Lucid and often humorous, "Adventure Capitalist" will appeal to two types of readers. First are those who will be fascinated by the travel itself, and the author's encounter of different cultures and attitudes. In that sense, "Adventure Capitalist" is a state-of-the-world kind of book in which Mr. Rogers goes beyond what is reported in the news (or, often, not reported in the West) and gives a first-hand account of life in distant lands. (But Mr. Rogers tends to gloss over a few countries, sharing too little about his time in them.)
Second, Mr. Rogers puts together an investor's handbook by giving financial advice about investing in dozens of countries. Mr. Rogers is very straightforward about his reasons for investing in one place over another; thus, "Adventure Capitalist" has ended being a rich anthology of investment experience that can prove helpful to anyone interested in economics.
Either as a travel-book or as an investor's guide, "Adventure Capitalist" is sure to captivate you if only because it offers a fascinating account of how things really are in places where most people will only ever reach by a book like this. Mr. Rogers has lived, as he says, everyone's dream; and then, he has come back to tell us about it.
The book contains both specific details on countries (Japan is at or near a bottom, where everyone's given up, and may be due a rebound. There's a bubble forming in US housing) as well as general views supporting free market economics. It also manages to be both profound and captivating. There are lessons worth pondering, but the story keeps grabbing you back. In the end, you'll be surprised at how much you learned.
The book also has a more mature tone than "Investment Biker". You can see some of the youthful enthusiasm at a world losing it's boundries replaced with concern over the troubles in today's world. Jim's prior viewpoint of a single man is replaced with coping with his father's mortality and the responsibility of a new family. It's as if the initial book was written by your older brother, while this was written by your dad.
I had a bias going in - "Investment Biker" was an eye opening book early in my career. This book still managed to exceed my expectations. It ranks with Friedman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" in explaining what's going on in the world, while maintaining a Paul Theroux view of the world from the low road. (Learning more from border crossings than from airports and red carpets) It's also been my top read of the year to date.
Pick it up! It's well worth it!
The book reads like a novel with endless stories about fascinating people and places (Rogers is a marvelous storyteller) but is interspersed with a lot of the author's conclusions about the longer-term economic prospects of many of the countries he visits (how he and his new wife Paige even were able to get into many of those countries is part of what makes this book such a delight). While doing this, there is no hint of condescension in his commentary from the viewpoint of a rich American - at the end of the book he lays into his own country with some well reasoned criticisms concerning our isolation and arrogance. Moreover, Rogers unabashedly finds inspiration from the numerous industrious and hard-working people that exist in all corners of the world. You know that he wishes they had even a fraction of the chance a large majority of Americans to pursue their respective dreams.
This is a must-read for anyone interested in the world and its propects for economic development. While I wish that Rogers came away with more optimism about the future (unfortunately, most people in the developing world don't exactly desire to share the wealth and most of the developed world creates a lot of its own problems with politicians overpromising...what else is new), I do appreciate his realism. I know that when Rogers speaks on the Fox News Channel, I listen to him with far greater interest than to any other commentator they have.
The main problem here is that the journey was so extensive that Rogers doesn't have the space to relate an effective travelogue about all the places he visited. Entire nations are often described in a sentence or less. Meanwhile, yes/no pronouncements on the viability of investing in each location are tossed off quickly like afterthoughts. Rogers does impart some great investment advice here, like the contention that the next bull market will be in commodities (raw materials) rather than securities, most of the currencies in the world are collapsing, and that the surprise up-and-coming nations will be Angola and Bolivia. But otherwise, Rogers quickly dismisses most of the visited countries due to political strife. He also spends a lot of time on his soapbox, making vast pronouncements on how to solve the world's ills, most of which involve a simplistic belief in free trade (the phrase "the miracles of international trade" pops up once), and the predictable disdain for globalization's critics that we keep hearing from those with vested interests. Rogers fails to notice that much of the political strife he encountered around the world resulted from mismanaged globalization efforts.
Rogers should have written two books inspired by his remarkable journey. The first would be a travelogue and adventure story about the perils and rewards of death-defying travel. The second book would be a solid examination of worldwide investing opportunities and the futures of developing vs. declining nations and their economies. Both would be much stronger than this book that unsuccessfully tries to blend the two, but leaves both poorly covered.