Writing
The Brief
Dispatches on international tax, global residency, sovereign living, and the geopolitics of wealth. Written for people who think seriously about their financial future.
30 May 2026
Greece: Europe's Secret Tax Haven — 3 Programmes Almost Nobody Talks About
Writing from a boat deck in Rhodes. Greece offers three extraordinary tax regimes for foreigners — 0% capital gains, 5% ...
29 May 2026
Banished to Their Greatest Victory: The Knights, Rhodes, and the Reluctant Move to Malta
Writing from Lindos in Rhodes, where the Knights of Malta are everywhere. The story of how their banishment became their...
28 May 2026
Yes, We’re Loud. No, We’re Not Making It Up.
Capital called us fearmongers. Here are the sources: CRS, the Lastenausgleich debate, the Munich Security Index, and 500...
27 May 2026
Robert Bosch’s Ark: How One Industrialist Read the Economic Trajectory of 1933 and Built the Structure That Saved His Company
In 1933 Hitler was an economic catastrophe in slow motion — and the regime was already quietly stealing from German save...
26 May 2026
Dubai on the Bosporus: Turkey Just Passed a 20-Year Tax Holiday That Will Reshape Generations
Turkey just passed a 20-year tax exemption on foreign-source income for new residents. Inheritance tax falls to a flat 1...
25 May 2026
USCIS Memo PM-602-0199: Why the Green Card Just Became an Act of Grace
A quiet directive out of Washington has rewritten the rules for anyone who had the United States in mind as Plan B. Here...
24 May 2026
Pentecost, Baptism, and the God Who Chooses First
A Catholic reflection on Pentecost, infant baptism, confirmation, covenant, grace, and the God who chooses before we cho...
23 May 2026
Texas Is Winning the 21st Century. Here's Why You Should Care.
Texas has overtaken New York, is recruiting British capital in London, and is building its own stock exchange. The 21st ...
22 May 2026
A German General Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud: Munich Is on Moscow's Target List
A former military adviser to Angela Merkel warned on German television that Munich is on Moscow's target list. If Europe...
21 May 2026
Stop Complaining About AI. Start Building.
The people who stopped complaining and started adapting did not just survive previous waves of disruption. They thrived....
19 May 2026
What I Tell My Daughters About Happiness
A personal reflection on marriage, character, restraint, interior life, and the choices young women make while building ...
17 May 2026
Diocletian, Mugabe, Maduro, Swinney: A Brief History of Empty Shelves
John Swinney’s proposed food price cap is not compassionate economics. It is the oldest populist failure in the book: bl...
16 May 2026
Panama’s Bill 641: What It Actually Does, And Why Most People Are Getting It Wrong
Panama is debating Bill 641, which would impose a 15% tax on foreign passive income earned by shell entities within mult...
15 May 2026
Portugal Just Moved the Goalposts. Again.
Portugal’s revised Nationality Law was signed on 3 May 2026. For most nationalities, citizenship now requires 10 years o...
11 May 2026
They Didn’t Leave You Behind. You Just Didn’t Follow.
Your children emigrated. You told yourself you were too old to follow. You were not. A clear look at family, distance, a...
10 May 2026
The EU Wants to Close the VPN “Loophole.” Of Course It Does.
The EU has officially labelled VPNs a loophole that needs closing. The stated reason is child protection. The actual eff...
8 May 2026
May 8th. The Liberation I Believe In. And the One I Have Questions About.
A German on May 8, Erinnerungskultur, and why the lesson of 1945 must be applied universally, not as a cudgel against di...
7 May 2026
I Started Writing Again Six Months Ago. Here Is What I Have Learned.
In October 2025, I stopped writing The Brief. The pressure of running multiple businesses, managing multiple jurisdictio...
3 May 2026
China Is Flooding Europe With Cheap Goods. Europe Has Only Itself to Blame.
The European Commission this week published its updated assessment of Chinese industrial overcapacity — concluding that ...
30 Apr 2026
May Day. On Labour, Capital, and the Question Nobody Asks.
Today is May 1. International Workers' Day. Labour Day. The day that socialist movements established in the late ninetee...
28 Apr 2026
End of April. The Tax Year Is Quarter Done. Here Is What You Should Be Checking.
We are at the end of April. The first quarter of 2026 is behind us. It has been, by any measure, an extraordinary quarte...
26 Apr 2026
Why the Annual Trip With My Brothers Is the Most Important Thing on My Calendar.
I wrote last week about Tallinn. About the city, the history, the German connection. About what would be lost if Russia ...
24 Apr 2026
The UAE Just Left OPEC. This Is Bigger Than You Think.
The United Arab Emirates announced on May 1 that it is leaving OPEC, ending six decades of membership and removing one o...
21 Apr 2026
Trump Just Extended the Iran Ceasefire Indefinitely. Here Is What Peace Actually Requires.
US President Trump announced an indefinite extension of the Iran ceasefire on April 21, easing fears of an immediate ret...
19 Apr 2026
A Week in Tallinn With My Brothers. Here Is What I Did Not Expect.
I have just returned from Tallinn. Five days — my brothers, a brother-in-law, and some of their grown-up sons. The annua...
14 Apr 2026
Orbán Just Lost in Hungary. What That Actually Means for Europe.
Viktor Orbán lost the Hungarian parliamentary election on April 19 in a landslide to Péter Magyar's Tisza Party, ending ...
10 Apr 2026
All-Inclusive. The Holiday I Would Not Have Chosen and What I Found There.
I am still in Crete. The children are at the pool. Amy is reading in the shade. The buffet, which I eyed with the reflex...
8 Apr 2026
I Am in Crete. Standing at Knossos. Thinking About the End of Everything.
I am writing this from Crete. We arrived two days ago — Amy, the children, a family holiday at an all-inclusive resort o...
5 Apr 2026
The Ceasefire Is Holding. The Strait Is Reopening. Here Is What Comes Next.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States this week, inc...
3 Apr 2026
Humans Are Going Back to the Moon. I Find This More Moving Than I Expected.
NASA launched Artemis II from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, carrying four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glo...
1 Apr 2026
Iran Just Fired Missiles at the Gulf. Here Is What That Means for Everyone Who Chose Dubai.
On April 1, Iranian drones struck a fuel storage facility at Kuwait International Airport, causing a major fire. The sam...
30 Mar 2026
Easter Monday. The Feast Is Over. What Now?
The Easter celebrations are over. The Alleluias have been sung. The feast has been had. The children are returning to sc...
29 Mar 2026
Easter Sunday. The Most Audacious Claim in Human History. And Why I Believe It.
Christ is risen. This is the claim that Christianity makes today, and has made on every Easter Sunday for two thousand y...
26 Mar 2026
Good Friday. The Day the Church Goes Silent.
Today is Good Friday....
24 Mar 2026
Holy Week Begins. On Suffering and What It Is For.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday. Holy Week has begun....
22 Mar 2026
Second Passports in 2026: What Still Works, What Has Been Closed, and What Nobody Is Telling You.
