What a bizarre world we live in. Here at the Q Wealth Report we work hard to explain the world in a way that our readers can understand. But so many things are full of truth, lies, and irony all mixed up together that they defy logical analysis. Nevertheless we are going to try…

Russia’s Pravda, formerly the official organ of the Soviet Communist party, published a blistering attack on the United States last week. That would not seem so strange, except that the post-Communist periodical accused America of “descending into Marxism.”

One of the comments, for example, was that “the population was dumbed-down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture.”

How very true. It was in the pages of our newsletter last year that Dr Richard Cawte warned against the dangers of television. In the constant race to produce more and more “content” for TV and internet, the quality has gone downhill so much. I even watched the BBC World News Channel the other day and the team was clearly half asleep. Fair enough since it was 4 a.m. in London. The point being do we really need people sitting there at 4am talking when they have nothing useful to talk about?

The writer of the Pravda article, it must be said, appears to be a victim of the propoganda machine himself. As we say in England, “the pot is calling the kettle black.” No doubt the communists who founded Pravda would be shocked at how much it has been dumbed down. I just took a look at their lead headline stories such as “Money Stuffed in Bra Saves Brazilian Woman’s Life” and “Men Become Impotent Because of Women’s Bare Legs.”

Nonetheless, some of his points are interesting and relevant. I particularly liked this one:

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

Certainly food for thought I would say.

Our attention was drawn to the said Pravda article by our friends over at MoneyMorning, who have recently been writing a lot of good stuff about the Russian economy. For example, contributing editor Martin Hutchinson sent over the following comments for our readers about why NOT to invest in Russia…

A country that was wealthy when oil was $140 per barrel became deeply impoverished when oil prices dropped all the way down to the $30 range. Those of us who had been alarmed by Russia’s increasing geopolitical and economic assertiveness indulged in a little schadenfreude, feeling that it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

Now, the table has turned again. At $68.87 a barrel, the price of oil is far higher than the price assumptions on which the majority of Russia’s oilfield-investment calculations were based.

Russia has effectively seized the assets of the British oil company BP PLC (NYSE ADR: BP).  Last week BP accepted the very unpleasant Mikhail Fridman as chairman of its joint venture TNK-BP, a sign that its attempt to control the investment into which it had put the majority of the capital was ended. In the long run, the forced expropriation of foreign investors will prevent the Russian oil sector from remaining truly competitive. But in the short run, the expropriated foreigners have found so much oil there that huge revenues are assured for at least a decade, provided the oil price remains reasonably high.

In other sectors, too, the free cash for those with political connections allows deals to be done. Opel, for example, General Motors Corp.’s (OTC: GMGMQ) European subsidiary, was sold not to the Italian company which had a strategic plan for it, nor to the Chinese company that could use it to enter the European market, but to Magma Group, a Canadian parts company controlled by Russian interests, with financing from the Russian state-controlled bank Sberbank Rossii OAO.

The result may not make much sense operationally, but it is another example of Russian interests controlling major strategic assets in Europe. Needless to say, the various gas and oil joint ventures undertaken by Gazprom OAO (OTC ADR: OGZPY) in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa are also extensions of Russian power.

The fact that Russia’s MICEX stock index is up 100% since early January (albeit still 40% below its December 2007 high) is not very relevant to the people who run Russia.

They appear to have two objectives: Using the capitalist system to make themselves and their colleagues very rich and projecting Russia’s power on the world stage – just as the former Soviet Union used to do.

To Prime Minister Putin, capitalism is an attractive discovery, because it works economically much better than Communism did, and thus allows Russia to regain more of its former power than would have been possible under the Soviet system.

In this sense, Putin and current Russian President Dmitri Medvedev have finally achieved the original goals of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the 1980s; the objective of those was certainly not to bring down the Soviet government or upset the system, but simply to get the economy working more efficiently towards the leadership’s objective of greater Soviet power. Minus the other ex-Soviet Republics, Russia has now achieved this objective – and it may not stay minus the other Republics for very long, if Russia’s rulers have their way.

Given the way the system is rigged against the outsider, Russia is not a particularly attractive place to invest. Clearly, there may from time to time be a good short-term bet that Russia’s rulers will overcome current difficulties. However, the world contains other good managers besides Putin, and some of those others have a genuine interest in shareholder value and determination to create more of it.

By all means, look for Russian companies in consumer sectors that are outside the grip of the oligarchs – but do not expect to do too well, because you may find your company has a new and very expensive sleeping partner. Probably the best vehicle is the Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSE: RSX), which benefits from Russia’s still-low Price/Earnings Ratio of 7.2.

But remember this: Russia isn’t a great global growth market like China, India or Brazil. And without major changes, it never will be.

Editor’s note: Thanks to the U.S. Treasury, investors can now switch some of their savings over to what could be a superior “legal tender.” Called “Gold Dollars,” this govt.-approved money spends like regular dollars – but it’s backed by physical bars of 24-karat gold. Gold expert Peter Schiff has written a report about this historic development. Whether you convert $10 or $10 million of your savings, his 5-minute “Gold Dollar” strategy could automatically increase your savings by 100%… 300%… even 500% in the coming days. To get Schiff’s intelligence for free, please go here.

