by Jocelynn Smith
The Sovereign Investor
“You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters.”
The quote is from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, but it seems appropriate regardless of the fact that I’m in Bermuda, which is home to more than 300 shipwrecks, or the island country’s lovely Crystal Caves, which are rumored to have hidden pirate treasure.
As more than one speaker at the Total Wealth Symposium has pointed out during the past several days, the U.S. and global economies are in uncharted territory. The world is weighed down with either near-zero interest rates or negative interest rates. Debt has skyrocketed. The American consumer is stretched thin and has once again started tapping home equity just to make ends meet. And the strong dollar continues to pinch corporate profits in the U.S., which have already suffered seven consecutive quarters of earnings contraction.