What do you do when you already hold the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous motorcycle trip around the globe? If you’re Jim Rogers, easy: do it all again ten years later in a pimped-out yellow Mercedes.
Talk about doing your due diligence: seeking nothing less than viewing the entire world from the ground up at the turn of the millennium, Jim Rogers and his fiancé Paige achieve just that. They have enough adventure to fill several volumes and lend much credence to the belief that the only way to truly invest in something is to know it cold (Mr. Rogers would know, having been ripped off for $500 on glass beads he thought were diamonds).
Some trends he observes are blindingly obvious to a lot of us on this board (like the fact that Europe is going through a fertility crisis). Others so far have been proven false (like his idea that Eastern Europe would sooner go to war with itself than join the EU, because they are disillusioned with capitalism). On this ten-year anniversary of the trip, though, the jury is still out on the lion’s share of his extrapolations. Will India split into dozens of countries? Will South Korea lose its First World status if the US military withdraws? Will the African nations form a free trade union, and is the best solution really to forgive all the debt and cancel all the foreign aid? There’s enough here to fuel dozens of WSO blog posts.
More of a geopolitical travel book than an investment guide, “Adventure Capitalist” is extremely readable. Jim and Paige celebrate the millennium (and their wedding) in England. He chases down a Bolivian thief who stole his capital from the new stock market years before (tracks him all the way to Peru!). He meets people who read his last book in the middle of the Nigerian jungle, nearly gets killed crossing through Myanmar, and is dismayed to find that he can’t buy real estate in Australia because he is a foreigner.
One small criticism I do have is that the level of detail declines a bit from region to region. I would have liked to see more on North Africa, given how eventful things have been over there lately. He is especially disappointed to be unable to enter Iran.
If any of you do end up picking this up, bear in mind how different the world was when it was first published. Former Yugoslavia was a war zone. Alan Greenspan was Fed chairman (Rogers gleefully rips him a new asshole in the conclusion). There was an exciting and newfangled currency called the Euro. “Adventure Capitalist” is intended as a snapshot of the world at a moment in time, and should be treated as such.
It’s fun to evaluate the ideas after a decade has passed, and you have to wonder if there could a be a third book, another adventure, to see what has changed by 2012.
Knowing Jim Rogers, he’s probably already planning it. Read up, monkeys!
Monkey’s Review 1: Barbarians At the Gate
Monkey’s Review 2: The Financier
Monkey’s Review 3: Decision Points
Monkey’s Review 4: Debunkery
Monkey’s Review 5: When Genius Failed
Monkey’s Review 6: Monkey Business
Monkey’s Review 7: Death Of The Banker
Monkey’s Review 8: A Journey
Monkey’s Review 9: Damn It Feels Good To Be A Banker
Monkey’s Review 10: The Quants
Monkey’s Review 11: All About Hedge Funds
Monkey’s Review 12: The Unlikely Disciple
Monkey’s Review 13: Adventure Capitalist
Monkey’s Review 14: The Hedge Fund Book
Monkey’s Review 15: Investing In Hedge Fund of Funds
Monkey’s Review 16: Hilarity Ensues
Monkey’s Review 17: The Prince
Monkey’s Review 18: Markets Never Forget (But People Do)
Monkey’s Review 19: The Money Culture
Yea pretty old book published in 2003, I guess his latest one came in 2009 "A Gift to My Children". Has any monkey read that?
This is still one that I haven't picked up yet. Anyone know if it's similar to P.J. O'Rourke's "Eat the Rich"? From the review, it seems as if they both travel around and comment on the socioeconomic conditions in various countries. Believe O'Rourke wrote his book a little earlier than Rogers.
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