Hide and Seek

A recent article in The Economist on freeports  is a good example of the degree to which some individuals are seeking safety through anonymity. Demand for high end warehouses in such places as Luxembourg and Sinagapore is escalating due to the demand by the super wealthy to keep certain high end items such as art work out of the prying eyes of the tax man. While the growth in this form of storage might be tied directly to the the recent attempts by certain governments to soak the rich, one has to wonder whether this form of storage is gaining popularity due to a growing distrust of the financial system. The explosion in the demand for gold storage in certain freeports might  also be solid evidence of such distrust. We suspect that similar forms of storage will continue to proliferate as the transition towards hard assets escalates.