I’d like to introduce you to Richard Preshern and his financial blog, Market Owl – http://rpreschern.wordpress.com.  The heart of real estate is finance so its important to understand what’s going on in the world of banking and currency, especially in the age of ongoing world financial crisis. In particular, the “race to the bottom” with regards to world inflationary monetary policies.  Real estate, whether leveraged or unleveraged,  can offer some great protection against inflation but what I really want you to understand is why.  Richard is providing valuable information and analysis on both the reasons and the magnitude of the ongoing inflations.  His blog will help you understand and digest world events so you can hopefully make better financial decisions.

For anyone who may discount how important it is to understand the “how’s” and “why’s” of inflation, I’ll introduce you to this quote by the French philosopher Voltaire:

“Paper money will always return to its intrinsic value – nothing.”

This single statement sums up the history of paper money throughout the ages. It always happens and history proves it. So, its not a question of “if” but a question of “when” and “how fast.”  Unfortunately, we’re living in a time of accelerating devaluations of money.

I’ve been following Richard’s blog for the past several months and he’s doing an incredible job not only posting great information and insightful interviews but also explaining events and dynamics to help his readership better understand what is happening in financial markets. And, he is doing it in a way that makes sense to people who are not in the financial industry.

Richard is married to one of my cousin’s so I know him personally. He is a currency trader in Chicago so his finger is as close to the pulse of world financial markets as it can get.  He is originally from Austria and is a native German speaker.  As a European living in America, his background gives him both perspective on world events, particularly in Europe, and the ability to listen and read to German news and publications natively. For anyone who has lived overseas, you know that news and events can be reported and interpreted quite differently depending on the lens through which they are seen, which includes both political and cultural biases. This attribute alone makes Richard’s analysis far more valuable than most.

I want to encourage you to subscribe to his blog, it will be well worth your time. Don’t be afraid to interact and ask questions, Richard is great at answering them. I can’t emphasize enough how valuable a resource he and is blog are. His most recent posting on Gold is particularly good.