Musings on Investing

More Nuances on the Third World

A Speculator’s Portfolio

My experience based on having run three companies in India is that there is not much, if anything, you can do about those in the Third World. Fear of ghosts, and superstitions—and an over-whelming irrationality—is hardwired in them.

They simply have no passion to do well in life, accumulate, and build a civilization. They want to make money quickly and use it for decadence. They have no gratitude, and you can do nothing about it. They have no capability to be respectful. The only thing that makes them toe the line is the fear of the higher-ups. If you remove this fear, they go wild. Carrots and sticks do not work, for they cannot calculate. You can give them all you can, and they will merely expect more, as a right. 

Europeans brought written language to sub-Saharan Africa; and railways, science and enlightenment to India. Without European management, all the benefits the Third World got are getting rapidly neutralized. Without Europeans running them, the Third World will revert back to the dark ages.

None of the above stops the compulsive virtue-signalers—the World Bank, the IMF, main-stream media, big corporations, etc.—from claiming that the Third World will have the biggest economies in the near future.

In a recent report, Standard Chartered Bank claims that by 2030 India’s economy will be $46 trillion large, while US’s will be only $31 trillion. I tried all sensible tricks possible on my spreadsheet to see what growth rate India would require to get from a country where half the population poops in the open to become an economy 50% larger than the US, all in a mere 12 years. Reports like these can be reasonably assured to go unchallenged. Who wants to look racist by suggesting that India cannot be such a big economy if at all India will still be a single country by 2030?

On investments…

Today, I gave a presentation on building a “speculator’s portfolio,” at the just concluded Vancouver Resource Investment Conference. Here is the list that I gave, with my preferred buying prices:

  • Keras Resources (KRS.LON; £0.0032)
  • Lorraine Copper (LLC; C$0.115)
  • Nkwe Platinum (NKP; A$0.064)
  • G-Resources (1051.HKG; HK$0.048)
  • Condor Resources (CN; C$0.05)
  • IDM Mining (IDM; C$0.055)
  • FPX Nickel (FPX; C$0.105)
  • Amarillo Gold (AGC; C$0.23)
  • Globex Mining (GMX; C$0.29)
  • Miramont Resources (MONT; C$0.30)
  • VR Resources (VRR; C$0.16)
  • Altus Strategies (ALTS; C$0.045; in the “watch-list”)
  • Energold (EGD; C$0.125; in the “watch-list”)

Half of the seats of the next Capitalism & Morality are gone. Please register now if you would like to be assured a seat.

Warm regards,

Jayant Bhandari

Associate: Rajni Bala

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