$hithole Countries? 673 Million People Still Defecate Outdoors

Via ZeroHedge

The United Nations has released a new report focusing on water, sanitation and hygiene around the world. It has found that approximately 2.2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, 4.2 billion have to go without safe sanitation services and three billion lack basic handwashing facilities.

The report also examined the state of open defecation and progress in eliminating it. As Statista’s Niall McCarthy reports, as recently as 2015, close to a billion people were still defecating outdoors, resulting in widespread disease and millions of deaths. That drove the UN to call for an end to the practice and some parts of the world have proven hugely successful in eradicating it.

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Doug Casey on Sh*thole Shopping

Via International Man

A fixer upper for rent in West Africa.

Joel Bowman: Good morning, Doug. Thanks for picking up the phone.

Doug Casey: As you know, I’m not crazy about the phone. Face-to-face conversations are far superior. But since I’m in Argentina and you’re in Australia, we’ll make do.

JB: Let’s get straight to it. Although Emerging Markets (EM) stocks were the darlings of 2017, they have been hammered so far this year. Many indexes are deep underwater and the currencies they’re priced in are submerging as well.

A contrarian investor has to ask: Is it time to go, as Donald Trump might phrase it, “sh*thole shopping”?

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