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Lately when I talk to my friends around the world, I get the distinct sense that there’s a dark cloud hanging in the air. I feel it particularly from those in North America and Europe. Terrorism is on everyone’s mind. All the headlines have to do with ISIS, who’s been killed in police
On April 5, 1793, decorated French military commander Charles Dumouriez caused a sensational panic in Paris when he fled the country and defected to Austria. It had been nearly four years since French peasants stormed the Bastille, the event that historians generally regard as the start of the French Revolution. And hardly a
[Editor’s Note: This letter was written by Tim Price, London-based wealth manager and frequent Sovereign Man contributor.] Léon Walras is the patron saint of modern economics. In other words, he was a clueless failure who hijacked immutable principles from the world of physics and misapplied them to the economic realm. The result, predictably
In 1875, right around the time the United States overtook the UK as the largest economy in the world, the American Express Company established the very first private pension plan in the US. American Express had a simple goal: attract the best and brightest employees by giving them retirement security. At the time,
On September 25, 1794, US President George Washington issued a proclamation authorizing the use of military force against a group of defiant citizens. It had all started a few years before when a handful of politicians had succeeded in passing an excise tax on liquor, something that became known as the Whiskey Tax.
I’ll admit that when I was a kid, I used to spend hours watching wrestling on television. Hulk Hogan, the Macho Man Randy Savage… I loved all the old-school guys from the WWF, as they used to call it back in the 1980s. It was mesmerizing, a bit like I’d imagined gladiator combat
Late last week, a consortium of financial regulators in the United States, including the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, issued an astonishing condemnation of the US banking system. Most notably, they highlighted “continuing gaps between industry practices and the expectations for safe and sound banking.” This is part of an annual report they
[Editor’s Note: This letter was written by Tim Price, London-based wealth manager and frequent Sovereign Man contributor.] If you’ve seen the movie The Usual Suspects, you know that wonderful line “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” We believe the greatest trick central bankers ever pulled
November 5, 2015 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile They called it the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). But it’s one of the most poorly named pieces of legislation in US history. They might as well have called it the “Bank Sell-Your-Customers-Out Act”, because that’s ultimately what it amounts to. The BSA is a cornerstone regulation
On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt arrived at his desk to sign the Social Security Act into law. It had been a contentious legislative process, something like the Obamacare of its day. Fiscally conservative politicians derided the program for its obvious long-term costs, the massive bureaucracy that it would create, and the
It was back in May 2010 that the very first ‘real world’ Bitcoin transaction was conducted: 10,000 bitcoins traded for two Papa John’s pizzas. Today that transaction would be worth nearly $4 million, probably making those the most expensive pizzas in the history of the world. But back then it was considered revolutionary
[Editor’s note: What follows is Tim Price’s hilarious, satirical take on a recent Financial Times fawning article on “Lunch with Ben Bernanke” by associate editor Martin Wolf.] — After literally saving the universe while at the helm of the US Federal Reserve, its former chairman is now quietly pursuing lucrative speaking engagements and
High up Yuntai mountain in China’s Henan province is a glass bridge that lets tourists walk out across the sky and look down at the lush valley floor over 3,000 feet below. Glass walkways like this are quite popular across China, stunning visitors with both beauty and the thrill of danger. Recently, this
It wasn’t that long ago that you could travel from one corner of the world to another with nothing but your good looks. There are people still alive today, in fact, who were born into a world where passports were not widely used for international travel. The passport itself is a relatively recent
It was just weeks ago that the US government barely averted a debt ceiling shutdown with a last-minute bill to kick the can down the road until December. This gave them 2 months to tackle a problem that’s been decades in the making, with a debt that now totals nearly $19 trillion. So