The second passport landscape has changed significantly in the past three years. What was available in 2022 is not the s...
20 Mar 2026
The First Day of Spring. And Why New Beginnings Do Not Wait for January.
Today is the spring equinox — the astronomical first day of spring, when the hours of light and darkness are equal and t...
18 Mar 2026
Amy's Birthday. Eleven Years. A Few Things I Know Now That I Did Not Know Then.
Today is Amy's birthday....
17 Mar 2026
St Patrick's Day. What Ireland Actually Is, When You Have Lived There.
Today is St Patrick's Day. The feast of the apostle of Ireland — the Romano-British missionary who came to a country tha...
15 Mar 2026
Beware the Ides of March. Tax Season Is Here and Here Is What You Should Be Doing.
Today is March 15. The Ides of March. The day Julius Caesar was warned to beware — and did not. The day that, for many E...
13 Mar 2026
Laetare Sunday. The Church Tells You to Rejoice. Even Now.
Today is the Fourth Sunday of Lent — Laetare Sunday. The name comes from the first word of the entrance antiphon: "Laeta...
11 Mar 2026
Why I Loved Living in Ireland. And Why It Is Not the Tax Haven People Think It Is.
I lived in Ireland for a period. I know the country well — not as a tourist but as someone who worked there, banked ther...
9 Mar 2026
International Women's Day. And a Thought Nobody Wants to Say.
Yesterday was International Women's Day. The social media output was, as every year, a mixture of genuine celebration, c...
7 Mar 2026
Myanmar Earthquake. And the Question Nobody Asks After a Disaster.
A devastating earthquake struck Myanmar in early March, killing thousands and destroying infrastructure across a country...
5 Mar 2026
The Iran War: What Comes Next and What Nobody Is Saying Out Loud.
A week into the Iran war, a conditional ceasefire is reportedly being discussed, with Pakistan as mediator. The immediat...
3 Mar 2026
The Strait of Hormuz Has Been Disrupted. Europe Is About to Discover How Vulnerable It Still Is.
The Strait of Hormuz — the 33-kilometre-wide waterway through which approximately 20% of the world's traded oil passes —...
1 Mar 2026
The World Changed Last Night. Here Is What You Need to Understand.
On the night of February 28, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran. The strikes targeted Ira...
27 Feb 2026
Something Is About to Happen in the Middle East. I Can Feel It From Here.
I am writing this from London on the evening of February 27. The news is moving quickly and I want to capture what I thi...
25 Feb 2026
On Fasting. And Why the Man Who Can Say No to Himself Is the Freest Man in the Room.
We are in the first full week of Lent. I want to write about fasting — not primarily as a religious practice, though tha...
23 Feb 2026
The Supreme Court Just Struck Down Trump's Tariffs. Here Is What It Actually Changes.
The United States Supreme Court this month struck down the emergency tariff authority Trump had been using to impose bro...
21 Feb 2026
The Last Nuclear Arms Control Treaty Just Expired. This Is What That Actually Means.
The New START treaty between the United States and Russia expired this month, leaving the two countries that together ho...
19 Feb 2026
Ash Wednesday. Remember That You Are Dust.
Today is Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent....
17 Feb 2026
The Digital Euro Is Coming. Here Is What It Will Actually Do to Your Freedom.
The European Central Bank published its latest progress report on the digital euro this month, confirming that the proje...
15 Feb 2026
Why We Chose Davao. And Why Most People Looking at the Philippines Get It Wrong.
When I tell people we have an office in Davao, the reaction is usually one of two things. Either they have never heard o...
13 Feb 2026
Georgia (the Country) in 2026: Still Worth It? An Honest Update.
Georgia — the country, not the US state — has been one of the most discussed jurisdictions in the international tax and ...
11 Feb 2026
The US Minimum Wage Has Not Changed in 16 Years. This Is What Economic Failure Actually Looks Like.
The United States federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since 2009. Sixteen years without an increase. During the...
9 Feb 2026
Malta in 2026: The Honest Assessment Nobody Wants to Give You
Malta is the jurisdiction I am asked about more than almost any other by my DACH-region clients. It is EU membership, wa...
7 Feb 2026
A Ferry Sank in the Philippines. Here Is What It Actually Tells You About Living There.
A ROPAX ferry sank near Basilan in the southern Philippines on January 26, killing at least 18 people, with 316 rescued ...
5 Feb 2026
Trump Says He Might Pull Out of NATO. Europe Has Only Itself to Blame.
Donald Trump told reporters this week that he was considering pulling the United States out of NATO, or at minimum drama...
3 Feb 2026
Argentina's Inflation Just Hit a Six-Year Low. Here Is Why the World Should Be Paying Attention.
Argentina recorded an annual inflation rate of 31.5% in December 2025 — the lowest year-end figure since 2017. Monthly p...
1 Feb 2026
Forty People Died in a Swiss Hotel Fire on New Year's Eve. Here Is What It Actually Tells Us.
On New Year's Eve, a fire at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland killed around 40 people and injured ...
30 Jan 2026
America Just Intervened in Venezuela. Here Is What Nobody Will Tell You About It.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate this week that he could not rule out further military intervention in Ven...
28 Jan 2026
My Son Kilian Turns 28 Today. This Is What I Remember.
My son Kilian was born on January 28, 1998. He was my second child. I was twenty years old....
26 Jan 2026
My Father Was Born Today. He Has Been Gone for Thirteen Years. Here Is What I Know Now That I Did Not Know Then.
My father Martin was born on January 26, 1953, in Bremen. He died on July 14, 2012, in Karlsruhe. He was 59 years old....
24 Jan 2026
Bulgaria Just Joined the Euro. Here Is Why That Matters More Than You Think.
Bulgaria adopted the euro on January 1, 2026, replacing the lev and becoming the 21st member of the eurozone. It is the ...
22 Jan 2026
Iran Is Burning. This Changes Everything in the Middle East.
The protests that began in Iran in late December have now, according to the human rights organisation HRAI, killed at le...
20 Jan 2026
My Feast Day. What Saint Sebastian Has to Say to Young Men Today.
Today is January 20. The feast of Saint Sebastian. My feast day....
18 Jan 2026
Paraguay in 2026: The Honest Guide for Those Who Are Actually Considering It
Paraguay comes up in almost every conversation I have with clients who are seriously researching territorial tax jurisdi...
16 Jan 2026
Martin Luther King Day. What He Would Think of the Current Surveillance State.
Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States — the federal holiday marking the birthday of the civil rights lead...
14 Jan 2026
Men Do Not Have Friends Anymore. This Is a Serious Problem.
There is a well-documented and accelerating crisis in male friendship in the Western world. Studies from the American Su...
12 Jan 2026
Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Is Cutting Everything. Here Is What It Actually Means for You.
Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" — the omnibus legislation that has been grinding through Congress — is now producing it...
10 Jan 2026
The US Just Suspended the Diversity Visa. What It Means and Who It Affects.
