I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Industry after industry in decline, the Fed printing money so fast that gold bugs are multiplying like rabbits ... the U.S. is facing some big challenges. I think it's time you moved out of here.
Uh, what are you talking about? I like it here. Land of the free and home of the brave, y'know? Besides, did you see how my garden did this year? The asparagus was great, and those tomatoes -- mmm. Nothing tastes as good as a local tomato, you know that. You want me to flee all this?
No, no, hear me out. I don't mean actually physically leaving. I like the local tomatoes too. I'm talking about stocks. I think you should be investing more overseas.
Dude, I'm already overseas. I've got Microsoft
-- Alan Mulally --
-- yeah, him. You told me he's turning Ford into one big global company, and about all the good cars they have coming from Europe. So they're global too, and I bought some when it was cheap, like you said. Now I hear they're turning a profit. I'm covered.
Listen for a minute, will you? The dollar was strong for a while earlier this year, but it's been weakening lately, and it could keep getting weaker over the long haul. All other things being equal, that means companies that do business in other currencies are only going to get more expensive in dollar terms over time.
Yeah, but don't these big global companies have ways to manage that? If they're smart enough to do business all over the world, they should be smart enough to trade futures or whatever so that they can deal. Right?
Sure. But wouldn't it be even better if that currency trend were working for you? Maybe on top of some great growth stories?
Is this where you tell me to go buy Chinese stocks? I've got that China ETF the guy on TV talked about, that iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) thing. I'm good, I keep telling you.
China's a great place to start. But not with that ETF, because it kind of stinks. It's not the ETF's fault; it's the index. It's full of fat slugs.
Slugs? What are you talking about? It's China, the boom-boom emerging superpower. You're the guy who told me to buy Ford and you're telling me about slugs?
Hey, Ford is up 500% since you bought it. Stop your complaining. But that index is full of big companies that are mostly owned by the Chinese government. Those companies aren't going to take off anytime soon, and if the government decides to dump their holdings, the stock prices will tank. If you want growth in China, you've got to go buy growth stocks, real emerging companies.
Uh-huh. And how do I find these things?
Dude, this is The Motley Fool. Poke around. Look at China Green Agriculture
Or take a look at Huaneng Power
Wait. Stop. You know, I watch TV -- I know China's government isn't the biggest fan of private property. They're Communists! How do I know they won't be out at the vanguard of the whosis seizing my company's means of production or whatever?
Look, the Chinese government knows it has a good thing going right now. They need Western investment and Western markets. There's definitely risk, but I think it's not a big deal.
OK, suppose I agree with you. All those stocks you just named sound good. But they're all traded on U.S. exchanges. Doesn't that mean they've already gotten pretty big? How do I find the ones that haven't popped yet?
That takes some more digging. But that kind of digging is exactly what they do at the Motley Fool Global Gains newsletter. In fact, the Fool's sending the team to India to scout out some great investing opportunities.
Yeah, yeah. I don't subscribe to that one. And money's tight --
-- so take a free trial. It'll cost you nothing and you can spend 30 days poking around and picking their brains. Seriously, you need to get on this soon.
OK, fine. I'll take a look if you go rake all the leaves out of my garden already. What do I need to do?
Just click here to get rolling. It's worth your time, I promise.