Stay Up To Date
Critical Topics We Cover
About 20 years ago when I was still a cadet at West Point, my economics professor organized a class trip to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The part of the trip that I remember most was touring the Fed’s high security vault, 80 feet below street level beneath
If you’ve been a reader of this letter for any length of time, you may have noticed that I try to spend my weekends and free time at our farms in Chile. I’m still on the road at least 6 months out of the year and travel to 30-40 different
Education is a BIG part of a having a Plan B… especially when it comes to money. In light of the obvious risks that we discuss on a regular basis, safeguarding (and growing) our savings is absolutely critical. Finance can be a little bit scary and seem quite complicated at
There are lots of famous investors and hedge fund managers who are legendary stock-pickers. Warren Buffet is a great example. Others are hard-core quantitative analysts who build complex trading algorithms. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, is neither. He’s a macro investor whose fortune was built on an
Every year around this time the US federal government releases an annual financial report to the public. It would be hilarious if the numbers weren’t actually true. Just like Apple or Exxon, the government’s annual report contains several important financial statements and detailed commentary about their finances and operations. But
I don’t understand Snapchat. I hate sounding like a grumpy old curmudgeon (I’m only 38!), but it’s true. If you have kids, you may have seen Snapchat… or if you’re one of our many younger readers, you probably use it yourself. I understand the basic premise– people share photos with
On April 12, 2009, the government of Zimbabwe officially abandoned its currency. You probably remember the stories; starting in the early 2000s, the Zimbabwe central bank began printing massive quantities of money in order for the government to make ends meet. This resulted in one of the worst episodes of
In the year 440 BC, more than two decades into the reign of Pericles, an audit of treasury in Athens showed a massive surplus of more than 9700 “talents”. A talent was a common unit of measurement in the ancient world, especially for gold and silver. And, based on today’s
The numbers are pretty startling. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. 1 out of every 3 Americans has nothing set aside for retirement. And, according to Federal Reserve data, the median working-age couple has saved just $5,000 for retirement. How is this even possible? How
Most of the world is in an uproar right now over the travel ban that Donald Trump hastily imposed late last week on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. But there was another ban that was quietly proposed last week, and this one has far wider implications: a ban on
On March 30, 1999, the Wall Street Journal’s front page headline blasted the good news across the world: “Dow Industrials Top 10,000” The day before, the all-important US stock index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed above 10,000 for the first time in history. It was a major milestone, and
In September 1986, The Economist weekly newspaper published its first-ever “Big Mac Index”. It was a light-hearted way for the paper to gauge whether foreign currencies are over- or under-valued by comparing the prices of Big Macs around the world. In theory, the price of a Big Mac in Rio
Stay in the loop
