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I’ll never forget the first time I met “Captain No”. I was a young, 17-year old new cadet at West Point about to take my first Physical Fitness test– a semiannual requirement in the military that involved a bunch of push-ups, sit-ups, and running. The physical fitness test was proctored… meaning that a
Another day, another downgrade for America. Today it’s Moody’s Investor Service, one of the three major credit rating agencies alongside Fitch and S&P. Last week Fitch downgraded the sovereign debt rating for the United States of America. And late yesterday, Moody’s downgraded the ratings of several US banks. The implication? The seismic activity
Last week, the credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the US national debt. Predictably, senior officials like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed Fitch’s “flawed assessment was based on outdated data” and that the downgrade was “entirely unwarranted.” What a joke. Just consider the US government’s surging interest payments on the national debt— This Fiscal
Elizabeth Warren, the Senator from Massachusetts, is full of great ideas. Her image of the perfect world is one of nonstop government regulation. All business must be controlled… by her, of course. Only an ex-professor knows best how the 330+ million person American economy should function! Warren’s first brainchild was the Consumer Financial
The Federal Reserve– the most critically important central bank in the world– is completely, hopelessly insolvent. This isn’t some wild conspiracy theory or overly dramatic interpretation of the facts; we’re extremely data-focused in this organization and base our conclusions on indisputable, open-source figures. And the facts in this case are crystal clear: the
The legendary walls of Constantinople were supposed to have been impenetrable. At least, that’s what the citizens thought. But shortly after midnight on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, they watched in horror as Turkmen mercenaries from the Ottoman Empire breached a section of the walls that had stood proudly for more than 1,000 years.
On the 26th of February in the year 1401, an English priest named William Sawtrey was hauled before his Archbishop to learn whether he would live or die. Sawtrey wasn’t a witch or satanist, or even a criminal. He was, however, an early leader in a breakaway religion known as Lollardism, which both
On the 18th of September, in the year 324 AD, 52-year old Constantine the Great finally won the victory that he had been fighting for two decades to achieve: sole control of the Roman Empire. At that point the Roman Empire had suffered more than a century of extreme turmoil– recession, inflation, invasion,
On the evening of March 5, 1770, a thirteen year old boy named Edward Garrick deliberately provoked a British soldier who was on guard duty outside the Boston Custom House. It was a dumb thing to do. Like a lot of teenagers, Garrick didn’t think before running his mouth. He even poked the
Well, that didn’t take long. From the time the US government managed to sign the debt ceiling resolution, it took just thirteen days for the national debt to soar by nearly $600 billion. At that pace, they added over $500,000 to the national debt every second. The US national debt has now breached
On Friday morning July 23, 1982, news broke around the world that a consortium of Japanese companies was acquiring Rouge Steel… which until that point had been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Corporation. It was unthinkable: the Japanese were buying up an American steel company??!? But it was just one of
On August 4, 1964, two US Navy destroyers were conducting intelligence patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam, when the task force commander grabbed the radio and reported that they were under attack by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The news traveled very quickly all the way to the
As our founder, Simon Black is fond of saying, legally reducing your taxes is the highest investment return you’ll ever make. If you’re American, Uncle Sam will want to take a bite out of your earnings no matter where in the world you live. But nonetheless, most people can unlock some powerful tax
When Sextus Julius Africanus was born in the city of Jerusalem around the year 160 AD, the Roman Empire was still near the peak of its power. By the time Sextus was born, Antoninus Pius had ruled the empire with a steady hand for more than twenty years; his reign was peaceful and
In the late summer of 408 AD, a barbarian army under the command of Alaric, king of the Visigoths, set out on a leisurely march across the Italian countryside towards the city of Rome… so that he could burn it to the ground. Alaric had been promised money by the Roman government in