The US government has suspended the Diversity Immigrant Visa programme following the revelation that the Brown Universit...
8 Jan 2026
Gold Is at Record Highs. Here Is What That Actually Means.
Gold is trading above $2,700 an ounce as we enter 2026. It has been above $2,500 since the summer. In real purchasing po...
6 Jan 2026
Portugal in 2026: The Honest Assessment of NHR 2.0
Portugal's Non-Habitual Resident regime — the NHR, one of the most generous expat tax programmes in European history — w...
4 Jan 2026
Trump Wants Greenland. This Is Not a Joke.
Donald Trump has appointed Republican Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana as his special envoy to Greenland. Denmark's for...
2 Jan 2026
The Epiphany. Three Men Who Left Everything and Found What They Were Looking For.
Today is the Epiphany — the feast of the Magi, the three wise men who followed a star from the East and arrived in Bethl...
31 Dec 2025
New Year's Eve. One Life. One Shot.
It is New Year's Eve. The year turns tonight....
29 Dec 2025
2025: What Actually Happened. A Year-End Assessment Without the Spin.
Pope Leo XIV, at his final general audience of 2025 on December 31, invited Catholics to look back on the year with both...
27 Dec 2025
The Holy Family Had a Plan B. They Needed It.
Pope Leo XIV, at the Angelus on the Feast of the Holy Family, spoke about the flight into Egypt — the moment when Joseph...
25 Dec 2025
Pope Leo XIV's First Christmas. What He Said That Nobody Is Reporting.
Pope Leo XIV stood on the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica this morning and delivered his first Urbi et Orbi — to ...
23 Dec 2025
Christmas Eve. On the Incarnation and What It Has to Do With Freedom.
Tonight Pope Leo XIV celebrates Christmas Mass in St Peter's Basilica — reviving a tradition not observed since 1994, wh...
21 Dec 2025
Imran Khan Got 17 Years. Political Prisoners Are Not Just a Third-World Problem.
A Pakistani court this week sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years in prison af...
19 Dec 2025
The Fourth Sunday of Advent. Some Thoughts on What We Are Actually Waiting For.
Pope Leo XIV, at the Angelus this Fourth Sunday of Advent, spoke about Saint Joseph — about piety, charity, mercy, and a...
17 Dec 2025
Singapore Banking in 2025: What Still Works and What Does Not
Singapore remains one of the most asked-about banking destinations among my clients. And rightly so — it offers a combin...
15 Dec 2025
The Bondi Beach Attack. The Conversation the West Is Still Not Having.
On December 14, a father and son opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing 15 people and i...
13 Dec 2025
Advent. The Season the West Forgot How to Observe.
We are in the third week of Advent. Gaudete Sunday — the Sunday of joy — has just passed. The pink candle has been lit....
11 Dec 2025
Germany Is Arguing About a Wealth Tax Again. Here Is Why You Should Not Wait to Find Out How It Ends.
Germany's Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil caused a minor political earthquake last week when he told ZDF that he would n...
9 Dec 2025
Japan Is Rearming. The World Has Changed More Than You Think.
Japan's cabinet approved a record defence budget plan this month exceeding 9 trillion yen — almost 50 billion euros — fo...
7 Dec 2025
Syria One Year On: What the Fall of Assad Means for the Middle East and Your Money
December 8 marks one year since the Assad dynasty, which lasted more than half a century, was removed from power by a re...
5 Dec 2025
Imran Khan Got 17 Years. Political Prisoners Are Not Just a Third-World Problem.
A Pakistani court this week sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years in prison af...
3 Dec 2025
Australia Just Banned Social Media for Under-16s. Every Other Government Is Watching.
Australia's social media ban for those younger than 16 came into force this month. The law focuses on ten major platform...
1 Dec 2025
Russia Just Took Pokrovsk. Here Is What That Actually Means.
Russia's forces have captured Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, after months of brutal fighting. The city had been a key l...
29 Nov 2025
Google Launched Gemini 3. The AI Race Has No Finish Line.
Google launched Gemini 3 this month, triggering what is being described internally at OpenAI as a code red. OpenAI had r...
27 Nov 2025
The Complete Honest Guide to Living in Dubai: What the Instagram Version Leaves Out
Dubai gets more expat content than almost any city on earth. YouTube videos of luxury apartments. Instagram reels of bru...
25 Nov 2025
Ukraine, Russia, and the Peace Plan Nobody in Europe Will Admit Is a Capitulation
The details of the leaked US peace plan for Ukraine have now been widely circulated. The document, described by Kyiv and...
23 Nov 2025
The BBC Just Imploded. Good.
Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, and Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News, both resigned this week over a controversy...
21 Nov 2025
Jakarta Just Became the World's Largest City. Most Europeans Have No Idea What This Means.
A UN report this week confirmed that Jakarta has surpassed Tokyo as the world's largest city, with a population of 42 mi...
19 Nov 2025
Trump Cut Food Tariffs. Here Is the Real Trade War Nobody Is Talking About.
Mid-November, under pressure from polling data showing American consumers increasingly unhappy about grocery prices, Tru...
17 Nov 2025
The G20 Met in Johannesburg. Africa Is Telling You Something. Are You Listening?
The G20 summit in Johannesburg this week was the first G20 ever held on African soil. The symbolism was not lost on anyo...
15 Nov 2025
The Complete Guide to Getting Out of Germany: What Nobody Tells You Before You Leave
I have been advising German-speaking entrepreneurs on emigration for more than two decades. I left Germany myself in 200...
13 Nov 2025
COP30 Is Happening in the Amazon. I Have a Simple Question.
The COP30 climate summit ran from November 10 to 21 in Belem, Brazil. The Amazon rainforest as backdrop. 190-plus nation...
11 Nov 2025
The Epstein Files Are Out. Here Is What Matters and What Does Not.
On November 19, Congress passed legislation compelling the Justice Department to release the Epstein documents. Trump si...
9 Nov 2025
Tesla Just Approved a Trillion Dollar Payday for Elon Musk. I Have Thoughts.
Tesla shareholders just voted to approve Elon Musk's compensation package. One trillion dollars. The largest corporate p...
7 Nov 2025
Dick Cheney Is Dead. History Will Argue About Him Forever.
Dick Cheney died this month at 84....
5 Nov 2025
Zohran Mamdani Just Won New York. I Am Not Surprised.
On November 4, New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as its new mayor. A self-described democratic socialist. A state ass...
3 Nov 2025
Typhoon Kalmaegi Killed 200 People. The Real Story Is What Comes Next.
Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall in the Philippines on November 4. By the time it had swept through Vietnam and Thailand, ...
1 Nov 2025
The US Government Shutdown Just Ended. Here Is What It Really Cost You.
The longest government shutdown in American history finally ended last week. Forty-five days. 730,000 federal workers se...
30 Oct 2025
The Best U.S. Credit Cards for Non-Residents, and Why It All Starts With a U.S. LLC
For anyone living outside the United States, American credit cards can seem like a distant dream, with their high limits...
