onewayfamily wrote: ↑Fri Jun 26, 2020 10:36 am
In addition, I think one of the best investments you can make to hedge against future volatility (of all kinds) is maintaining or acquiring citizenship (or at least residency) in countries that have a strong likelihood of medium-long term stability - acknowledging that this is very hard to predict.
Examples that come to mind are Canada, Australia, Switzerland, perhaps Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. Some commonalities are (relative) political stability, mineral wealth, small(ish) populations, strong social/welfare safety net including universal healthcare.
I agree with the concept, but I see all those countries (except perhaps Australia) as 1. strongly correlated and 2. dependants. Essentially they're all bets on the continuing American hegemony and specifically the American hegemony continuing to shield defenceless, wealthy small countries for free. I would prefer to see:
1. US citizenship (current hegemon)
2. neutral US-aligned citizenship (bet on continuing US hegemony but with the option to not personally fight for it, e.g. Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland)
3. East Asian country (most likely new hegemon/its satellites - maybe Australia counts)
4. wild card neutrals (Russia, Iran, Israel)
If you already have 1. or 2., getting the other is the lowest priority.
Of course engineering this is another question. If you are already Swedish it's probably easier to get Canadian passport than Japanese, and trivial to get Austrian.