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The Timeless Investor Show explores how serious thinkers build wealth, resilience, and lasting success across generations.
Hosted by Arie van Gemeren, CFA - The Timeless Investor Show connects history, philosophy, and real-world investing lessons into practical frameworks for today's investors, with a core focus on real estate investing.
We study empires, cycles, currencies, and capital stewardship - and translate timeless principles into real-world action.
Think well. Act wisely. Build something timeless.
33 Episodes
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Send us a text In 1993, thousands of investors around the world opened letters from Lloyd’s of London demanding sums that didn’t seem real. £300,000. £1 million. £3 million. Not money they invested — money they owed. Doctors, farmers, aristocrats, retirees… entire families financially erased overnight. In this episode of The Timeless Investor Show, I break down one of the greatest financial catastrophes in modern history — the Lloyd’s Disaster — where 34,000 individuals were ruined by a perfe...
Send us a text In 2005, Sean Dempsey tried to buy a tiny video startup on behalf of Google. The founders laughed him off. Eighteen months later, Google paid $1.65 billion for that same company… and the entire industry mocked the decision. Analysts called it reckless. Wall Street rolled its eyes. Today, that acquisition is worth over $300 billion. In this episode, Sean — now co-founder of Merus Capital and an investor in multiple unicorns — breaks down the real story behind the YouTube d...
Send us a text In 1790, revolutionary France thought it had solved its financial crisis by printing a new kind of paper money — the Assignat — backed by confiscated church land. Within five years, it destroyed the French economy, vaporized the middle class, and set the stage for dictatorship. In this episode, Arie Van Gemeren breaks down the world’s first great fiat collapse — how the Assignat began as “secured money” and ended as worthless paper — and what it teaches investors about modern i...
Send us a text In October 1907, the U.S. banking system imploded overnight. Knickerbocker Trust collapsed, panic spread through New York, and the entire American economy teetered on the edge of destruction. Only one man could stop it—J.P. Morgan, a private citizen wealthier than the U.S. Treasury. For three weeks, Morgan personally decided which banks lived and which died, locking financiers in his library until they agreed to save the system. From the ashes of that crisis came somethi...
Send us a text In 1932, the world’s richest man pulled the trigger that ended an empire. Ivar Kruger, known as The Match King, controlled ¾ of the world’s match production, financed governments across Europe, and was hailed as the “savior of Europe.” But behind the empire was one of the greatest financial frauds in history—$6 billion (2024 value) in forged bonds, fake subsidiaries, and Ponzi-style leverage. In this episode of The Timeless Investor Show, host Arie Van Gemeren, real-estat...
Send us a text April 12th, 1204 AD. A 97-year-old blind man led the assault on Constantinople—the richest city on earth—and walked away with three-eighths of an empire. His name was Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice. And what happened next changed the course of Western history. This is the story of how Venice—built on mud, wooden stakes, and 118 swampy islands—became the wealthiest trading empire in medieval history. How they lasted over 1,000 years as an independent republic. How they controlle...
Send us a text What if China had a 100-year head start on European colonial dominance—and threw it away? In 1405, nearly a century before Columbus, Chinese Admiral Zheng He commanded 317 ships and 27,800 men. His fleet was the largest in human history. His flagship was five times bigger than the Santa Maria. He reached East Africa, mapped the Indian Ocean, and built trade networks across three continents. Then, within years of his death, bureaucrats burned the maps, dismantled the ships, and ...
Send us a text December 27, 1772. Clifford & Co.—one of Europe's most prestigious banking houses—shuts its doors with nearly $1 billion in liabilities (in today's money). Within weeks, the contagion spreads: 20 banks collapse across Amsterdam, London, Hamburg, and beyond. The world's first global financial crisis. The culprit? Mortgage-backed securities on Caribbean plantations, marketed as "safe and stable" to Dutch middle-class investors who trusted the reputation of shadow banks operat...
Send us a text What happens when the world's most trusted currency becomes worthless overnight? Not through war or conquest, but fraud so massive it brings down an empire. This is the story of the Potosí mines scandal - how Spanish officials debased silver coins, stole billions, and destroyed the foundation of global finance in the 1600s. The Spanish Empire went from controlling 25% of the world to defaulting repeatedly, all because trust in their currency collapsed. But this isn't just ancie...