29 Oct 2025
Building a Real Plan B: How One Entrepreneur Secured His Freedom and His Wealth
For years, I have spoken about *Plan B*, the idea of creating personal and financial structures outside one’s home count...
26 Oct 2025
Qualify for Retirement Visas by Setting Up Your Own Pension Plan LLC
For many people planning to relocate abroad, the most straightforward way to obtain long-term residency is through a **r...
22 Oct 2025
Switzerland Abolishes the “Imputed Rental Value” - What This Means for You
After 91 years, the Swiss have done it again: they have voted for common sense....
21 Oct 2025
The Roses
We talked, as I often do with clients, about [visas, taxes, and bank accounts](/the-brief/open-bank-account-uae-non-resi...
20 Oct 2025
The Digital Cage: Why Europe's "Freedom" is a High-Tech Lie
We are born into a world of illusion. A world that tricks us into believing it is chaotic, random, and unpredictable. We...
19 Oct 2025
Grace & Joseph: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told - And Why It Still Matters Today
It was during one of our **seminars in Ireland**, a weekend of conversations that stretched long into the night, with ra...
18 Oct 2025
Opening a Personal Bank Account in Dubai and the UAE as a Non-Resident
If you’ve ever been told that you **cannot** open a personal bank account in the UAE without being a resident, you’ve be...
17 Oct 2025
Can You Ever Escape Spain Again? The Dark Side of the Spanish Exit Tax
Here’s the uncomfortable truth many of my clients don’t hear from the glossy “Move to Spain” influencers: getting into S...
16 Oct 2025
Duterte in The Hague: Justice, Hypocrisy, and the Limits of Western Morality
I have been active in the Philippines since 2008. In 2020, I set up a base in Davao, the city Rodrigo Duterte ruled for ...
12 Oct 2025
The Spanish Left’s Moral Megaphone — and Its Rotten Echo Chamber
Spain is one of the most popular destinations among my clients — and for good reason....
11 Oct 2025
The Roommate Trap: When Loyalty Kills Desire
As a business advisor, I usually talk to clients about tax structures, investments, relocations, and all the ways to bui...
10 Oct 2025
The One-Income Family Isn’t Dead: You’re Just Living in the Wrong Place
Not long ago, someone posted on X: “In the 1950s, one breadwinner carried the family. House, car, kids. And all without ...
9 Oct 2025
Northern Cyprus Real Estate: Dream or Disaster?
The brochures sparkle. The YouTube influencers gush. Northern Cyprus is pitched as a hidden gem: villas by the sea, sun ...
8 Oct 2025
The Girl from Tomorrowland
During my recent summer vacation, I was sitting by the pool in Spain, letting the sun soak into my skin, when the news p...
7 Oct 2025
The Most Misunderstood Second Passport on Earth (And Why It Might Beat the Caribbean)
Imagine waking up to a headline that your home country has slapped on sudden travel restrictions. Airports jam. Airlines...
6 Oct 2025
Living With an Autistic Wife
It was one of those nights when the seminar was over, the flip charts packed away, and the wine began to flow. We were s...
5 Oct 2025
Buy Back Your Time: The Mauritius Lesson
Picture this: Ten years from now, you’re sitting on a beach in Mauritius. The sun is melting into the ocean, a glass of ...
4 Oct 2025
When a Place Finds You
The ranch was at the end of a two-mile unpaved private road , the kind of road that already whispers to you that you’re ...
3 Oct 2025
When Washington Turns to Gold and Crypto
Imagine waking up to the headline: **“Washington unveils plan: cut the debt with gold and crypto.”**It sounds like pulp ...
2 Oct 2025
Were the Nazis and Hitler Socialists?
As a German, a YouTuber, and someone whose political views are conservative, not left-wing , I've spent a lot of time wa...
1 Oct 2025
The Rock and the Hard Hearts: On Filial Obedience and the Sickness of Public Rebuke
The digital veins of the Catholic world have been coursing with a familiar poison this week. The initial controversy, an...
1 Oct 2025
Switzerland Votes for Digital ID: Freedom Lost or Lesser Evil?
On Monday this week we woke up to the headline: “ Switzerland votes for digital ID. ”...
30 Sept 2025
Stop Sulking: How to Handle a Sexless Marriage Like a Man
Recently I saw a post on X that made me shake my head. A man was lamenting that his wife no longer sleeps with him, so h...
29 Sept 2025
Argentina: Dream or Delusion?
Buenos Aires, the most European city in Latin America: street cafés like in Paris, wide boulevards, elegant architecture...
28 Sept 2025
Privacy Under Pressure: Cayman vs. Hong Kong vs. Singapore vs. U.S. LLCs
When clients ask me where to incorporate, the conversation often revolves around tax, banking, and credibility . But the...
27 Sept 2025
The Shield That Became a Sword
There are ideas so pure, so potent, that they rise like a phoenix from the darkest ashes of history. The European Conven...
26 Sept 2025
Why a Hong Kong Limited Company Still Matters, If You Know How to Use It
A client once told me: “I want to build my Asia business on solid ground. Singapore sounds perfect, but what about Hong ...
25 Sept 2025
Paradise Lost: Vietnam & Thailand Reveal the Blueprint of Global Finance Control
Walk into a bank branch in Hanoi this summer and you’ll see the future: queues of people holding phones up to their face...
24 Sept 2025
Why a Singapore Ltd. Company Is the Smartest Incorporation Choice in Asia
A client of mine once said: “I want my business in Asia to have the same credibility as if it were in London or New York...
23 Sept 2025
Why I Love to See Britain and America Thrive Together
There are times when politics becomes personal. For me, watching the United States and the United Kingdom step closer to...
22 Sept 2025
Why the Cayman Islands Are Still the King of Offshore Incorporation
A client once told me: “I don’t just want a tax-efficient company. I want a home for my business that feels as timeless ...
21 Sept 2025
Trump’s Gold Card: America Turns Immigration Into a Luxury Product
Donald Trump has never been shy about rewriting the rules. But this time he has gone further than anyone imagined: **he ...
20 Sept 2025
The Death of H-1B
There are moments in policy when the curtain finally drops, when the fiction collapses, and everyone has to admit the tr...
20 Sept 2025
Italy’s Flat Tax Mirage: A Lover’s Beauty, a Bureaucrat’s Trap
Italy, you have always been a lover of extremes. A land where wine flows like forgiveness, art demands your tears, and b...
19 Sept 2025
Heathrow & British Airways: The Price of Promises and the Cost of Chaos
I paid for business class. I expected silk-smooth sits, polished staff, punctual departures, a whisper of luxury. What I...
18 Sept 2025
Germany Cannot Escape Its History: Why You Need a Plan B Now
There is a dangerous illusion in today’s Germany. Walk through the quiet, well-ordered streets of Freiburg or Hamburg, a...
17 Sept 2025
The Call of the Shore: Dreaming of the World’s Best Beaches 2025
There are two places in the world where I feel truly alive: high in the mountains and down by the sea. The mountains are...
