Put These High on Your Reading List

Our staff has been burning the midnight oil, reading all of the excellent books and reports our friends have written. Here are seven of the best titles we’ve seen in 2010. We recommend each one.

Going Global, by Doug Hornig with Doug Casey

This is a must read for anyone who has just started to contemplate the idea of moving assets offshore. This special report from our friends at Casey Research provides invaluable advice and recommendations on the many ways you can get a portion of your assets out of the country – safely and legally.

Through clear language and a worldly perspective, this report explains the many reasons for diversifying outside our borders, as well as the various investment vehicles through which you can accomplish it. Going Global provides an excellent starting point as you delve into the daunting world of international diversification.

One topic that we at ASI really appreciate is the attention this report pays to goldⁱ. Whether it’s the benefits this yellow metal provides or the various ways you can gain exposure to it, Going Global understands the essential role gold should play in international diversification.

Anyone beginning their research on the various ways to get assets out of this country would do well to make this report the starting point.

- Alex Canahuate

The Gold Investor’s Bible, by Stansberry & Associates

This report could just as easily be called “Gold Investing 101.” Part I, “What Everyone Should Know About Gold,” is about as basic as it gets. The authors explain the cyclical nature of gold prices, as well as their inverse relationship to the printing of money.

This reader was fascinated to learn that back in 1690, leaders of a colony printed 7,000 pieces of paper currencyⁱ, backed by absolutely nothing, and then had the audacity to deride gold as a “barbaric relic.” Some things never change, do they?

The authors do an excellent job of explaining gold’s role as a store of value and why it has retained its purchasing power through the ages. And there is historical evidence, I’m happy to note, that some people do learn. In 1751, for example, the King of England outlawed the issue of any currency not backed by gold or silver.

Each segment of the book provides much practical and relevant information. You’ll learn the best ways to store your physical metals; what premiums you can expect to pay; what you should be sure to own before purchasing shares in a gold or silver ETF; what coins are allowed in an IRA; and much, much more.

Since we all know that we will die someday and that we will continue to be taxed until that fateful day, I particularly appreciated Brian Hunt chapter on “How to Keep the Government’s Hands off Your Gold Profits.” His description of how the IRS views your assets confirmed the importance of our mission at ASI to help you Keep What’s Yours.

- Jared Kallen

The Golden Rule, by Jim Gibbons

Once in a great while, a financial education book comes along that breaks the rules in what it offers its readers. When Jim Gibbons first asked me to contribute a chapter to his upcoming book on gold, I hesitated. After all, what could I say that was new and compelling about the reasons for a safe and sane gold allocation? Hadn’t the reasons for such been demonstrated over and over again for nearly six thousand years? Of course it had.

But when Jim explained that he was going to invite a variety of experts to explain their personal perspectives on gold, as opposed to the conventional (and often boring) dissertation on the subject matter, I promptly agreed, because I too had something I wanted to say on the subject.

Gold can be a life saver. I say this not because of something I read in the history books, but because of what my family and I personally experienced. I encourage you to read my introductory chapter so you will understand what gold really is: a life insurance policy for your other assets and, in extreme cases, a life insurance policy for yourself.

There are several other accounts in this invaluable book I commend to your attention. See especially the chapter by my long-time friend, Michael Checkan, whose contribution is also of a personal rather than market-oriented nature.

Perhaps nothing better explains what gold is and how it can function than the individual stories in these two chapters. They both reinforce my motto on the asset of the ages: “When you buy gold for the right reasons, there is no such thing as the wrong time or the wrong price.”

- Jon Nadler, Precious Metals Analyst

How to Make Money from Gold, by Fleet Street

It sounds easy, doesn’t it? As with any other investment, just buy low and sell high.

Unfortunately, at any given moment you can never know for certain if you are buying at a low or selling at a high. While seeing a trend is easy, knowing how long a particular trend will last, why it is moving as it is, and perhaps most important of all, when it will change, is incredibly difficult.

That’s why the Seven Pillars in How to Make Money from Gold can be invaluable to you. They will help you to understand why we are convinced that gold is going to continue to rise in price, but also the factors that will determine the length and height of that trend.

From production projections to digital gold to central banks, this book is a great read for those wanting to understand what is happening behind the scenes in the gold market. It will also be a refreshingly different read for the average investor in the U.S., since it is written primarily for an audience in the UK.

