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Some of us are old enough to remember life in 1999. That Prince song– party like it’s “1999”– was constantly on the radio in anticipation of the year 2000. Plenty of doomsayers were predicting the end of the world because of the ‘Y2K’ software bug. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t happen.) And in general,
As the clock struck midnight on July 1, 1848, Ohio Congressman Samuel Vinton probably started having a minor panic attack. Viton was Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the Congressional body that, at least at the time, was responsible for all taxation and spending appropriations. Anything that got spent– or
In 1983, 25-year-old Letitia James signed a mortgage application with her father and listed him as her husband. The reason was obvious: this qualified her for better loan terms. When she was caught years later, she claimed it was simply a clerical error. Oops! Didn’t realize my dad wasn’t my husband as we
You’d think Charles de Gaulle would have been a little bit more grateful to America. As head of the Free French Forces during World War II, de Gaulle was essentially a leader in exile, and he had to base himself in England for the majority of the war after the Nazis took Paris.
Back in the mid-90s, the world was abuzz with a new technology called the Internet. Technically the Defense Department had invented it back in the late 1960s. But by the mid-90s, Internet use was growing at an an astonishing rate among American consumers, triggering a major need for more digital infrastructure. So in
It was 1821 when British statesman John Wilson Croker declared that “the sun never sets on the British Empire.” Croker wasn’t the first to say it, but as a lifelong naval administrator and imperial cheerleader, he gave that phrase real political weight. And at the time it was no exaggeration. Britain’s power spanned
Gold is on an unbelievable tear, now resting above $3,900 per ounce. And the reason is simple. Most foreign governments and central banks around the world have traditionally held the overwhelming majority of their strategic financial reserves in US dollars. And that made sense. The US dollar has been the undisputed global reserve
The government has shut down, and now the CDC has suspended “nonessential” functions, like providing guidance on HIV prevention. Yesterday, America understood that condoms prevent STDs. Today— who could say? The government is shut down. We are all lost. The Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t be able to release its monthly jobs report—
All eyes are on Washington to see if the government shuts down when the clock strikes midnight tonight. Funny thing is, most people aren’t really going to care—because all of the “essential” services will keep running. (Which makes you wonder: why do non-essential government services exist on the taxpayer’s dime in the first
In the election of 1800, journalist James Callender once described presidential candidate (and then Vice President) John Adams as “a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Adams’ opponent, Thomas Jefferson, was likewise smeared as “the son of a
It was more than 2,500 years ago in ancient Athens when democracy first took root. And the ancient Athenians quickly realized that if they wanted to have a cohesive society, they needed to ensure the utmost trust in their institutions and in their government. This is why they developed a formal method to
Gold just hit another all-time high this week, briefly touching $3,800 per ounce… which means it has more than doubled in the last two years. When any asset continues hitting all-time highs, most people who haven’t bought it yet naturally believe that they missed out… or that they should wait for a pullback.
In December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi, a self-taught Italian inventor and pioneer of wireless telegraphy, stood on a blustery hilltop in Newfoundland and heard the faint, rhythmic taps of Morse code—the letter “S”—transmitted wirelessly from across the Atlantic. It was the first time a radio signal had crossed an ocean, proving that long-distance wireless
In 1976, a young immigrant named Osama Siblani landed in the United States, full of gratitude for his adopted new country. Siblani was escaping the brutal and bloody civil war that was tearing apart his native homeland of Lebanon, and America represented the peaceful haven of freedom and opportunity that he was seeking.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Federal Reserve announced its decision yesterday to cut interest rates… and kept the door open to further rate cuts in the future. The funny thing is that we’ll never truly know why. Sure, it’s possible that Fed officials honestly felt that the economy needs lower