16 Sept 2025
Vaccines Save Lives, But Mandates Destroy Freedom
There is a storm gathering in 2025. You can feel it in the headlines, in the political corridors, in the relentless talk...
15 Sept 2025
Liberty Lost in Translation
There is a paradox at the beating heart of postwar Europe. On one side is the German Grundgesetz , drafted in 1949 under...
14 Sept 2025
Walking Austin: Streets That Became My Family
There’s a common refrain about America, one you hear from Europeans shaking their heads: “American cities are not walkab...
13 Sept 2025
Living as a Nomad Off Your Capital: The Hidden Path to True Freedom
Maybe it’s waking up in a sunlit apartment in Lisbon with no alarm clock. Maybe it’s sitting in a café in Medellín, watc...
11 Sept 2025
Harold Macmillan and the Long Shadow of Betrayal
Today, we end marriages too quickly. At the first betrayal, the first bitter fight, the first silence that lingers too l...
10 Sept 2025
The EU's War on Cash and Freedom: Why America is the Last Bastion for Entrepreneurs
In Europe, a quiet but momentous transformation is underway. Under the noble banner of fighting money laundering, the Eu...
9 Sept 2025
The Swiss Silver Trick That Saves Thousands
Whenever I travel abroad, I make it a point to buy some precious metal, not because I need it, but for the experience....
7 Sept 2025
Carrying Your Portfolio Across Borders
There’s a moment that comes to anyone who has decided to leave their country of residence. The papers are filed, the new...
6 Sept 2025
When a Wife Belittles a Successful Husband: Dominic’s Story and What We Can Learn
In our work, most of what we do revolves around tax planning, asset protection, and helping people move abroad . But bec...
5 Sept 2025
Why a Double Taxation Agreement Could Save You from a Financial Disaster Abroad
When you’re planning to leave your home country for good, you obsess over the obvious things: the sunshine, the healthca...
4 Sept 2025
From Plan B to Financial Independence
When clients first come to us, they often think the whole point of our work is simply to set up a “Plan B.” A visa here,...
3 Sept 2025
Apple’s Bombshell: The “Thinking” AI Revolution Is a Fraud
Silicon Valley loves a good story. First it was the story of the all-knowing search engine. Then the social networks tha...
2 Sept 2025
The Coming Robot Reckoning
There’s a field I drove past in rural France last summer. Golden wheat swaying in the breeze, the horizon shimmering wit...
1 Sept 2025
Singapore Banks Compared
When people move to Asia, whether it’s for retirement, business, or a full relocation, they don’t just need a visa and a...
31 Aug 2025
Loving the South While Facing Its Darkest Truth
I have to tell you something that might sound like a contradiction: I love the American South. Not in a casual, postcard...
30 Aug 2025
The Green Fields of Texas, The Ghosts of Germany, and the Gift of a Final Goodbye
The air east of Austin in July is a living thing. It’s not the bone-dry, dusty breath of West Texas mythology; it’s a th...
29 Aug 2025
The 20 Best Places for Freelancers to Pay Low Tax (and Actually Be Tax Resident)
If you’re a freelancer in IT consulting or software, making around €120,000 a year , chances are you’ve thought about mo...
28 Aug 2025
The War Chest and Your Wallet: An Urgent Lesson from History
The drums are beating again in Europe. From the halls of power in Brussels to the front pages of newspapers, the message...
27 Aug 2025
Venezuela: Between Social Media Rumors and Harsh Reality
Every few months, Venezuela briefly surges into the Western news cycle. A U.S. naval deployment, a new round of sanction...
26 Aug 2025
The Retirement Loophole: How Cyprus (and a Few Clever Countries) Let You Keep What You've Earned
Not one of those glossy retirement-planning fairy tales written by a FIRE blogger in Bali. No, this is about Malcolm and...
25 Aug 2025
Faith and Renewal at Farnborough: A Catholic Springtime
This last weekend I stood once again beneath the vaulted arches of St Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough , a place that has ...
24 Aug 2025
The Hidden Rules of Swiss Real Estate
There are countries you visit, and there are countries that change you. Switzerland is one of the latter. The first time...
23 Aug 2025
The Long Game: Securing the Coveted Swiss Passport
A decade ago, the idea of holding two passports was seen by many as a symbol of affluence , a perk for the jet-set crowd...
22 Aug 2025
The Trojan Horse Has Entered the Classroom
For years, many of us have watched the World Economic Forum (WEF) with a deep and abiding sense of unease. We’ve been ca...
21 Aug 2025
“Mankeeping” and the Missing Conversation About Male Value
I recently came across an article in the New York Times titled “ Why Women Are Weary of the Emotional Labor of ‘Mankeepi...
20 Aug 2025
Philippines SRRV Changes Effective September 1
Philippines SRRV now opens to applicants from age 40, with deposits from $1,500 to $50,000. Complete 2026 guide to eligi...
19 Aug 2025
Victoria Plums and the First Golden Minutes: A Family Story About Freshness
It’s a cool Scottish summer day. From our summer house north of Edinburgh I can make out the sweep of the Firth of Forth...
18 Aug 2025
From 7% to 17%: How Lula Just Raised Taxes on Small Business in Brazil by 150%
I love this country. I love the chaos, the color, the contradictions. The way strangers talk to each other in elevators....
17 Aug 2025
To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before
There’s a song, a beautifully cheesy relic from another era, by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson. It’s called [“To All t...
16 Aug 2025
I am a migrant
Since walking away from the Germany of my birth in the year 2000, I have built lives in six different countries, laid my...
15 Aug 2025
Shoot the Damn Thing
It’s not loud. It doesn’t announce itself with drama or collapse. No, it creeps in quietly. It sips artisanal coffee. It...
14 Aug 2025
The Beautiful, Dangerous Lie That Forges Titans
Let’s not mince words. **The**[**Law of Attraction**](https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-and-using-the-law-of-at...
13 Aug 2025
Self-Defence or Genocide?
It has taken me a long time to write this article. The situation in Israel and Gaza is so complex, so emotionally charge...
12 Aug 2025
From Acid Rain to Censorship: How the Greens Became the Real Prophets of Doom
The Cold War was still raging. Helmut Kohl was Chancellor. And a new political force was rising, one that didn’t speak t...
11 Aug 2025
A Tale of Two Cities, and the Man I Became in Between
There are moments in life that feel like closing a circle. A return to a beginning, not to relive it, but to understand ...
10 Aug 2025
Namibia: Where Beauty Meets Bureaucracy - And One Court Case Holds the Key
Over the past few years, Africa has quietly become one of the most compelling “Plan B” destinations in the world . While...
9 Aug 2025
São Tomé & Príncipe: Your $90K Neutral Lifeboat Before Europe’s Storm
Kyiv, spring 2024. A friend of mine, a Ukrainian businessman, is in Warsaw on a short trip when the news breaks. His cou...
8 Aug 2025
The Emerald Sanctuary
Me and some of the gang in the drawing room in our house in Ireland, 2014...
