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In light of so much chaos that has gripped the world lately, I wanted to change focus briefly and reflect on the passing of one of the most titanic, sovereign-minded human beings in modern history. Most people have never heard the name Chuck Feeney… and he worked very hard to keep it that
Byzas of Megara must have been positively dumbfounded when he first set foot on the banks of the Bosporus River. It was the year 667 BC, more than 2,700 years ago, and Byzas was on a mission from the Greek mainland to find new colonies. His fleet had just landed on the European
There’s something pleasantly reassuring about mathematics: We shouldn’t have any doubts about the fact that 2 + 2 = 4. Yet over the past few years, we’ve started seeing the most absurd assaults on basic science and mathematics. The most hard-core fanatics now assert, with a straight face, that it’s racist to say
Uruguay is widely known for its exceptionally frugal former president, José ‘Pepe’ Mujica, a farmer and former revolutionary who was in office from 2010 to 2015. What the country is not known for, however, is its tax incentives. Let’s get into the details below… Caveat Emptor: We are not professional tax advisors and
In 1958, Leonard E. Read wrote the book I, Pencil. As the book’s title suggests, this is the story about a pencil, told from the pencil’s perspective. The pencil traces his beginnings – from the cedar forests of Northern California and Oregon – to the mill in San Leandro, California, where specialized equipment
By the time an army of 80,000 Russian troops invaded Ottoman territory in June 1853 at the outbreak of the Crimean War, the imperial finances of the Ottoman Empire were already a complete disaster. The Ottoman Empire had once been the most dominant superpower in the world. But that had been centuries prior
The top two headlines in today’s Wall Street Journal say it all: The first one is “US Inflation Accelerated in August as Gasoline Prices Jumped”. And the second explains that “Exploding Budget Deficits” are here to stay. These are technically two different stories about two separate issues. But I’ll show you how they’re
When the first shot rang out at Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, most bystanders didn’t even realize that it was the sound of gunfire. But Texas Governor John Connally was an avid hunter. He recognized the sound, sensed danger, and turned behind him to check if President Kennedy was OK. Moments later,
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