Diversify

Re: True diversification.

When I say "true diversification," I mean stocks, bonds, metals, commodities, and foreign currrencies . . . with a heavy emphasis on foreign. Follow the demographics. If 95% of the world's population is not in the United States, most economic activity will, by sheer force of demographic gravity, shift outside the United States. The U.S. is still the economic superpower of the world, so I'd give it extra weight, but not to the tune of 50% of my portfolio, which is where traditional investment advice would put it. Maybe more like 20-30% (including cash and bond holdings).

Catholic Investing?

I have this nascent line of thought, incidentally, that this is a Catholic approach to investing. Rome is not American-centric. When JPII held great hopes for a Catholic renaissance in the 21st century, I'm pretty sure he wasn't banking on America's spirituality. I suspect he was thinking about the rest of the world springing forth with spiritual prosperity as it begins to shake off its third-world nation status. For the rest of the world to assert an influence in things religious, it must first be able to fend for itself economically . . . or at least get past the most-primitive of economies, but hopefully without becoming Ireland in the process.