The People Who Engineered Record Inflation Want To Control Cryptocurrency
The People Who Engineered Record Inflation Want To Control Cryptocurrency
Notes From the Field By Simon Black October 3, 2022
On the First of May in the year 1716, a swashbuckling Scottish entrepreneur was making this pitch of his lifetime to the head of the French government in Paris. The entrepreneur’s name was John Law. By all accounts he was incredibly charismatic and had a flamboyant, larger than life personality. He was something like Adam Neumann, formerly of WeWork… the kind of person who could talk anyone into anything. And John Law’s pitch that day was to launch an entirely new financial system.
Becoming Financially Secure: What to Do First
.Becoming Financially Secure: What to Do First By Philip Brewer
Standard financial advice is full of things to do first — emergency fund, 401(k), pay off debts, start investing, stockpile emergency supplies. What really comes first? (See also: Be In Charge of Your Finances)
Because everybody's circumstances are different, there's no one true answer that applies to everyone. Instead, the right way to approach this problem is with a mental model — a way to think about these issues that can guide you to coming up with the right answer for your particular circumstances. Here's my stab at one.
“The Most Impressive Failure Of His Time”
.“The Most Impressive Failure Of His Time”
Notes From the Field By Simon Black September 30, 2022
Lately we’ve been led astray over and over again by supposed ‘experts’ with decades of experience who can’t seem to stop making colossal mistakes. But I’m not just talking about individuals. I’m talking about institutions too.
And one institution in particular that’s been an abject failure lately has been the central bank. That includes the Federal Reserve in the United States, the Bank of England in the UK, and more.
The Best Way Americans Can Legally Reduce Taxes... Without Moving
.The Best Way Americans Can Legally Reduce Taxes... Without Moving
Notes From the Field By Simon Black September 26, 2022
Legally reducing your tax bill is the best risk-free return on investment you can make. Investing in a completely legal tax strategy means keeping 10, 20, even 30% more of your own income. And in many cases the solutions aren’t especially exotic. For example, if you live in California, you can slash you taxes simply by moving next door to Nevada. Doing so eliminates California state income tax, which kicks in at 9.3% for income over $61,215.
Moving even further, from Nevada to Puerto Rico, means eliminating not only state income tax, but also US federal income tax.
Align Yourself With The Trajectory Of The World
.Align Yourself With The Trajectory Of The World
Notes From the Field By Simon Black September 23, 2022
John Adams famous wrote to his wife Abigail in the year 1780: “I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. . . in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, and music. . .”
So that their children can major in gender studies and waste their lives on Tik Tok.
OK so I added that last part myself. But I believe the quote most accurately sums up the natural decline of empire.
Incentives: The Most Powerful Force In The World
.Incentives: The Most Powerful Force In The World
SEP 20, 2022 by Morgan Housel Collab Fund
By age 35, Akinola Bolaji had already spent two decades scamming people online, posing as an American fisherman to con vulnerable widows into sending him money. The New York Times asked the Nigerian how he felt about causing so much harm to innocent people. He replied:
“Definitely there is always conscience. But poverty will not make you feel the pain.”
Scamming people is easier to justify in your head when you’re starving. It’s an extreme example of something everyone – you, me, everyone – is susceptible to and more influenced by than we want to admit: Incentives are the most powerful force in the world and can get people to justify or defend almost anything.
Good Enough
.Good Enough
SEP 7, 2022 by Morgan Housel Collab Fund
Spare a thought for the poor guppy fish, who lives a miserable existence but teaches us something important about forecasting. Small, brightly colored, and terrible at defense, the guppy faces an unusually high rate of predator attacks. Birds eat guppies. Small fish eat guppies. Big fish eat guppies. Crabs eat guppies. It’s everyone’s favorite lunch.
How does a species under so much threat avoid extinction?
In short, guppies get busy as soon as they’re born. They can reproduce at seven weeks old, and deliver new offspring every 30 days. By the time a six-month-old guppy is eaten by a bird it might be a great-great-grandmother. The family lives on.
But this evolutionary trick has a nasty flip side.
Nine Money Rules To Live By
.Nine Money Rules To Live By
Liz Weston, MSN Money
Americans young and old are flunking their finances, but money mastery isn't really that hard. Here are 9 simple keys you need to know. Most surveys that measure financial literacy focus on teenagers, and the results are always grim. In research by the nonprofit Jump$tart Coalition, which promotes personal finance education, the average high school student correctly answered just 48.3% of the questions covering money basics in 2008. That was down from 57.3% a decade earlier, but even that score was hardly distinguishing -- anything less than 60% counts as an F.
A 2005 poll by Harris Interactive for the National Council on Economic Education showed that adults aren't that much savvier. While teens on average scored a 53 (another F) on a quiz testing knowledge of basic economic and personal-finance concepts, the grownups' average score was just 70 (a C).
I Finished My Residency Process: What A Great Experience
.I Finished My Residency Process: What A Great Experience
Notes From the Fied By Simon Black September 12, 2022
[Editor’s note: This letter was written by Sovereign Man team member Joe Jarvis]
Three months ago I went to Raleigh, North Carolina to complete the first step of applying for Mexican residency. The process was relatively painless. And I walked out of the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh a few hours later with my application approved.
Now, since I had to travel to Raleigh to go to the consulate there, I decided to stick around for a few days and check it out. It was during that trip when I realized just how expensive American cities have become.
This New Renaissance Can Fuel Human Prosperity For Decades To Come
.This New Renaissance Can Fuel Human Prosperity For Decades To Come
Notes From the Field By Simon Black September 2, 2022
The year 1776 is legendary for precisely one thing: the Declaration of Independence. But 1776 was actually a REALLY big year. Because in addition to the formation of the United States (which undoubtedly had an extraordinary impact on the course of the world), 1776 also saw two other historic trends take shape.
The first was the birth of capitalism.
1776 was the year that Scottish economist Adam Smith published his famous work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which was the first book ever to outline the case for free markets and laissez-faire governments.
Real Estate Shake Out
.Real Estate Shake Out
The Final Wake Up Call By Peter B Meyer
Global Paralysis
Lies, counterfeit money, corruption, greed and human folly; the scale of these folies is enormous; big enough to cripple the financial well-being and financial stability of nations worldwide. It is becoming particularly unpleasant for the big banks. Bank share prices are showing a clear downward trend, especially for European banks. Many banks are awash with unsecured loans that can never be repaid and must be written off as losses. With economies around the world noticeably weakened, the tide is inevitably turning against the establishment and the despair of the cabal is growing. This makes the financial cabal structure more vulnerable by the day.