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It started with the Antonine Plague in the late 160s AD, most likely a really bad smallpox epidemic that killed 8 million people across the Roman Empire. Then came the barbarian invasions… a tidal wave of migrants pouring across Rome’s northern border and plundering the countryside. The Roman government also
At around 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the quiet hum of machinery at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania was shattered by a cascade of alarms and error alerts. It started with a relatively minor issue— a cooling pump malfunctioned, triggering an automatic shutdown of the reactor.
In the pantheon of human ingenuity, the development of iron and steel ranks up there with the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel. In fact, the advancement of human civilization would have been nearly impossible without iron—and the steel that it becomes. Metallurgy (and agriculture) are ultimately
The year was 1991. The shoulder pad fashion craze of the 1980s was finally coming to an end, and Kurt Cobain’s “grunge” look was in. The Silence of the Lambs hit the theaters and swept the Academy Awards that season (with a nice chianti and some fava beans)— Best Actor,
Apart from weathermen, no one besides government bureaucrats can be so wrong, so often, yet still keep their jobs. No one was ever fired for telling Americans that COVID lockdowns would last just “two weeks, to stop the spread” and “flatten the curve”. If we’re being generous and call that
In the aftermath of World War II, with Europe devastated and Japan in ruins after two atomic bombs, the world faced the monumental task of rebuilding the global economy. It had already been decided at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference that America and the US dollar would dominate the new
There’s a really dirty four-letter word that starts with a “C”. No, not that one. This is a word you simply cannot say around Greta Thunberg, otherwise her ears will melt off of her face. I’m talking about coal. And it’s about to have its moment. One reason is that
The corpse of King Louis XV was still warm when his son and successor, 19-year old Louis XVI, started cleaning the royal house. French finances were an absolute mess. The country was almost hopelessly bankrupt after decades and decades of costly warfare… and even more costly royal luxury. The young
It’s very hard to overstate just how obliterated the global economy was following World War II. Europe was in ruins, with many major cities having been bombed back into the Stone Age. Japan had literally been nuked. And just about every economy around the world that still had any manufacturing
Today’s letter is about how to go back in time. A lot of us remember 2009 as a pretty tough economy. The whole world was in bad shape. Major banks had failed, panic had set in, governments were spending money hand over fist, and debts were rising fast. It was
Over fifteen centuries ago, according to an ancient Sanskrit legend, a mythical Hindu priest named Sissa was ordered to invent a new board game to entertain the king of Taligana. Sissa labored over the task for quite some time, but he eventually brought the King a military strategy game with
Like most kids, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little. Then a fireman. Then a pirate. Then a movie star. My parents were pretty traditional so they hoped I would grow up to become a doctor. This is pretty typical; after all, parents just want their kids
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