A Good Week To Be On A Government Payroll

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

It was a good week to be on a government payroll and a bad one to be paying for it. Here are a few of the most absurd stories from the last several days in case you missed them.

Too tired to go to work? The Australian government has your back!

Rising Bond Yields Are Creating A Problem For The US Banking System

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

In January 2021, two months before US inflation took off, a reporter asked Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell how much inflation the Fed was willing to tolerate.

Powell acted like he'd never heard of inflation— like it was crazy to even ask. He dismissed the notion of inflation entirely and said it was "far away and unlikely."

America Got Rich on Competition, Then Legislated It Away

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

In 1938 the airline business was brand new— only 35 years had passed since the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk.  Hardly anyone had even seen an airplane. A coast-to-coast round trip cost about $260, half the price of a new car, so passengers were mostly very wealthy.

America's Debt Is Worse Than France's. Have You Seen France Lately?

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

It all started because the students wanted better quality education... and more teachers. Many schools in France are overcrowded. Some lack teachers. Buildings are crumbing.  

So, two weeks ago, students at a high school outside Paris blocked the entrance to their own school to protest these conditions. And the movement caught on; students at hundreds of other schools did the same.

What A High-Trust Society Looks Like Up Close

Notes From the Field  (Schiff/Sovereign Man)  October 6, 2026

[Editor’s note: This letter was written by Schiff Sovereign’s CEO, Viktorija, who is originally from Lithuania but splits her time between Mexico and Panama.]

The first thing I noticed at Seoul’s Iuncheon airport was the luggage.  People had just left their suitcases sitting there— against pillars, next to benches, by the exits— and wandered off to the bathroom or to grab a coffee. Nobody looked back.

It Took 211 Years to Borrow $2.3 Trillion. Congress Just Did It in Twelve Months.

Notes From The Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man)  October 5, 2026

$2,307,765,598,614.61.  That’s how much the national debt grew by in fiscal year 2026, which just ended last week on September 30.

$2.3 trillion in a single year is clearly and obviously runaway debt growth; think about it— the entire national debt didn't reach $2.3 trillion until 1987.

The Vigilantes Are Coming For Congress

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

Eight years ago in the summer of 2018, an automated monitoring system at the US government’s Social Security Agency flagged a questionable transaction and immediately forwarded it to a human worker at the agency to investigate.

It took more than a year for a Social Security employee to look into it. And it was painfully obvious— Social Security was paying too much ‘supplemental security income’ to the recipient.

Canada's Plan To Balance The Budget: Change The Definition Of ‘Spending’

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man)  October 2, 2026

It was a big week for creative problem-solving. Britain fixed a failed government energy company by starting a second, Canada is balancing its budget by renaming the spending, and Boston paid $335,000 to call itself racist and failed. Here are a few of the most absurd stories in case you missed them.

The UN’s Bankruptcy Can’t Happen Fast Enough

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

Every September, world leaders take turns at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and give pointless speeches.  If they really cared about CO2 emissions, they’d skip the event entirely, because the only thing coming out of their mouths is lies and hot air.  But a few days ago when it was Argentina's turn, President Javier Milei spoke honestly and boldly.

Xi Xinping Said America Is Finished. Congress, Take The Hint!

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black / Sovereign Man) September 25, 2026

Chinese President Xi Jinping landed at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday for a three-day state visit, and Donald Trump was waiting for him at the foot of the red carpet.  That’s highly unusual. US presidents typically receive foreign leaders at the White House.

In fact, with the exception of popes, no president had met a foreign leader on the tarmac since 1962, when JFK went out to greet British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

China Needs a Time Machine. America Just Needs a Pen

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

Song Jian was very good at math.  He was one of China's top missile scientists, and his specialty was the equations that steer a rocket to its target.

In 1978 Song traveled to Helsinki for an engineering conference, where he came across researchers applying the same kind of math to human beings. Their idea was that a country's population could be steered toward a target number, just like a missile.