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As a kid I remember hearing it all the time. It was an idea that was drilled into my head over and over again. It was in movies and legal dramas. You could see it in the newspapers. We learned about it in textbooks. “In America,” people would say, “you are always innocent
Eight centuries ago as Marco Polo traveled across the vast dominion of the Mongolian Empire, he encountered what few westerners had ever seen. One of those astonishing experiences was how the Mongols happily and willingly used paper currency. Marco Polo was so intrigued by this that he devoted an entire chapter in his
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 that I’m surrounded
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 Swiss canton of
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… we all have
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 my phone and
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 is stepping in
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 for your children.”
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, both early Internet
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 accidentally awarded the
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 was once quite
“Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we’ll be seeing six or seven.’ – W.C. Fields. ‘Twas the hike before Christmas, and all over the shop Short end traders
The most hated man on the Internet was arrested yesterday. If you haven’t heard this story, his name is Martin Shkreli. He’s the guy who rose to infamy a few months ago when he increased the price of a life-saving medication by over 5,000%. Something tells me he’s not going to win any
When you think of the word ‘money’, the first thing to come to mind is probably those pieces of paper in your pocket. High school economics textbooks teach students that ‘money’ is a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a measure of account. And while all that fancy-sounding language may appropriately
Thousands of years ago in ancient city of Babylon, specially trained scribes gathered each day in the Temple of Marduk to record the day’s events. They used cuneiform writing instruments and clay tablets, over 1200 of which still survive today. These scribes kept excellent records, detailing astronomical observances and water levels of the