The bailout of General Motors is another nail in the coffin of the US dollar. But still, most people haven’t even noticed the real ‘stealth’ devaluation being imposed by the United States government. And yet all of us, Americans or not, are affected by this in a big way, due to the dollar’s status as a reserve currency (and also due to China’s effective control of the dollar, that I have previously touched on…)

Is the dollar “collapsing” or merely “declining”? I believe it is collapsing, but some people might misunderstand this. The dollar is not just going to crash one day, or even one week. It’s an ongoing thing, that started many years ago but has substantially speeded up in the last five years or so (yes, even during the times when the US economy was supposedly booming, that too was based on scams by the financial services sector)

Geithner, Bernanke, Obama and the whole crew are involved in a constant battle to patch over the dollar collapse.  Yet in spite of their attempts, the cracks have widened. The greenback continues its inexorable march downward. This week’s events at G.M. have accelerated the collapse a little more. And I believe that the collapse of the dollar will continue to accelerate with time. What will happen when it hits the bottom is anybody’s guess, but I certainly want to be well prepared when it happens. You should be too. And the Q Wealth website is about helping you do just that – protecting your assets from this stealth devaluation.

The US is not going to crash like Mexico did in 1995, or like Argentina and Brazil have done since with overnight currency devaluations. Neither will go bankrupt in one day like Iceland. The US government still has way too much influence and political power for that to happen. It’s a stealth devaluation because your portfolio will appear to be going higher. You will have more dollars. The stock market will be up. But in real terms, you are losing money faster than ever before. This is what some people have a hard time getting their head around – but it’s very important. The government will try to persuade you that things are going well, when really they are not. Bottom line? It’s a scam being perpetrated on you by government. If you care about protecting your assets and creating new wealth, you have to understand this.

So where can you actually put your money to protect against the stealth devaluation and collapse of the dollar? What about other currencies? Well, necessity dictates that we need to use currencies like dollars, euros and pounds to carry on business. And common investing sense dictates that you should diversify assets, so at least having a proportion of euros is better than having all dollars. It’s a start.

But unfortunately none of these currencies look good. Every other major central bank is participating in the very same scam, meaning that their currencies are equally doomed. So it would not be safe to assume that buying, say, euros, will give you any serious protection against the loss of your assets.

My number one mantra to clients is diversification, diversification and diversification. If you have a portfolio above six figures, it should be in different currencies, in different banks, on different continents. Opening overseas personal accounts, while having no tax consequences, can certainly help asset protection…the geographic diversification protects against the threat called government, while the mere fact that the assets are offshore significantly reduces the risk of you being sued in the first place, especially if you live in a litigious place like the USA or increasingly the UK.

Generally, private international banks are also a whole lot more flexible and service minded too. They offer Swiss-style wealth management banking facilities. For example, I noticed the other day that one of my European private offshore banks (not in Switzerland in this case) had quietly added gold ounces to the list of currencies I could hold in my multi-currency checking account. I guess that means I can even write cheques denominated in gold ounces, though I haven’t tried that yet. I see some of the larger European clearing banks like RAIFFEISEN ZENTRALBANK OESTERREICH AG in Austria are now maintaining gold correspondent accounts for their institutional clients. Interesting, huh?

Which are the best offshore banks for this kind of wealth management? For the answer to that question you need to be a member of The Q Wealth Report. Download the Practical Offshore Banking Guide (available instantly as soon as your payment is approved) and you will find ten of them for starters, with impartial comments on each… together with the form for a free e-mail consultation if you would like to discuss your individual circumstances with me directly.

Gold, probably is number one on my list of recommendations as a hedge against dollar decline. There are ways you should buy gold, and ways you shouldn’t. One way you should not invest in gold is by following typical mainstream advice and investing in ETFs, the most famous of which is GLD the SPDR Gold ETF. Ther are significant concerns about whether you could really get your gold out, or even your money back in dollars (which is not what you would want anyway at that stage) in the case of an economic meltdown.

For example, what do you think of this quote directly from the GLD prospectus?

The Trust’s gold may be subject to loss, damage, theft or restriction on access.

There is a risk that part or all of the Trust’s gold could be lost, damaged or stolen. Access to the Trust’s gold could also be restricted by natural events (such as an earthquake) or human actions (such as a terrorist attack). Any of these events may adversely affect the operations of the Trust and, consequently, an investment in the Shares.

The Trust may not have adequate sources of recovery if its gold is lost, damaged, stolen or destroyed and recovery may be limited, even in the event of fraud, to the market value of the gold at the time the fraud is discovered.

If you would like to know about better ways to invest in Gold offshore, you need my Gold Report – How to Buy and Hide Gold Bullion Offshore which is likewise available free of charge for immediate download to our paid up members.

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