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On the morning of February 27, 1992, 79-year old Stella Liebeck and her grandson Chris pulled up to a McDonald’s drive-through in Albuquerque, New Mexico and ordered a $0.49 cup of coffee. Chris pulled the car over and parked momentarily so that his grandmother could add cream and sugar. While doing so, she
By January 1920, much of Europe was in total chaos following the end of the first World War. Unemployment soared and steep inflation was setting in across Spain, Italy, Germany, etc. But an Italian-American businessman who was living in Boston noticed a unique opportunity amid all of that devastation. He realized that he
About twelve years ago, at the height of the real estate boom in the United States, banks began issuing what became known as NINJA loans. You’ve probably heard the term before– NINJA stood for No Income, Job, or Assets. These were the famed ‘no money down’ loans at low, teaser interest rates given
Roughly two thousand years ago, the government of ancient Rome was facing a serious problem. The tributium capitus, or poll tax, they had imposed across their provinces was becoming unpopular. And there was a growing minority of Roman subjects who felt they were being forced to pay an overly burdensome and disproportionately high
Every quarter the United States government publishes a list of individuals who have chosen to renounce their US citizenship. The latest list came out yesterday, and 1,376 people are on it. That might sound like a small number, but the total for 2017 is projected to be more than 20% higher than 2016…
500 years ago to the day, on October 31, 1517, a German monk of the Augustinian order named Martin Luther sent a letter to his Archbishop expressing concern about certain practices of Church officials. In Luther’s era it had become typical for clergymen to sell ‘indulgences’ to anyone who wanted to be pardoned
There’s been something happening this month that very few people have noticed. It’s been lost beneath all the other headline-dominating news, from the Las Vegas shooting to Harvey Weinstein to the Mueller investigation. But very quietly behind the scenes there’s been an extremely rapid uptick in the US national debt. In the month
On April 30, 1934, under pressure from Italian-American lobby groups, the United States Congress passed a law enshrining Columbus Day as a national holiday. President Franklin Roosevelt quickly signed the bill into law, and the very first Columbus Day was celebrated in October of that year. Undoubtedly people had a different view of
There was a time, centuries ago, that France was the dominant superpower in the world. They had it all. Overseas colonies. An enormous military. Social welfare programs like public hospitals and beautiful monuments. Most of it was financed by debt. France, like most superpowers before (and after), felt entitled to overspend as much
The last several days in Venezuela have been absolutely mind-blowing. Pretty much all the stories you’ve heard are true– countless people eating out of garbage cans, the appalling shortages of basic staples like food, medicine, and even soap… and the lines. Oh boy, the lines. The longest lines I saw, in fact, were
The gunfire on the streets near my hotel started around 9pm last night. The sound is unmistakable, especially at night on an otherwise quiet city street. I had recently returned to the hotel after a few evening meetings. And coming back after dark it was as if they had rolled the sidewalks up
Late yesterday afternoon the federal government of the United States announced that the national debt had finally breached the inevitable $20 trillion mark. This was a long time coming. It should have happened back in March, except that a new debt ceiling was put in place, freezing the national debt. For the last
There may perhaps be no other group of investors that’s more DESPERATE today than pension funds. Pensions, of course, are the giant funds responsible for paying out retirement benefits to workers. The idea is that both the employer and the employee typically contribute a set percentage of the employee’s salary throughout his or
I’ve probably consumed more airline food than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s not great for my health. But it comes with the territory. Over the past decade, I’ve hit nearly every country on the planet, sometimes traveling 250+ days per year. I travel for business: Sovereign Man’s entire premise, when I started it
In the late 1760s and early 1770s, the government of France was in a deep panic. They had recently suffered a disastrous and costly defeat in the Seven Years War, and the national budget was a complete mess. France had spent most of the previous century as the world’s dominant superpower, and the