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In 279 BC, the vast army of King Pyrrhus of Epirus was met by Roman forces at the Battle of Asculum in southern Italy, in what would be one of the costliest military engagements of ancient history. Pyrrhus fancied himself the second coming of Alexander the Great and believed that he was a
It was February 15, 1898. The American Civil War was a distant memory, and the United States had become the largest economy in the world. Still, something was missing in the Land of the Free: colonies. More than 100 years before, other leading powers like Spain and Britain had established colonies all over
On June 8, 2006, more than a decade ago, armed agents from the Internal Revenue Service arrived at the home of Michael and Shelly Ioane of Atwater, California. Michael Ioane was suspected of tax fraud, and the IRS agents were there to conduct a search of the premises and look for evidence. About
This month, college freshmen across the US are settling into their new lives. For the next four (or five… or maybe even six) years, they’ll be immersed in safe spaces and bombarded with repugnant, hyper-socialist groupthink. Then, at the end, they’ll walk away with a degree of questionable use… but they’ll also walk
Last week I wrote about farmland in South Africa… And how it’s taken a pounding thanks to a radical politician who is threatening to seize farmland from white farmers without compensation. While I don’t think it’s time to buy South African farmland yet – that situation can get MUCH worse before bottoming –
We poke a lot of fun at the MANY absurdities we see in this current bubble. As we’ve discussed countless times over the past few years, there are consequences from the fact that central bankers have conjured trillions of dollars out of thin air and pushed down interest rates to zero. Stock, bonds
[Editor’s Note: As we’re coming up on the end of the year, we thought it would be appropriate to republish some of our most popular Notes articles of 2018. Today’s article was originally published on September 17, 2018.] It was mid-September in 1683, almost 335 years ago to the day. Turkish forces of
“Holy Crap– turn on your TV! This is crazy!” It was Sunday, September 14, 2008. Exactly 10 years ago to the day. My friend Jeff called me and told me to turn on the television—where I saw dozens of people on the streets of Manhattan filing out of a skyscraper carrying boxes full
An insane event on March 2, 2017 likely signaled the top of the current market… On that day, shares of Snap (SNAP), owner of the popular Snapchat app, went public at a valuation of more than $30 billion. But it wasn’t the sky-high stock price that made this IPO special. Nor was it
If your retirement plans consist entirely of that pension you’ve been promised, it’s time to start looking elsewhere. As you probably know, pensions are giant pools of capital responsible for paying out retirement benefits to workers. And right now many pension funds around the world simply don’t have enough assets to cover the
[Editor’s note: Yesterday we published the first installment of a special essay from Jim Grant on the 10 most important lessons learned in his 35 years in finance.] Today, we continue with the final lessons… 6. Markets are not perfectly efficient. Because the people who operate them aren’t perfectly reasonable. The debate over
[Editor’s note: Yesterday, we published a podcast we recorded with the legendary financial commentator, Jim Grant. Jim is the editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer – one of the most-respected and followed financial publications in the world. In his 35 years writing Grant’s, Jim has seen a financial cycle or two. And he’s
Hallelujah, the US stock market is once again at an all-time high thanks to a little help from our friends at the Federal Reserve. Every summer, central bank officials from around the world gather in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (which, if you haven’t been, is REALLY spectacular. Jackson Hole, that is, not the Fed
There’s no doubt you know the story… On August 7, in the middle of the trading day, Tesla founder Elon Musk surprised investors with a tweet saying he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share (a $72 billion valuation) with “funding secured.” He quickly followed up with “Investor support is confirmed.”
Well, it happened. Yesterday the US stock market broke the all-time record for the longest bull market ever. This means that the US stock market has been generally rising for nearly a decade straight… or even more specifically, that the market has gone 3,453 days without a 20% correction. That’s a pretty big
