06/09/09 Gaithersburg, Maryland Water troubles cost the president of Madagascar his job. But in a twist, it was water troubles in South Korea that did him in. Daewoo, a big South Korean conglomerate, worried about how it would increase food supplies, given its water-stressed homeland. So it signed a deal with Madagascar to lease half of its arable land to grow crops to ship back home to South Korea.
When the people of Madagascar heard about the deal, they were very unhappy. The new president of Madagascar wasted no time and scotched the deal. It’s just another step along the road to water becoming a strategic asset, just like oil. Another episode in an unfolding series called the global water crisis.
Water is one of four areas that look most attractive to me in a big-picture sense. I remember them with an acronym I’ve created: WAGE. It stands for Water, Agriculture, Gold and Energy.
Chris Mayer
Chris Mayer is managing editor of the Capital and Crisis and Mayer’s Special Situations newsletters. Graduating magna cum laude with a degree in finance and an MBA from the University of Maryland, he began his business career as a corporate banker. Mayer left the banking industry after ten years and signed on with Agora Financial. His book, Invest Like a Dealmaker, Secrets of a Former Banking Insider, documents his ability to analyze macro issues and micro investment opportunities to produce an exceptional long-term track record of winning ideas. In April 2012 Chris will release his newest book World Right Side Up: Investing Across Six Continents.
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I just wonder why such a fixation about Gold! Every story does not have to start and end with Gold.
Gold…if everyone is doing it then it must be wrong. Right?
no sh*t. can’t drink gold or silver or oil – guess you could drink oil but that probably is real bad for your cholesterol…
Chris,
Other than buying land, what is another way to invest in the water portion of your recommended portfolio?