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I had a bit of a housewarming party a few days ago with a pretty diverse group of friends, many of whom had moved here to Chile from foreign countries. One girl that I know is a tattoo artist from New York. Now, back in the United States, she has
If you’re not watching it purely for the entertainment value, sitting through a State of the Union speech ranks somewhere between a colonoscopy and a root canal. Every year I opt for the former (entertainment value, not colonoscopy). But because I live overseas, one of the added entertainment benefits is
Switzerland is famous for being punctual. The trains. The buses. The meticulously crafted, hand polished luxury watches. The Swiss are so culturally punctual that they even tend to pay their taxes well in advance of the filing deadline. So it was quite a shock to hear this morning that the
[Editor’s note: Tim Price, London-based wealth manager, is filling in for Simon today.] In the field of mathematics, chaos theory studies the behavior of systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. The idea in chaos is that, like life itself, where you start today has tremendous influence on what
In case it weren’t completely obvious how completely screwed up the financial system is, please allow me to introduce Exhibit A: the Federal Reserve’s own balance sheet. First we need a quick accounting background. And, stay with me, because this is important. Think about your own finances. You, me, everyone…
About a week and a half ago when I landed in Australia, I walked past the currency exchange booths in the arrivals hall and took a quick look at their rates. Their quoted price to change US dollars into Australian dollars was 77 cents that day. I quickly glanced at
Well, it happened again. China’s stock market plunged, sending more than half a trillion dollars to money heaven. What a surprise, it turns out that a massive credit bubble is actually unsustainable and will eventually burst. Shocker. And just like what happened last year when Chinese stocks tanked, the government
“The proper behaviour all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to.” – P.J. O’Rourke. On May 29th 1969, Warren Buffett wrote to his partners at the Buffett Partnership, informing them
On September 4, 1993, President Bill Clinton spoke about the American Dream in a weekly radio address. He told his audience that “in America, the idea is that if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance
Do you remember the first website you ever visited? I do. It was Yahoo! The year was 1995. Toy Story was the #1 movie in the world. The Oklahoma City bombings claimed the lives of 168 people. War and genocide raged in the ongoing Balkan conflict. America Online and Prodigy,
Sometimes it strikes me as bizarre that in our modern, egalitarian society, we still award prizes to women who have the most artificially contrived beauty. Nevertheless, that is our reality. And so the big news from this week was the SNAFU at the Miss Universe pageant in which the host
Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s seminal masterpiece Crime and Punishment is often thought of as one of the longest classics at more than 200,000 words. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, which was signed into law on Friday, is nearly twice as long. In case you’re not familiar with the background, the author
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