DINARRECAPS8 5/14/26 DINARRECAPS8 5/14/26

How The World Is Starting To Look Like 1492 All Over Again

How The World Is Starting To Look Like 1492 All Over Again

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) May 14, 2026

In the year 1484, a thirty-something year old sailor from Genoa was working in Lisbon when he stumbled upon a bold idea. For the previous decade, he had served as a crewman on several Portuguese commercial expeditions to haul physical resources like gold, ivory, and fish from Asia back to European ports.

These voyages were treacherous; they all crossed into maritime territory controlled by the Venetians, Ottomans, or Egyptian Malmuk. So there was a high likelihood of a vessel being confiscated and its crew being captured or killed.

DINARRECAPS8 5/12/26 DINARRECAPS8 5/12/26

$100,000 Income is Now "Lower-Middle Class"

$100,000 Income is Now "Lower-Middle Class"

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black/Sovereign Man) May 12, 2026

Henry VIII probably thought he was being extremely clever when he started debasing his currency in 1544... and assumed that, if he reduced the silver content slowly and gradually enough, perhaps no one would notice.

But the King was hilariously wrong.

DINARRECAPS8 5/7/26 DINARRECAPS8 5/7/26

Mark Zuckerberg Makes a Strong Case for Real Assets

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) May 7, 2026

Mark Zuckerberg had his hands full last week trying to calm the storm at his company.

In an employee conference call, he had to quell a great deal of panic over the company's performance.

Growth at Facebook/Meta is slowing, the stock price is down, and the company is dealing with significant regulatory and economic headwinds. And workers are unsettled.

DINARRECAPS8 5/4/26 DINARRECAPS8 5/4/26

Iraq Economic News and Points To Ponder Monday Afternoon 5-4-26

Iran War: What’s Happening On Day 66 As Trump Announces Hormuz Mission?

EXPLAINER News US-Israel war on Iran Trump orders new Hormuz mission after Iran says it receives US response to its peace proposal by Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters Published On 4 May 20 26

United States President Donald Trump has announced a naval mission called Project Freedom to help navigate stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which remains under a de facto Iranian blockade. The operation will start on Monday, the US president says.

DINARRECAPS8 5/3/26 DINARRECAPS8 5/3/26

The Last Time America Hit 100% Debt-to-GDP, A Golden Age Followed

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) April 30, 2026

In the spring of 1946, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were coming home from Europe and the Pacific, maimed, bruised, and shell-shocked. The economy they returned to was upside down.

Detroit was making tanks, not automobiles. Factories were making bullets, not baby carriages. Food was rationed. Fuel was scarce. And, overall, life in America had been bleak for the better part of two decades. The Great Depression gave way to a stretch of war that led many Americans to fear that their kids would soon be speaking German and goose-stepping with the Hitler Youth.

DINARRECAPS8 4/28/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/28/26

The ‘Expert’ Who Said ‘Globalization Would End War’ — 5 Years Before WWI

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) April 28, 2026

In 1909, a British journalist named Norman Angell published The Great Illusion, claiming that war between major global powers had become obsolete. Nations were too interlinked, he argued. Capital was too entangled. Trade was too valuable. And no nation would put that prosperity at risk. War and conquest were things of the past.

But think about the world back then: Europe was in the middle of la Belle Époque, a stretch of unprecedented peace and prosperity. It had been nearly 40 years since the last major war (Franco-Prussian War) in 1871.

DINARRECAPS8 4/22/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/22/26

Why Central Banks Are STILL Dumping Dollars for Gold

Why Central Banks Are STILL Dumping Dollars for Gold

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black/Sovereign Man) April 22, 2026

In late February 2022, days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States responded by freezing billions of dollars of assets owned by the Russian government.

Whether or not that action was justified is beyond the point. US government bonds had long been considered the safest asset on earth. But every central banker on the planet learned an important lesson that day– US Treasury bonds were only safe as long as their country stayed on America’s good side.

DINARRECAPS8 4/17/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/17/26

Why the Government Runs Like a Bloated Chrome Tab

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) April 17, 2026

I had a Commodore 64 “computer” when I was a kid. I know I’m dating myself with that reference... but I’m telling you— back in the 80s, a Commodore was pretty hot stuff. It was basically an antique typewriter that you plugged into a television (sort of like a Nintendo or other gaming console). And they called it a Commodore “64” because it had a whopping 64 kilobytes of RAM.

"Kilobytes" is not a typo. For context, most mobile phones today have 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a gigabyte is roughly 1 million times a kilobyte

DINARRECAPS8 4/16/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/16/26

There Is No "Fair Share" — There Is Only “More”

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) April 16, 2026

In April 1971, Keith Richards loaded his family and his Bentley onto a cross-Channel ferry and drove south until he hit the Mediterranean. He rented a 19th-century villa called Nellcôte on a hillside above Villefranche-sur-Mer, and converted the basement into a recording studio.

Over the following year the rest of the Rolling Stones rotated through the house and nearby properties to record the double album that became Exile on Main St., while staying deliberately out of reach of the British tax authorities.

DINARRECAPS8 4/14/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/14/26

The $13,000 Apartments the Government Won't Let You Buy

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black/Sovereign Man) April 14, 2026

On May 20, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law, and it essentially said: here's 160 acres of land. It's yours. For free. All you have to do is live on it and improve it. And between 1862 and 1934, the federal government distributed 270 million acres under the program — roughly 10% of all the land in the United States.

Even as far back as the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers understood that property ownership made people more engaged, more productive citizens. Ownership meant that you had a vested financial interest in your community... and your country.

DINARRECAPS8 4/13/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/13/26

Central Banks Are Hoarding Gold. Governments are Starting to Hoard People.

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man April 13, 2026

A few months sago, the German government quietly passed a law requiring men between the ages of 17 and 45 to obtain permission before leaving the country for more than three months. It wasn't announced in a press conference. It wasn't debated on the front page of any newspaper. It was buried in a routine update to the country's military service law, tucked in alongside provisions about registration systems and NATO readiness targets.

DINARRECAPS8 4/9/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/9/26

Two Weeks to Stop the Spread of War

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black/Sovereign Man) April 8, 2026

On August 15, 1945, after two of their cities had been obliterated by the world's first nuclear weapons, the people of Japan heard the voice of their young Emperor for the first time ever.

Hirohito went on what was a relatively new communications medium at the time—the radio— and gave one of the most bizarre speeches in all of human history, in which he told his subjects that "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."

DINARRECAPS8 4/2/26 DINARRECAPS8 4/2/26

Phone Service for 94,000 Dead People, and Other Things Congress Won't Cut

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black) April 1, 2026

Earlier this year, the House DOGE Subcommittee pulled spending records from the Department of Transportation and discovered that the agency had spent $55 million on office furniture over the past few years. That’s about $1,000 per employee, which might not sound so crazy, until you realize that this was during a period when only 9% of DOT employees were actually showing up to the office.