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Years ago back in my days at the academy and in the military, I used to hear this phrase “freedom isn’t free” over and over again. It was almost a sort of motto for a lot of military units– a self-motivating expression that freedom came at a price, and it
This is starting to become very concerning. The momentum to “ban cash”, and in particular high denomination notes like the 500 euro and $100 bills, is seriously picking up steam. On Monday the European Central Bank President emphatically disclosed that he is strongly considering phasing out the 500 euro note.
It was close to twenty years ago that I sat in my first personal finance class, learning how to invest money I didn’t have for a “retirement” that seemed inconceivably far away. It was my first year at the academy. And the government thought it appropriate to ensure that its
According to financial research firm ICI, total retirement assets in the Land of the Free now exceed $23 trillion. $7.3 trillion of that is held in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). That’s an appetizing figure, especially for a government that just passed $19 trillion in debt and is in pressing need
[Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] “The media select, they interpret, they emotionalize and they create facts.. The media not only reduce reality by lowering information density. They focus reality by accumulating information where “actually” none exists.. A typical stock market report looks
Earlier this week the State Department released its latest statistics for people who have renounced their US citizenship. 2015 was another record year, with 4,279 people divorcing themselves from the US government and heading to greener pastures elsewhere. This was the third year in a row that broke the previous
[Editor’s note: Our Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today from Yangon, Myanmar.] Since so much of Asia is on holiday for the Lunar New Year, I decided to travel to Myanmar to check out how the economy is developing. Myanmar was once the wealthiest economy
In 578 AD, a Korean immigrant named Shigemitsu Kongo made his way to Japan at the invitation of the royal family. Buddhism was on the rise in Japan at the time; though it had only been introduced a few decades prior, the Empress consort had been actively encouraging the adoption
[Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] A Shandong 5000 electroglide flatbed currency printing machine named ‘Ted’ has edged ahead in a fiercely competitive fight for the chairmanship of the US Federal Reserve, narrowly in front of its major rival, the Heidelberger Druckmaschinen high
Thirteen years ago my life changed forever. Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State and the most credible person in George W. Bush’s cabinet, made the case for war in Iraq on February 5, 2003. As a young military intelligence officer at the time, watching from a makeshift army base in
It’s news that seems ripped from the pages of The Onion. Or perhaps Atlas Shrugged. But incredibly enough it’s actually true: earlier this week, Congress proposed a new law authorizing the US Postal Service to provide banking and financial services. It’s called the “Providing Opportunities for Savings, Transactions, and Lending”
Even before his coronation in 1626, King Charles I of England was almost bankrupt. His predecessors King James and Queen Elizabeth had run the royal treasury down to almost nothing. Costly war and military folly had taken its toll. The crown had simply wasted far too much money, and brought
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