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When the Founding Fathers put the finishing touches on the Constitution in late September of 1787, they probably had no idea whether or not it would be formally adopted by the states. There had been intense debate. Criticism. Dissent. And so the ratification of the Constitution was by no means guaranteed. Delaware became
Bank of America released its quarterly earnings report this morning, bright and early at 6:45am. And according to their newest financial statements, the bank is currently sitting on a whopping $112 BILLION in net unrealized bond losses. To say this is atrocious would be a massive understatement. Yet Bank of America had the
The summer of 64 AD was a hot one in ancient Rome, and the evening of July 18th was especially warm. The air was dry, and harsh winds blew fiercely throughout the city. So, when a fire broke out that night in the Cirus Maximus district, weather conditions were perfect for a major
In the calendar year of 2024, the government racked up a $1.74 trillion deficit. But the national debt actually increased by an even higher $2.23 trillion from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024. That’s a lot of money spent for a Congress that never even passed a budget! The entire year, Congress
The year was 1901, and it was pretty much a who’s who of American business and finance at the time. Andrew Carnegie. JP Morgan. Charles M. Schwab. Elbert Gary (namesake of the city Gary, Indiana). It would be as if Elon Musk, Billy Gates, and Carl Icahn all got together on a new
If you’re looking for an easy example of almost everything wrong with this government, let me introduce Exhibit A: It started almost exactly a year ago. It was January 2, 2024, and we wrote to you about a new law that had just taken effect called the Corporate Transparency Act, or the CTA.
Marco Polo never actually set foot on Japanese soil. But that didn’t stop him from writing the most wildly exaggerated tales about the immense, incredible wealth of Japan– which he called Cipangu. Supposedly Marco Polo had spoken to merchants and traders who’d been there, but it’s entirely possible he made it all up—typical
As the 1800s came to a close and the world propelled itself full of innovation and optimism into the 20th century, there was perhaps nowhere else on the planet more admired and envied (except for the United States) than Argentina. In fact, just like America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Argentina
I always marvel when I take my kids to the park. They’re aged 2 and 3, and they pretty much become best friends with anyone else who’s more or less their size and also likes going down the slide. They have precisely one thing in common: they all want to play. And that’s
On July 9, 1997, Apple Computer (as the company was then known) was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Its cash reserves were dwindling rapidly. Its losses were mounting. And the once mighty company was just 90 days away from failing. This was an almost unimaginable outcome for a company whose bold technological
It was Christmas Eve in the year 1299, and Pope Boniface VIII was performing his usual holiday rituals around Rome when he happened to bump into a very elderly, 107-year-old man from Italy’s Abruzzi region. According to the semi-official legend, the old man claimed to have been in Rome a century before as
In the year 1157, the Republic of Venice was engaged in a bitter trade war with its archrival the Byzantine Empire. While the rest of Europe was barely surviving thanks to the stupidity of their centrally planned feudal economies, Venice was a place where anyone, even the most illiterate peasant, could work hard,
As the year 1980 came to a close, Americans had just experienced the worst annual inflation in decades. It was the culmination of weak, incompetent leadership combined with massive government spending throughout the stagflation of the 1970s— an entire decade of high unemployment, little growth, and a rising cost of goods and services.
Andrew Jackson was never supposed to be President. When he entered the presidential race in 1828, most of the ‘experts’ viewed him as a joke candidate with no chance of victory. Party insiders assumed that, at most, Jackson might steal a few votes from opposition candidates… but that he was no real threat.
In 1227 AD, Genghis Khan stood at the apex of his power, commanding the largest contiguous empire that the world— even to this day— has ever seen. His campaigns had subjugated vast swathes of Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, and his name alone struck fear into the hearts of kings. Then
