If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no need for tinkers. —Unknown So I’m binge watching The Gilded Age, a great show on HBO Max. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the economic boom between 1865 (end of the Civil War) and the turn…
“The largest opportunities arise out of the largest gaps between perception and reality, expectations and reality, like where we are right now.” —Simon Mikhailovich Do you see what Trump sees in Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal? Born in Queens, New York, by a successful real estate developer, Trump has…
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and no one was in the House. Not a politician was stirring, not a banker, nor a mouse. Mystery drones were flying in the air, and for some reason, people didn’t care. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Fartcoin…
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand exponential growth.” —Albert Bartlett, a physicist On Friday, I drove an hour north to pick up my boys from college for winter break. When I arrived, they were still packing. Amazed by how much stuff they were bringing…
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” —Henry Ford Banks and governments are shrouded in mystery. Historically, they have a propensity for secrecy, cover-ups, and credit games that drive economic booms and busts. The period that most…
“Give me control over a nation’s currency, and I care not who makes its laws.” — Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812) A few years ago, my furnace went out on Christmas Eve. Last week, my water heater went kaput on the eve of Thanksgiving. Unlike the furnace, which took a good four…
“It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.” —Erica Jong There’s a lot of news about Trump vs. the Deep State. Last week, the following articles posted: There Really Is a Deep State (the Atlantic), Trump’s ‘Deep State’…
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” —Mark Twain Last weekend, I visited my son in…
There are so many things happening right now, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to cover in this post, but let’s begin with the most fundamental principle in international law: Pacta Sunt Servanda. It’s Latin for “agreements must be kept,” which is one of the oldest moral and…
Less than a week after I was born, Nixon ended the Bretton Woods International Monetary System, whereby the dollar was backed by gold. Watch his speech televised on August 15, 1971, or read it here. Otherwise referred to as the “Nixon Shock Speech” or the “Bretton Woods Speech,” Nixon outlined…
“Outstanding, sophisticated, and mesmerizing…a spiritual intrigue similar to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” —ForeWord Reviews