It can be very helpful to look at a market – and in particular, the gold market -- from a perspective of other countries and currencies. After making the case for a continued gold bull marketⁱ, the last section of this report explains almost every conceivable way to invest in gold, giving the pros and cons of each one.

After reading this report, every gold investor should not only understand the gold market in the coming years, but be prepared to profit from it.

- Steve Emerick

Investing in Resources, by Adrian Day

The trend is your friend. We have all heard this oft-overused advice. For the better part of a decade, the trend has been bullish for precious metals and commodities in general. Who better to tell this story than Adrian Day?

Adrian, aside from being a long-time friend of ASI, is a graduate of the London School of Economics, a renowned money manager, an accomplished author, and one of the foremost authorities on global investing and natural resources.

In his new book, Investing in Resources – How to Profit from Outsized Potential and Avoid the Risks, Adrian analyzes the global commodity bull market in what may prove to be one of the defining books on the subject. He covers the full breadth of the commodities sector, from agriculture to energy to precious metals, as well as base metals.

Investing in Resources takes an in-depth look at global supply and demand factors, including China’s insatiable thirst for natural resources. While they have 20% of the world’s population, they consume just a tiny share of the word’s resources. As Adrian shows, that is changing in a big way. By analyzing what previously developed countries have consumed at this stage of their development, he makes the case that China (and India) will generate such significant demand based on sheer numbers that it will dwarf anything we have seen thus far.

Adrian also identifies the best ways to capitalize on this trend, while being mindful to point out the potential pitfalls to investors. To complete the picture, he also suggests indicators to watch as you consider when the bull market will begin to wane.

Adrian takes a highly complicated and globally intertwined subject and breaks it down to useable information that we can all understand and act upon. This is a must read for anyone looking to make sense of commodities as the bull rages on.

- Rich Checkan

The Tax Reform Alternative, by Vern Jacobs

Understanding the U.S. Tax Code is admittedly a daunting tax. In fact, many say it is an impossible one. There are simply too many rules and regulations – some of which contradict each other – for anyone to be confidant they are obeying them all.

Thank goodness for Vernon Jacobs and his book, The Tax Reform Alternative. It explains, in language the layman will understand, how we got where we are, including what the inflation tax really is and how it robs you of your savings.

Tax expert Jacobs explains how our lawmakers have been playing a shell game with us – the taxpayers of this country – for generations. His then offers a proposal of his own – a road map, as it were, of what would be meaningful tax reform.

Vern addresses the issue of the Federal Reserve’s ability to print more and more fiat currency, backed by nothing but the “full faith and credit” of the United States. He shows that such a strategy as Quantitative Easing is nothing more than a hidden tax we will all be paying for generations to come.

Finally the author shares some important insights on going offshore, including the pros and some important cons. He guides us through the land mines existing for taxpayers who elect to exit the United States and explains the tax implications once you are offshore.

This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the enormously complicated subject of tax reform. If you wish to protect and preserve what you have worked so hard to obtain, be sure to read this book.

- Kevin Drost

The Billionaire’s Loophole: Closed at Last?, by Mark Nestmann

The United States is one of a few countries in the world that imposes taxes on its citizens income from anywhere in the world. Most of other countries – including every major industrial country in the West – allow you to escape your tax obligations to them by the simple expedient of moving out of the country.

The U.S.A. is different. The only way to escape the U.S. tax system permanently is expatriation. That is, giving up your U.S. citizenship. But even that step, extreme as it may seem, can be costly and cumbersome.

For many wealthy citizens, the results are definitely worth the effort. One of the best known was John Templeton, who saved his heirs and his favorite charities hundreds of millions of dollars by forsaking his U.S. citizenship and moving to the Bahamas. As a result, he not only held on to most of his money in his lifetime; his charitable works also earned him a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth. Neither could have happened in he had not left the United States.

Mark Nestmann, the author of The Billionaire’s Loophole: Closed at Last?, is one of the best-known experts in the United States on the subject of tax avoidance and expatriation. For those interested, he has written the most exhaustive guide we’ve seen on current tax law in the U.S. As he points out, the most recent changes in 2008, the rules are stricter than ever. So are the penalties for making a mistake.

His guide will walk you through the ins and outs of the current laws, the state of international laws, and a look at what is coming in the future. Anyone considering expatriation should begin with this informative guide. Your heirs will thank you.

- Carl Weber III