Read The Entropy Trap to discover what physics knows the economics doesn’t.
The Crown Compendia: An informal dispatch on markets, money and my musings. For those who want to go deeper, the links are at the bottom.
— Villa Del Balbianello, Lake Como. Italy.
During my time in Lake Como I stopped in to visit a place I’d always dreamed of: La Villa Del Balbianello in Lenno. You may know it from the James Bond film Casino Royale.
What you probably don’t know, however, is the story behind it — in particular the story of its last ever owner: Count Guido Monzino.
The Monzino family were not actually nobles yet they were very important in Milan in the early 1900’s who made their fortune from founding and then expanding Italy’s first national supermarket chain: Standa.
Guido was made Standa’s general manager in his mid twenties and managed to 10x its growth before the firm was sold to Montedison in 1966 for 700 billion lire (approximately 9 Billion Euros in today’s terms).
He then dedicated the rest of his life to mountain climbing expeditions, achieving numerous feats including leading the first ever ascent of Cerro Paine, Chile and the first successful Italian ascent of Mt Everest. His many other alpine achievements took him across Africa and the Chilean Patagonia where he purchased land and built community centres. (In Chile he was coerced to hand over his land to the state when Pinochet came to power, however he negotiated for the land to be converted into a national park).
As a child he always coveted the villa and in 1974 managed to purchase it and renovate it back to its full splendour. He died in 1988, leaving the villa to the Italian State trust and is buried there.
All this is to say, that after visiting the villa and reading his life story, one can’t help but to be inspired towards raising the bar on their goals and dreaming a little bigger. Or, to borrow the good Count’s favourite quote
“Gradatim conscenditur ad alta”
(Gradually towards the highest highs)
— Guido Monzino
In terms of my investments this simply means I am dialling up the offence — raising the bar on my hurdle rates, with allocations tilting more towards those plays promising a more aggressive rate of return.
I have recently ran a portfolio audit and share the changes with premium members.
The two biggest investment themes are Sovereign debt and AI.
What people call the gold trade is really about bond markets which are in turn sovereign debt re-financing facilities. I have chosen to invest in the AI story via the toll roads and land owners with a pecuniary interest in the commodities critical to the roll out of data centres.
If you’d like access to how I’m allocating my capital currently why not join the premium tier? With a proven track record sharing several multi-bagger trades it’s only $125 for the entire year.