7 Aug 2025
Portugal’s NHR 2.0: How Costa Killed a Golden Program, and Why It’s Back, Tougher Than Ever
For over a decade, Portugal’s Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) regime was a poster child for smart, targeted immigration poli...
6 Aug 2025
CFC Rules Are a Cage. Here’s How to Break Out.
There’s a silent war being waged, not in the headlines, but in the fine print. It’s not fought with tanks or sanctions, ...
5 Aug 2025
Escape Rooms for the Rich? Or Lifeboats from the EU Gulag?
There’s a certain kind of hypocrisy so grotesque, so bold-faced, that it can only flourish in Brussels . The European Un...
4 Aug 2025
The Gibraltar Gambit
In the grand chessboard of global wealth, the masters of the game are not those who simply accumulate, but those who str...
3 Aug 2025
The Man Who Showed Me the World
The world below is a map of ghosts. I am suspended somewhere between yesterday and tomorrow, on a long-haul flight to Zu...
2 Aug 2025
The Light from Maui
There are moments in your life that are hinges. They are pivot points upon which the entire arc of your story turns, tho...
1 Aug 2025
The End of Nowhere
To chase sunsets and sip WiFi-laced lattes in Bali, Tbilisi, Medellín....
31 Jul 2025
The Better Thailand
When most Westerners dream of Southeast Asia, their minds drift lazily to the beaches of Phuket, the chaos of Bangkok, o...
30 Jul 2025
Britain’s Telecom Shame
I moved to the UK in 2003 and got my first British mobile number with Vodafone. What followed was a 20-year saga of drop...
29 Jul 2025
The Lonely Road: Why Men Need Other Men
There’s a song I’ve been playing on repeat lately. [*To Be a Man* by Dax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHxip2x-PLc). ...
28 Jul 2025
Klaus Schwab’s House of Lies
Remember when they told you it was all a conspiracy theory? The Great Reset, the WEF manipulating national politics, Kla...
27 Jul 2025
The City of London Never Dies
My love affair with the City of London began long before I ever worked there....
26 Jul 2025
My Day Inside the Fortress of America
Not for the first time, but for the first time in a while, with a bit of apprehension. I was there to renew my U.S. visa...
25 Jul 2025
Why Most People Never Make It, And Why You Still Can
Getting rich and successful seems to be the dream of many, but that’s all it ever remains for most: a distant, unreachab...
24 Jul 2025
Thailand’s DTV Visa: A Digital Nomad Dream or Bureaucratic Trap in Paradise?
Exactly one year ago, Thailand launched its highly anticipated Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), a move that sent waves o...
23 Jul 2025
Give the Man a Shilling
Some years ago I read, or perhaps only heard, a story about G.K. Chesterton. It has the vague, vaporous quality of the a...
22 Jul 2025
A Love Letter Turned Warning
**When I moved to London in 2003, the UK was, believe it or not, *more attractive* from a tax perspective than Switzerla...
21 Jul 2025
How to Open a U.S. Bank Account as a Non-Resident without SSN
If you're an international entrepreneur, expat, investor, or digital nomad, opening a U.S. bank account can be one of th...
20 Jul 2025
Banking in Switzerland vs. Singapore: Where Serious Money Still Belongs
Since 2006, I’ve opened bank accounts across the globe, for myself, for clients, sometimes just to test the waters. I’ve...
19 Jul 2025
When Life Questions You: A Lesson in Real Leadership from My Father Martin
In the early 1990s (I must have been 14 or 15), I witnessed something at a family gathering that I’ve never forgotten. I...
18 Jul 2025
What If Gold Hit $20,000 an Ounce?
For most of my clients, gold isn’t just an asset; it’s a statement ....
17 Jul 2025
The Myth of Flag Theory: Why the Old Sovereign Dream No Longer Works
Recently someone who is a proponent of Flag Theory tweeted this:...
16 Jul 2025
Weaponized Victimhood: How the Media Manufactures US-Immigration Horror Stories
I moved to the United States in 2008 and have been continuously exposed to the American visa and immigration system ever...
15 Jul 2025
YouTube Income and a U.S. LLC: When It’s Tax-Free, and When It’s Not
Many digital entrepreneurs, YouTubers, and content creators monetize their channels through a U.S.-based LLC. The model ...
14 Jul 2025
The Next War Won’t Look Like the Last One, But You’d Better Be Ready
The age of clean borders and secure institutions is ending....
13 Jul 2025
Malta: A Fortress Island with a Tax Haven Heart
After my divorce in 2013, I found myself in a moment of upheaval, not just emotionally, but geographically. I had to lea...
12 Jul 2025
Can a US LLC Help You Avoid Dubai's 9% Corporate Tax? Not So Fast.
Ever since the UAE introduced a federal corporate tax of 9% on business profits, digital entrepreneurs and small busines...
11 Jul 2025
The Good Guy's Dilemma: John's Story and the Path to Reclaiming His Life
Despite being a Catholic, I never considered becoming a priest. It’s just not my vocation....
10 Jul 2025
Heartbreak, Passports, and the Road to Elsewhere: Why Some Men Leave It All Behind
Not with spreadsheets, tax optimization, or relocation packages, but with a woman who says, quietly or catastrophically,...
9 Jul 2025
One Life, One Shot: A Letter to My Son on Your 19th Birthday
A man now, in law and biology, and soon, I believe, in spirit and presence too. And though I’ve told you many things ove...
8 Jul 2025
Europe’s Digital Trap: Why I Left the EU, and Why You Should Too
In June 2025, Christine Lagarde, the unelected, unaccountable head of the European Central Bank, gave a telling intervie...
7 Jul 2025
Texas Tragedy: When the River Turned Ruthless
I’m in Spain right now, on holiday with my family. Warm nights, children playing, the Mediterranean calm. It should be a...
6 Jul 2025
💔 The Invisible Man: Why So Many Quiet, Successful Men Are Giving Up on Western Dating, and Finding Love Abroad
I used to laugh at those stories. You know the ones, middle-aged Western men bringing home much younger wives from Thail...
5 Jul 2025
Spain: Sun, Soil, and the Strange Seduction of Chaos
There’s something about Spain that keeps pulling you back....
4 Jul 2025
The America I Loved Before I Ever Saw It
Some loves are practical. Others are delusional. And then there are those rare, irrational devotions, built on longing, ...
3 Jul 2025
The German Putin Paradox: Why So Many Germans Admire Strongmen, and Why Entrepreneurs Shouldn’t Fall for It
I’ve been living outside Germany for over 25 years, but I work with Germans every day. I know their fears, hopes, and bl...
2 Jul 2025
The Endgame Behind Global Transparency Laws: CARF, CRS, and the Rise of the Wealth Tax Agenda
In early 2025, the United States government quietly walked back its enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA),...
1 Jul 2025
Peter Thiel, Germany’s Most Misunderstood Export
In the German-speaking world, Peter Thiel is often cast as a sinister figure. Conspiracy theorists whisper his name alon...
