“War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.”

Often attributed to satirist Ambrose Bierce, the quote rings true when you consider how places like Kandahar, the Mekong River, and Normandy have entered into the collective consciousness.

Replace “war” with “investing” and the quote still works. I began my career in the late 1990s as an “Asian contagion” was rattling markets in Bangkok; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Seoul, South Korea. Then Russia defaulted on its debt, and currencies collapsed in Brazil and Argentina. A few years later, investors learned about the European Union’s eastward expansion, China’s “Special Economic Zones,” and Bangalore, India’s “Silicon Valley.”