Check out my interview with Jay Liebenguth over at Fresh Octane:

You and I fret over how to balance our investment dollars in a SEP or an IRA. Meanwhile, Robert P. Smith has his bags packed for Damascus, Syria to measure that country’s investment potential. That’s why he is portrayed as the “Indiana Jones” of international finance.

“Give me a country that is at war because the last President has been shot and I’ll figure out something to do to make money,” says Smith who is author of RICHES AMONG THE RUINS—Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy.

In this new book, Smith recounts his experiences risking not only his money, but his life, in war zones, dictatorships, and crime-ridden capitals in countries like El Salvador, Nigeria, Turkey, Russia and Iraq.

Listen Here

A quick note: I’ve been slated to speak at a gathering of the New York Society of Security Analysts on April 21, 2010. The location hasn’t been determined yet, but I know that I’ll be discussing my book,  business exploits, and the future of the financial world.

Further details to come.

www.richesamongtheruins.com/events/

I’m pleased to announce that Audible.com has released Riches Among the Ruins in audiobook form. It’s available for 7.95 with a subscription to Audible, or at the full cover price, and Audible will deliver it in the digital media format of your choice.

So if you prefer to get your books in the car or through your MP3 player, this is definitely the format for you. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

A few tidbits from this weekend. First, the social stuff – the NYPost ran a brief about the comedian Jackie Mason, who graciously accepted my invitation to perform at my 70th birthday this year.

I also ran into Massachusetts Senator John Kerry at an event, pictured here admiring Riches Among the Ruins.

Finally, and more substantively, Barron’s ran quite an in-depth piece on Riches Among the Ruins, Turan Corporation and myself. It goes into my work at Turan with Saleh Daher, and we discuss how to make money in a market with very few bargains.

Unfortunately, registration is necessary – but worthwhile!

As an alumnus of Bowdoin, I’ve worked with them a few times and spoken about my work and writing. Here’s a nice profile they ran in their Fall 2009 magazine.

Bowdoin: Is it still necessary for investors like yourself to visit these countries like you did?

Smith: Let me compare it to the CIA gathering intelligence. They’re big on the technical stuff, the satellites and intercepting code and phone messages. But, where they’ve always fallen on the ground is their human intelligence, human intel. I believe that you have to be on the ground speaking to as many people as possible, asking the embarrassing questions to government officials and executives as to where the country is going, what they’re doing, what the economic plan is. It’s similar to applying for admission into Bowdoin, to get an idea of what the College is all about. You can read all the catalogs, listen to all the videos and the promo material that they send out, but unless you are on campus getting a feel and talking to some of the students and professors, you really don’t have an idea of what Bowdoin is all about.

This op-ed of mine was recently published in the Providence Journal:

For nearly 30 years, I’ve made my living identifying golden opportunities to invest in the bonds and other debt instruments of such developing world countries as El Salvador, Nigeria, Turkey and Zambia. I’ve never relied on sophisticated economic analyses or spread sheets; I’ve been a gut player relying on intelligence gathered by walking the streets of those countries and talking to bankers, businessmen, government officials and even taxi drivers.

If they had bonds to sell, which they don’t, at least not yet, I’d be lining up to buy bonds issued by the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), which, though it doesn’t have its own currency, is the Palestinian central bank.

Why would I buy their bonds? There is something of a slow economic miracle unfolding in the West Bank…

Read the rest here.