30 Jun 2025
Two Votes, One Soul: Why Denying the Eucharist to MP Chris Coghlan Was a Necessary Act of Courage
There are weeks in political life that define a man. Weeks when the mask slips, and we see not only the soul of an indiv...
29 Jun 2025
Britain Kills the Non-Dom: But This 200-Year-Old Idea Lives On Elsewhere
They called it “reform.” They framed it as fairness. But let’s be honest: Britain has just destroyed one of its greatest...
28 Jun 2025
Olive Oil, Anchovies & Lies: The Great Blue Zone Scam
Another glossy newspaper, this time The Daily Telegraph , has regurgitated the same tired myth about a remote Italian to...
27 Jun 2025
Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025: Fact, Fiction, or Marketing?
Henley & Partners claims a record number of millionaires are relocating in 2025, but are the numbers real, or just PR sp...
15 Mar 2024
The Story Behind Alamo Pictures
[Alamo Pictures](/the-brief/the-story-behind-alamo-pictures) is a leading European-based production company specializing...
13 Jan 2021
America at the Crossroads
“The road to democracy is not a freeway. It is a toll road on which we pay by accepting and carrying out our civic respo...
29 Aug 2020
Legacy
If you enter my hometown's cathedral, the Freiburger Münster , and walk to the sides of its hushed medieval interior the...
28 Aug 2020
Remember What it Takes to Succeed
There is much talk of business failure, even more talk of unemployment....
23 Aug 2020
Announcing Perspektive Ausland
The reason for so doing is because I have breaking news of yet another podcast....
21 Aug 2020
Digital Nomads Head to Mount Bonnell
There is on the rise a new tribe post Covid-19, namely, the Digital Nomads. This tribe has been around for a while – dec...
18 Aug 2020
A Year on: a Dream Becomes a Success
Leaving Edinburgh where I have been since March, I headed to London....
14 Aug 2020
The Mount Bonnell Mindset
Mount Bonnell has been picking up a lot of new clients and many of them are United Kingdom based....
7 Aug 2020
US Economy: A Sinking Ship?
The US economy shrank at a 32.9% annual rate between April and June 2020....
31 Jul 2020
The 747 Just Landed – For Good
This just announced: British Airways is retiring its fleet of Boeing 747s, the largest such fleet remaining in the world...
25 Jul 2020
The Client with the 10 Million Euros PPE Contract
I love helping my clients. I really enjoy their success as much as they do, maybe even more....
24 Jul 2020
US Economy has a Large Slice of Pizza
After taking one almighty pounding for the last two months the restaurants and cafes of the United States are back, open...
18 Jul 2020
The Mayflower & An Adventure that Never Grows Old
And this month I learned that lesson all over again....
17 Jul 2020
Is the United States economy in recovery?
Is the United States economy in recovery? Or is it in terminal decline? Has Covid-19 shattered it, or simply caused it t...
10 Jul 2020
The Sandwich: a Symbol of a Workplace Revolution
Whatever else you can say about Covid-19, it is an equal opportunities nightmare....
3 Jul 2020
Good News Stateside for Independence Day – But With a Hint of Caution
Now we know the Markets are not the economy and vice versa. And, in recent weeks, the U.S. Stock Market has been going u...
27 Jun 2020
The Good News About Bankruptcy
Boris Becker, the most famous German to ever go through bankruptcy in England, is not a client of mine....
26 Jun 2020
Sunshine in the News From Britain
Still, in lockdown I’m still in Scotland. Which, last time I looked is still part of the United Kingdom....
20 Jun 2020
With Too Much on My Plate – I Ordered Even More
So there we were. My Austin, Texas based local food podcast The Lone Star Plate appeared to be off the menu on account o...
19 Jun 2020
The UK Government Makes UK Tourism Travel Sick
“Following the science” has been the mantra of the British government throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Although there i...
13 Jun 2020
A Tale of Two Offices: Meeting the Covid-19 Challenge And Winning
My working environment has been changed, re-arranged in ways I could not have foreseen. It has affected my company bank ...
12 Jun 2020
Is the UK Economy Showing Signs of Tentative Recovery?
Having written last week about the dire economic choices facing Italy I find myself heartened by news coming out of the ...
10 Jun 2020
How to Eat Right: Shorter Supply Chains Mean Greater Stability
That’s the one word that continues to crop up as people - from reporters to scientists - begin to take a closer look at ...
6 Jun 2020
The Last Dance: A Business Leader’s Master Class, And Much Else Besides
It concluded after ten episodes run over a five-week period watched by an audience of 5.6 million. And as it did so, the...
5 Jun 2020
Arrivederci Italia?
The latest news from Italy was heartening. The European country first struck low by Covid-19 was at last emerging into t...
30 May 2020
Joe Rogan and the Podcast Revolution$
Some times such landmarks are obvious. Such as the moment 100 years ago when the first radio news program was broadcast ...
29 May 2020
Market UP, Economy DOWN – How come?
While over 20 million Americans were made unemployed in April 2020, the US Stock Market had its best month for decades –...
22 May 2020
The Next Crisis: Debt
There will be one clear legacy from COVID-19, namely, debt....
15 May 2020
Football with No Fans; Airlines with No Passengers
German football kicked off again this weekend. In spite of Covid-19 the Bundesliga is coming back with a bounce. But the...
8 May 2020
COVID-19 will change things in unexpected ways
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to change the world we live in- both in and through the social structures of our lives, ...
1 May 2020
After Covid-19: What Next?
Recently, these last weeks, there has been little news but that which is Covid-19 related. We have watched the unfolding...
3 Apr 2020
Present Day Economic Shocks and Historic Parallels
The shocks due to the impact of Coronavirus are still being felt around the world....
27 Mar 2020
The World Turned Upside Down
The covid-19 pandemic rages across Europe and America, and further afield....
20 Mar 2020
Is that it? Think again
Everything we cherished was incinerated in the white heat of a virus fever....
13 Mar 2020
Coronavirus and Fear Itself
It is about something that none of us have seen but which all of us have heard of, namely, coronavirus....
6 Mar 2020
The Business of Politics
In the States this week it has been all about politics....
28 Feb 2020
The Gold of Levi Strauss
San Francisco is hosting an exhibition that caught my eye....
21 Feb 2020
Scotland, Oil and Ballots
The Scottish capital is never dull. It is a city with cultural appeal, some great art galleries and wonderful architectu...
14 Feb 2020
Coffee? Gold more like…
It is a pleasant experience to sip coffee and watch the world go by, the endless rushing to and fro from trains to work ...
31 Jan 2020
Where to Start with Start-up Investments
Everyone talks about start-ups. They are either starting a start-up or looking to invest in one....
24 Jan 2020
What Do CEOs Do Anyway?
Have been for a number of years. And so I started thinking about my “role”....
17 Jan 2020
Work, Life And Balance
January is that time of year that reminds us all of that often repeated contemporary mantra: work-life balance ....
10 Jan 2020
Business Leaders and Historical Military Leaders - Really?
