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Talk about a difference between fantasy and reality. It was just a few weeks ago that the International Monetary Fund predicted that Saudi Arabia would likely be bankrupt within the next five years. Saudi Arabia’s financial position is deteriorating rapidly, and the government is burning through cash like a coked-up rock star. Just
They called it a “historic moment in international finance”. And so with great fanfare, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced yesterday that they would be including China’s renminbi in the basket of currencies that comprise their institutional monetary unit, the SDR. The IMF invented the SDR back in 1969 to be used as
On August 12, 1961, Walter Ulbricht, the Chairman of the State Council in East Germany, signed an order to close the border and begin building a wall around East Berlin. It happened quickly. Soldiers began tearing up the roads leading into West Berlin almost immediately and actually stood with weapons at the border
In astronomy, there’s an important concept known as ‘parallax’, which refers to how a star’s position appears to change based on the position and motion of the observer. The earth is constantly moving along its orbit around the sun. And as this happens, the position of a star in the night’s sky will
Sometimes you just have to stand in awe at the level of corruption and incompetence in government. Case in point, the new highway bill in the Land of the Free. And, trust me, you’ll love this. The latest version of the highway bill is called the “Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for
Lately when I talk to my friends around the world, I get the distinct sense that there’s a dark cloud hanging in the air. I feel it particularly from those in North America and Europe. Terrorism is on everyone’s mind. All the headlines have to do with ISIS, who’s been killed in police
On April 5, 1793, decorated French military commander Charles Dumouriez caused a sensational panic in Paris when he fled the country and defected to Austria. It had been nearly four years since French peasants stormed the Bastille, the event that historians generally regard as the start of the French Revolution. And hardly a
[Editor’s Note: This letter was written by Tim Price, London-based wealth manager and frequent Sovereign Man contributor.] Léon Walras is the patron saint of modern economics. In other words, he was a clueless failure who hijacked immutable principles from the world of physics and misapplied them to the economic realm. The result, predictably
In 1875, right around the time the United States overtook the UK as the largest economy in the world, the American Express Company established the very first private pension plan in the US. American Express had a simple goal: attract the best and brightest employees by giving them retirement security. At the time,
On September 25, 1794, US President George Washington issued a proclamation authorizing the use of military force against a group of defiant citizens. It had all started a few years before when a handful of politicians had succeeded in passing an excise tax on liquor, something that became known as the Whiskey Tax.
I’ll admit that when I was a kid, I used to spend hours watching wrestling on television. Hulk Hogan, the Macho Man Randy Savage… I loved all the old-school guys from the WWF, as they used to call it back in the 1980s. It was mesmerizing, a bit like I’d imagined gladiator combat
Late last week, a consortium of financial regulators in the United States, including the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, issued an astonishing condemnation of the US banking system. Most notably, they highlighted “continuing gaps between industry practices and the expectations for safe and sound banking.” This is part of an annual report they
[Editor’s Note: This letter was written by Tim Price, London-based wealth manager and frequent Sovereign Man contributor.] If you’ve seen the movie The Usual Suspects, you know that wonderful line “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” We believe the greatest trick central bankers ever pulled
November 5, 2015 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile They called it the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). But it’s one of the most poorly named pieces of legislation in US history. They might as well have called it the “Bank Sell-Your-Customers-Out Act”, because that’s ultimately what it amounts to. The BSA is a cornerstone regulation
On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt arrived at his desk to sign the Social Security Act into law. It had been a contentious legislative process, something like the Obamacare of its day. Fiscally conservative politicians derided the program for its obvious long-term costs, the massive bureaucracy that it would create, and the