Send us a text In May 1866, the world's largest financial institution collapsed in a single day, triggering the first global banking crisis and reshaping modern finance forever. Overend, Gurney & Company wasn't just any bank - they were THREE TIMES larger than their nearest competitor and considered the safest institution in the world. When they fell, over 200 companies failed, the Bank of England abandoned the gold standard, and the entire global financial system nearly imploded. In this...
Send us a text In 2008, Brad Minsley faced every real estate developer's nightmare: $500 million in loans called across 27 banks. Most operators would have been wiped out. Instead, Brad fought back, survived the crisis, and used those hard-won lessons to build Ten Federal - one of the most innovative self-storage companies in America. Today, Ten Federal operates 120 facilities with revolutionary automation technology, proprietary DaVinci locks, and just 0.6 employees per store (compared to 2+...
Send us a text They called him the Rothschild of the East. But while the Rothschilds moved paper, David Sassoon built infrastructure. In 1829, he fled Baghdad with nothing but two saddlebags of gold. By 1860, his family controlled the largest trading house in Asia. By 1940, they owned half of Shanghai. This isn't just another rags-to-riches story. It's a masterclass in turning displacement into dynasty. In this episode, we explore: How a stateless refugee became the unofficial bank of BombayW...
Send us a text 1621. The Thirty Years War is bleeding German treasuries dry, and desperate princes discover what seems like the perfect solution: improve their coins by making them cheaper to produce. What could go wrong? Everything. In this deep dive into one of history's most overlooked financial disasters, we explore how professional coin clippers called "Kipper & Wipper" accidentally created Europe's first hyperinflation crisis, crashed international trade, and taught the world lesson...
Send us a text The president had a bullet lodged in his chest and gold coins in his pocket. His enemy controlled America's entire money supply. What happened next changed American finance for 200 years. In 1833, President Andrew Jackson did something unthinkable - he destroyed the most powerful financial institution in America. The Second Bank of the United States controlled the nation's money, could create credit from nothing, and when challenged, its president deliberately crashed the econo...
Send us a text Most people think Ray Kroc built a hamburger empire. They're wrong. Ray Kroc built the world's largest real estate company, and he just happened to serve hamburgers on top of it. By the time of his death, McDonald's owned more retail real estate than any other company in the world - not Walmart, not Sears, McDonald's. In this episode, we unpack how a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman turned a simple hamburger stand into a real estate empire worth hundreds of billions of do...
Send us a text The year is 1720. A Scottish murderer who escaped death row has just become the richest man in history. He controls France's entire money supply, tax collection, and colonial trade. In six months, he'll flee Paris dressed as a woman, leaving behind the world's first modern financial collapse. Meet John Law - convicted killer, mathematical genius, and the man who created paper money, quantitative easing, and stock market bubbles 300 years before the Federal Reserve existed. His ...
Send us a text After 8+ years and $150M+ in real estate acquisitions, here's what actually drives returns: operations, not deals. In this special episode, I break down the operational lessons that separate winning real estate investors from the rest. From why I stopped talking to middle management and started calling leasing agents directly, to the $2,200 water heater mistake that taught me about cost control. What You'll Learn: The "get in the weeds" philosophy - why Basil II managed his emp...
Send us a text In 1885, Florida was nothing but swamps and mosquitoes. By 1915, it was America's winter playground. One man made that transformation happen: Henry Flagler. This is the story of the most audacious real estate development project in American history - how a 55-year-old Standard Oil co-founder spent $100 million building a 400-mile railroad through impossible terrain to create an entire state's economy. In this episode, you'll discover: How Flagler used vertical integration to co...
Send us a text Ron Danz never set out to be a podcast guest. He just quietly built one of the most resilient real estate portfolios in the Pacific Northwest. Starting with $500 down on a beat-up house near the University of Washington, Ron spent the next 53 years methodically acquiring 2,000+ apartment units and 400,000 square feet of commercial real estate—without ever blowing up. In his first-ever podcast interview, he shares the timeless lessons that helped him survive six major real estat...
Send us a text $1.20 a week → $480 million exit. How did a 13-year-old Scottish immigrant become one of the richest men in history? In this deep dive into Andrew Carnegie's life, we uncover the four timeless principles that built the largest steel empire in the world—and why they're more relevant than ever for real estate investors. What You'll Learn: 🔍 Information Arbitrage: How Carnegie turned telegraph operator insights into massive investment wins (including a $217 investment that generat...
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