SEARCH
It’s been more than a month since the federal government shut down. We all know the familiar story of the 800,000+ workers, and the millions of contractors, who are not receiving paychecks. (Plus there are millions of other workers and small businesses in the private sector whose incomes depend at least partially on
Every so often throughout history, the peasants grab their pitchforks and come for the elite. It happens when the wealth gap grows too extreme… when people feel like they are getting left behind, with no opportunity to advance. Central banks around the world have printed trillions of dollars over last decade, and pushed
Grab your wallets. Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of New York City, may be lining up a presidential run. And in his State of the City speech last Thursday, he gave us a peak of what the future could have in store… “Here’s the truth. Brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in
Last week I decided to use my tax savings to pay the rent for US government workers affected by the shut down. Emails keep coming in from furloughed federal employees having a tough time. And money keeps going out. As I’ve been highlighting over the past week, the government shutdown affects many more
I’ve spent the last several days in this quaint Colombian city near the Venezuelan border (though I’m presently at the airport, en route to Chile for a board meeting). As I’ve discussed several times in the past, Colombia is great. It’s naturally gorgeous, incredibly cheap, and full of interesting opportunities. The country has
While the federal government is slowly careening toward permanent, fiscal disaster, many state governments (which don’t have the power of the printing press) are already staring into the abyss… Take Illinois, for example. It’s the most broke state in the US with nearly $250 billion in debt. And it only brings in enough
Last Thursday, I published a Notes article saying I would use five-to-six figures of the money I saved last year in taxes to pay rent for furloughed government employees. And so far, the response has been amazing. We’ve already sent money out the door to help these people during the government shutdown. And
Every week we send out an alert to our premium subscribers highlighting important news that often goes overlooked… We scour through recent court cases, laws moving through congress, whispers in the government and various, international news sites to find the latest things happening that could infringe upon your freedom… or that just make
When all the tribes of Israel still lived in their holy land, they practiced something called the Jubilee. According to the Book of Leviticus, the Jubilee existed because the Israeli land actually belonged to their god Yahweh…. and the current owners were just borrowing it (sounds like land ownership today – try not
In the year 1157, the Republic of Venice was in the midst of war and in desperate need of funds. It wasn’t the first time in history that a government needed to borrow money to fight a war. But the Venetians came up with an innovative idea: Every citizen who loaned money to
The anti-terrorism unit suited up. This was an international affair… a deal between the USA and New Zealand, two members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. Helicopters, tactical suits, high caliber firearms—the whole shebang. They busted in the doors and successfully raided the multi-million-dollar compound. What was this… capturing the next in line
The thick black smoke… the smell of burning rubber… overturned smoldering cars. Looters smashed out shop windows and took whatever they could carry away. Ancient landmarks were desecrated. Soldiers patrolled the wreckage as tanks are parked on the street corners. Have aliens attacked? Was a third world dictator deposed? Did the government demand
We have been talking about the pension crisis for years now. It’s without a doubt one of the biggest, financial disasters. These pools of capital, responsible for paying out retirement benefits, are terribly underfunded. So anyone depending on a pension in their retirement years should seriously consider a Plan B – and sooner
I guess none of this should surprise me anymore. Our old friends at Wells Fargo are involved in yet another banking scandal. And this one is really bad… people wrongfully lost their homes and ended up on the street. But before I get into the details of this particularly atrocious mishap, let’s have
Several years ago back in 2004-2006, if you had a pulse, you could borrow money from a bank to buy a house. In fact, bank lending standards were so loose back then that there were some infamous cases of people who DIDN’T have a pulse who were still able to borrow money. That’s
