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By the late summer of 30 BC, ancient Rome had been embroiled in an almost endless, decades-long period of instability and civil war. Twenty years prior, back in 50 BC, Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great had waged a long, bloody conflict against each other for control of Rome, one that ultimately ended
On April 15, 1185, over eight centuries ago, a powerful earthquake struck the East Midlands region of England near the town of Lincoln. Modern scientists estimate the magnitude of the earthquake at 5.0 on today’s Richter scale… which was a pretty big deal back then. Medieval England didn’t have any earthquake-proof construction methods,
The government hasn’t yet figured out how to tax having sex. But Rhode Island at least wants to tax pornography. Yes I’m serious. It starts with censorship: two Rhode Island state senators just introduced legislation that would require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block all “sexual content and patently offensive material.” We have
Week before last, I told you about how the brand-new President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, made an impassioned speech calling for the confiscation of real estate from white land owners. It was a pretty remarkable thing to say during what was literally his first week in office. You’d think the new president
We’ve all seen the headlines: the cost of university education in the United States has become completely debilitating. And student debt keeps rising to record high levels. It’s almost commonplace now for a 22-year old to graduate from university with $50,000+ in student debt. According to data from the Federal Reserve, the total
Earlier this month, the United States government released its annual financial report for the year 2017. This is something the government does every year, similar to how large companies like Apple, or Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, publish their own annual reports. Unlike Berkshire and Apple, though, whose financial reports typically show strong, positive
[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 February 21, 2018.] If you’ve been following much international news, you’ve probably heard that, after literally years of
Yesterday morning, several banks in Australia started rolling out a new payment system they’re calling NPP, or “New Payments Platform.” Until now, sending a domestic funds transfer in Australia from one bank to another could take several days. It was slow and cumbersome. With NPP, payments are nearly instantaneous. And rather than funds
Less than two weeks ago, the United States Department of Treasury very quietly released its own internal projections for the federal government’s budget deficits over the next several years. And the numbers are pretty gruesome. In order to plug the gaps from its soaring deficits, the Treasury Department expects to borrow nearly $1
[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. For the next five days, we will publish Notes from the Field pieces that have garnered the most attention from you and the rest
[Editor’s Note: One of the most important topics we cover in Notes from the Field is the current state of pension funds around the world, a.k.a. the global pension crisis. Many pension funds and social security systems globally do not have enough money to cover the retirement obligations they owe to millions of
In the early summer of 1914, Albert Einstein was about to start a prestigious new job as Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. The position was a big deal for the 35-year old Einstein– confirmation that he was one of the leading scientific minds in the world. And he was excited
[Editor’s Note: Today’s Notes, originally published one year ago, is about one of the most impactful things I do each year. If you know a young entrepreneur who may be interested in what we’re doing, please forward this piece along. It could change their lives…] I’ve always been a big believer in entrepreneurship.
I’ve long held a working theory that US voters are completely predictable in Presidential elections. The idea is that Americans almost invariably tend to swing wildly every few election cycles, voting for the candidate who is as close to the opposite of the current guy as possible. Let’s go back a few decades
Earlier this month, General Electric took a $6.2 billion charge to its insurance unit for the fourth quarter. And the company said it will set aside another $15 billion over seven years to bolster reserves at GE Capital. The charge had to do with long-term care policies (to pay for nursing homes and
