“It is a safe haven,” and that's it, especially with Chinese, Russian or ME oil money. If you have $1++ bilion, you want to safely put away enough to live comf

“It is a safe haven,” and that's it, especially with Chinese, Russian or ME oil money. If you have $1++ bilion, you want to safely put away enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life, should government act up and taketh it. Maybe you are on a foreign trip, or you make it to the border, fake a passport or whatever, and then your property in NY or London awaits you. No need to work as a busboy or at a dry cleaning service. In US, rich people may buy land, bunkers, gold and silver coins. But USA is much more stable and property rights are relatively safe so we call them paranoid.