In recent years there has been a trend to use military metaphors when dealing with business. Even the straightforward an...
3 Jan 2020
A New Year With Our Friends Electric
Well, I’m here in Scotland. And there is nowhere better to enjoy the end of one year and the start of another. They call...
20 Dec 2019
The Real Price of Cheap Television Sets
Ask anyone: we watch less television than once we did....
13 Dec 2019
How Not to Market a Brand
This is the third general election in four years – 2015, 2017, 2019. There have been European elections – 2014 & 2019. I...
6 Dec 2019
Tears for Uber? More like Fears
You see Uber has been stripped of its London licence. The local authorities found that over 14,000 Uber trips had been t...
29 Nov 2019
How to Handel Money - What is it with Musicians and Money?
Sometimes you come across the most bizarre and, therefore, the most intriguing pieces of research. Like in the case of G...
22 Nov 2019
Recruiting and Retaining
We talk a lot about recruitment, and rightly so. In fact, there is a whole industry – and a profitable one – built upon ...
15 Nov 2019
Another new podcast series from Mount Bonnell
Mount Bonnell Media have just been commissioned for a new podcast series....
8 Nov 2019
How Not to Build a Team
The words “team building” fill some with a great rush of enthusiasm....
1 Nov 2019
New Podcast: Factual America
You may have remembered that a few weeks ago I mentioned Alamo Pictures?...
25 Oct 2019
All in the Mind or Why It Has Always Been Hard to Concentrate
This week I needed to write something. It is hard enough to do so but with the many and easily available distractions th...
18 Oct 2019
Stupid, Stupider and Really Stupid
In 1867 Mark Twain in a letter to the Alta California wrote the following:...
11 Oct 2019
Brexit – The Real Winners
It is not a happy place I’m told. The whole of the United Kingdom is riven and disunited like never before. A vote on me...
4 Oct 2019
Remember Alamo Pictures!
I was sitting on a plane recently. I was switching through the channels looking for a video to watch. The choice was oka...
27 Sept 2019
The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry?
I have personal beef – sorry – with the beef industry....
20 Sept 2019
All Change!
“To live is to change, and to change often is to become more perfect.”...
13 Sept 2019
2019 Podcast Ecosystem
In the world of podcasting new technologies – including: AirPods, connected cars, and smart speakers – they have made it...
5 Sept 2019
The Awesome Foursome: Looking for a Team With Personality?
To run your own business means you need to be leader....
30 Aug 2019
Ignore Social Media at Your Peril – Even in Scotland
I’m in Scotland and have been learning about a funny but telling incident on social media involving a lowly Scottish foo...
23 Aug 2019
Are We Heading for a Recession?
Last week I was taking a break on the island of Malta....
16 Aug 2019
The Secrets Behind Digital Advertising Works
You may not have noticed but in June 2019 shares in Facebook and Google started to tumble downwards on the tech-heavy Na...
9 Aug 2019
Policing the Recruitment in your Business
Recruitment is the biggest issue you will ever face....
2 Aug 2019
The Ups and Downs of the Federal Reserve
July 2019 will be remembered as the month the United States Federal Reserve showed its determination to fight the sluggi...
26 Jul 2019
One Small Step…One Giant Leap…
America has been awash with commemorations of what sort or another for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon – now 50 years ...
19 Jul 2019
Let’s Make America Great Again!
If you have been reading these columns you’ll know how just now how good things are in the United States. The economy ha...
12 Jul 2019
Good News Got Better!
It’s official: the United States of America is now experiencing the longest economic expansion in its history....
5 Jul 2019
It’s Independence Day!
And good news reported across the media on the protracted ‘trade war’ between China and the US. Around the world markets...
17 May 2019
The Magnificent Seven: Mt. Bonnell Advisors, Asia & Austin.
As you might expect, I enjoy cowboy movies. The open range, the plains, the cattle drives, the cowboys, and the saloons ...
3 May 2019
PODCAST SUCCESS!
It was Easter weekend. And, I had flown down to Malta for a spot of RNR....
26 Apr 2019
The CEO as Master Detective
The most important thing in your company is internal culture. A certain continuity and peace within a company is the thi...
19 Apr 2019
Argo: Belief in the Impossible (spoiler alert)
Hardly new, the film was released in 2012 and deservedly won an Oscar....
12 Apr 2019
How to Succeed in Business Without Selling Your Soul
No, really, the guys there are hard at it 24/7. It’s not just the production pipeline for all the media enterprises here...
5 Apr 2019
On Encountering an Emperor and a King in Rural England
About one hour from London there is a place called Farnborough. It is pretty nondescript. I have been there often, but n...
29 Mar 2019
Mt. Bonnell @ South By South West 2019 – Part 2
Okay, so SXSW 2019 is over.I’m still thinking over all the talks I heard; conversations I had; the people I met; in fact...
22 Mar 2019
Mt. Bonnell @ South By South West 2019 – Part 1
South-by-South West, or ‘South By’, or just SXSW, is now one of the world’s biggest festivals....
15 Mar 2019
The New Maltese Falcon: On the Trail of Dr. Werner & Partner
I was on the trail of the latest phenomenon to hit the currency markets: crypto-currency....
8 Mar 2019
Remember the Alamo!
On that day, at 5 am, after what had been a bloody 13-day siege, Mexican General Santa Anna ordered his 1800 troops to o...
1 Mar 2019
Dublin’s SXSW Blast Off!
No doubt about it: the history, the culture, the food and drink, this is a city that assaults all your senses and all at...
22 Feb 2019
German - American
I’m just about to go to the US Embassy in Dublin. It’s a grand affair and I’m looking forward to it. It’s about the cont...
15 Feb 2019
Taxes R US
Taxes are the enemy. Right? It’s not what you make in business but what you keep. I think you’ll agree with that....
8 Feb 2019
I’m a Quitter
Quit that job that’s abusing you and makes you so unhappy....
1 Feb 2019
Making Movies
I’ve been filming in London for a few days – both on location on the streets and restaurants of Fitzrovia and then in a ...
25 Jan 2019
Washington Shutdown – Time for Personal Start-Up
You’ve heard about the shutdown of the Federal government?...
18 Jan 2019
Baker Street
I’ve just spent the past week in London working from our new British headquarters on Baker Street....
11 Jan 2019
I’m Looking You Right in the Eye
Call me old- fashioned but I like to do business face-to-face, one-to-one, with a real live person – and when I say one-...
4 Jan 2019
New Year’s Resolutions – Don’t Bother…
So just this week I was at the obligatory New Year’s party....
28 Dec 2018
Cowboy Songs in the Key of Life
Take the Interstate 35 and head north out of Austin ....
21 Dec 2018
Fertile
The thing that surprises many when they leave Austin airport is how green the land is all around....
14 Dec 2018
Small Towns, Big Country
It is the second largest state in the Union – Alaska is bigger but with a population of just over 700,000. Texas has ove...
7 Dec 2018
It’s called America
Hello, let me introduce myself, Sebastian Sauerborn here....