Sacha Imbert (Portfolio Manager at RBC): Hey Kuppy, this receipt says we’ve just used a Bulgarian POS to pay for lunch!!! Me: Whoa!!! That can’t be right. Waiter: Don’t worry, it’s a famous Greek trick. Revenues go to Bulgaria, expenses stay in Athens. We also get around the exchange controls. Me: Won’t the Greek government get upset? Waiter: Actually, they’re pretty happy Read More

Back in July, I re-posted an article that my good friend, Chris, at Capitalist Exploits had written about Greece. I had found the idea of a Greek economic recovery intriguing, but hadn’t really followed up on it. Over the following weeks, a number of people reached out to me and noted that I really should take a more serious look. In particular, they said that I Read More

“No pork tonight because this is a Muslim country, but don’t worry, we’ll drink twice as much vodka to make up for it” Yup, I’m in Kyrgyzstan, checking off another box, on my long-postponed ‘Stan tour. Like all good adventures, this one started over drinks with some new-found friends. Him: You really should go visit our stock exchange Me: Sure, can you make an introduction to Read More

Ever since the first Sears catalog was published in 1888 (the Amazon.com of its day), pundits have called for the death of retail establishments. It’s easy to see why they would think that such a thing was happening—namely stores around them were closing in rapid succession. Of course, these successive waves of retail disruption (the appearance of Woolworth’s, SS Kresge, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, the advent Read More

Malls are bearing the brunt of changes in retail, but they’re only the canary in the coal mine. Let’s start with a simple premise; commercial real estate (CRE) will change more in the next decade than it has in the past hundred years. Anyone who thinks they can fully foresee how it will evolve is lying to you. The only certainty is that highly Read More