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We’ve all seen the headlines: the middle class in the United States (and much of Europe for that matter) has been in decline for years. CNN May 18, 2018: “Almost half of US families can’t afford basics like rent and food” Marketwatch June 2, 2018: “50 million American households can’t even afford basic
Trying to trace the origins of the latest political crisis in Italy is like… well… trying to trace the origins of the decline of the Roman Empire. There simply is no good starting point. You can’t talk about the decline of Rome without a lengthy discussion of how destructive Diocletian’s Edict on Wages
Last June, in one of the most egregious displays of economic insanity, Argentina was able to raise $2.75 billion by selling bonds with a ONE HUNDRED YEAR maturity. Even more miraculously, the bond turned out to be wildly popular with investors. So basically investors willingly forked over billions of dollars to a country
On April 2, 1792, George Washington signed into law what’s commonly referred to as the Mint and Coinage Act. It was one of the first major pieces of legislation in the young country’s history… and it was an important one, because it formally created the United States dollar. Under the Act, the US
We just finished a really -sensational- conference here in San Juan over the weekend showcasing Puerto Rico… with all of its challenges and opportunities. We’ve talked about this before– Puerto Rico is an attractive place to live and do business thanks to some forward thinking tax incentives which stem from its unique status
Last week, the financial services giant Northwestern Mutual released new data showing that 1 in 3 Americans has less than $5,000 in retirement savings. It’s an unfortunately familiar story. And Northwestern Mutual’s data is entirely aligned with other research we’ve seen in the past, including our own. The Federal Reserve’s most recent Survey
[Editor’s Note: As we’re coming up on the end of the year, we thought it would be appropriate to republish some of our most popular Notes articles of 2018. Today’s article was originally published on May 15, 2018.] As if things weren’t bad enough for beleaguered Tesla… The company lost $1.1 billion in cash in
On October 22, 1981, the national debt in the United States crossed the $1 trillion threshold for the first time in history. It took nearly two centuries to reach that unfortunate milestone. And over that time the country had been through a revolution, civil war, two world wars, the Great Depression, the nuclear
This one is really infuriating. It started back in 2016… on April 6th to be specific. A Philadelphia-area mother walked into a clinic because her 7-month old baby was being excessively fussy. The doctor performed a cursory examination, concluded the baby had an ear infection, and prescribed an antibiotic. Later that day, the
In 1923, a young Jewish immigrant from a small town in modern-day Ukraine founded a candy company in Brooklyn, New York that he called “Just Born”. His name was Samuel Bernstein. And if you enjoy chocolate sprinkles or the hard, chocolate coating around ice cream bars, you can thank Bernstein– he invented them.
Is it Friday again? Must be time for another banking scandal! Seriously– these banking scandals are happening with such regularity and predictability it would be almost comical. . . were it not for the millions of people who have had their lives turned upside down. The latest transgression involves, once again, our old
A few weeks ago, we shared a note about Tesla from the hedge fund Vilas Capital Management. The firm, which is short the shares, said “Tesla is going to crash in the next 3-6 months.” I received an update from Vilas this morning explaining why they’re even more bearish on Tesla today. The
Yesterday the US government’s own Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published a pretty sobering report about the state of Uncle Sam’s finances– and what the future holds. According to the CBO, the federal government’s spending habits are in such dire straits that its total budget deficit will exceed $1 trillion by 2020. That’s just
I’m writing you today from a cruise ship, on my way to Puerto Rico. Every year, I get together with some of the smartest guys in finance and investing for my friends, the Real Estate Guys, Investor Summit at Sea. I almost never speak at conferences outside of Sovereign Man events. But I
They say that goldfish have the shortest memory in the Animal Kingdom… something like 3-seconds. But it turns out this isn’t actually true. Researchers at the Israeli Technion Institute of Technology conducted an experiment in 2009 proving that even the tiniest fish could be trained to recall certain sounds after as long as
