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On December 5, 1492, during the first of his voyages in search of India, Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola – the island currently shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Upon arrival, he reportedly declared the island “the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen.” Another source recounts his exact description
Rome was still in its Golden Age when Claudius Germanicus became Emperor in 41 AD. Despite a disastrous 4-year reign by his predecessor (Caligula), Rome was in good shape; the Army was disciplined, the Treasury had money, the government was functional, and the Empire was largely at peace. No other tribe or kingdom
“When we left Peru in July 2020, the [Lima] airport was shut down. We had to get a special flight – one of only three per week that was repatriating Peruvian citizens from Europe, and, on the other leg, repatriating European citizens from Peru. “We left from a military airport, which was not
If Isaac Newton were alive today, he would almost certainly have over 100 million Twitter followers. He was something like the Elon Musk of his day– a bit controversial, incredibly innovative, and always the topic of conversation. People were obsessed with Newton’s every word and action. When news spread, for example, that Isaac
On Monday March 23rd in the year 1668, just one day after Easter Sunday, a group of commoners in the Poplar neighborhood of East London descended upon a local brothel and practically demolished it. The next day, on Tuesday the 24th, thousands of men moved in large groups all over London tearing down
In the year 1804, only a few months before he proclaimed himself Emperor of France, 35-year old Napoleon Bonaparte stood before the State Council to discuss war with Great Britain. By then Napoleon had already become the most powerful person in France; he had led the Coup d’etat against the previous government in
It’s been nearly 11 years now that Ben Bernanke, who was then Chairman of the Federal Reserve, sat down for a rare TV interview with 60 Minutes back in late 2010. As he sat across from journalist Scott Pelley, Bernanke appeared shaken, but not stirred; he was visibly nervous, but displayed the emotional
In the year 1348, after more than a decade of war with France, Kind Edward III of England noticed that many knights who returned home from the front lines had become completely impoverished. The war had taken a massive financial toll on Edward’s men. Some of them had been captured in battle and
In early 387 AD in the eastern Roman city of Antioch, a local bureaucrat stood outside of the city council chambers to read a new decree that had just arrived from Emperor Theodosius I. As the anxious crowd gathered, the bureaucrat began reading aloud– Just as the crowd had feared, the new decree
Ray Dalio is the founder of one of the largest investment firms in the world and has amassed a personal fortune nearing $20 billion from his business and investment acumen. In short, he understands money and finance in way that most people never will. And it’s for this reason that his latest insights
Looking to gain permanent residency in Mexico without leaving home? Whether you are retired or not, you can gain residency in Mexico with ease in 2021. Discover how below… As a world traveler and investor, I always try to find markets where there’s a huge difference between the ACTUAL risk and the PERCEIVED
At the close of business on Monday March 1st, just a few days ago, the US national debt crossed $28 trillion for the first time in history. To the penny, in fact, the national debt hit $28,004,376,276,999.35. And bear in mind that figure doesn’t include the $1.9 trillion in ‘Covid stimulus’ that Uncle
As the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan had a lot to prove. So he set his eyes on the biggest prize in the known world at the time: southern China. Kublai Khan completed his conquest of China in 1279, forging a new empire and creating the Yuan dynasty. The Mongols were known
In September 1968, after four decades iron-fisted rule, Portugal’s de facto dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, suffered a freak accident that caused a massive brain hemorrhage. Miraculously he survived. But he never recovered from the injury, and his enemies seized on the opportunity to remove him from power. Salazar had ruled since 1932.
[Editor’s note: This letter was written by Viktorija, our Sovereign Woman.] My experience with ridiculous government overreach began literally on the day I was born. It was more than three decades ago, in the tiny Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania, back when the Soviet Union still existed. As my mother tells the story,
If the idea of packing up and leaving has crossed your mind lately, you certainly aren’t alone. With so many people across the globe staring at a new wave of COVID lockdowns, higher taxes, more chaos in their cities, etc., heading out for greener pastures is a really attractive proposition, especially now that
The former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, will be one of the last people to receive citizenship in Cyprus through the country’s Citizenship by Investment program. Schmidt’s name showed up on Cyprus’s list of approved applications in October, around the same time Cyprus announced it was suspending the program. Remember- Cyprus essentially went
Canada has been busy for weeks creating contingency plans for tomorrow’s US Presidential election. A lot of Canadians seem worried that their country will be inundated by violent, plague-infested Americans fleeing the election results. That’s probably a bit of a stretch. But this does seem to be a recurring theme. Every four years
Last Tuesday night, around 10:30pm the Google search term, “How to apply for Canadian citizenship,” spiked. Other popular searches that night included “how to move to Canada” or simply, “move to Canada.” This was in response to two men in their 70s childishly bickering at each other for an hour and a half,
At the turn of the 20th century, the United States had recently become the largest economy in the world… and it was showing. The US had just vanquished Spain in the Spanish-American War, resulting in a vast new American colonial empire, stretching from the Philippines to Puerto Rico. And it was just the
[Editor’s note: This letter was written by Viktorija, our Sovereign Woman] If Simon were writing this letter, I have no doubt he would start off telling you a wonderful tale dating back thousands of years to Turkey’s ancient history… probably something about the Trojan War. I’ve always been a fan of Simon’s historical
California’s governor made a rather ominous prediction this weekend when he told an interviewer that “California is America. . . fast forward.” He was talking specifically about the wildfires that have ravaged his state– a warning that the natural disasters will soon plague the rest of the country too, thanks to climate change.
[Editor’s note: This letter was written by our Sovereign Woman—Viktorija.] Just like Simon, I’m probably one of the world’s worst tourists. When I travel somewhere, I prefer to experience real life in the country or city that I’m visiting. So my schedule is usually full of meetings and networking with local entrepreneurs, attorneys,
British Petroleum announced this week that ALL 6,500 employees in its London office will be working from home within the next two years. BP is even going to shut down the office entirely and sell the building. They’re not the only ones. Right now, in fact, only 13% of London office workers are
[Editor’s note: This letter was written by our Sovereign Woman—Viktorija.] I grew up in a small village in Lithuania, raised by a single mother. So you can probably imagine my childhood was not one of wealth and luxury. Just like when Simon was growing up, money was always tight and a constant source
Albert Einstein is rumored to have said that “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” These days interest rates are near zero. The average savings account currently pays .09% interest per year, according to the FDIC. So over
Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, didn’t outperform the S&P 500 last year. Berkshire Hathaway grew slightly in 2019, but its performance lagged far behind the S&P 500 stock market index. That’s an anomaly for Buffett. He’s handily outperformed the S&P 500 for decades, endearing himself to millions of investors along the way.
Nicholas Schneider is an American student who was studying in Wuhan, China. He said, “It’s like a ghost town, barely any people and cars. It’s a weird feeling. I feel like I’m in an apocalypse somehow.” Wuhan is a city of 11 million where the outbreak of the coronavirus began. Now it’s on
The year was 1990, and the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. The Berlin Wall was still in the process of being destroyed, and East and West Germany were set to reunify later in the year. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February, and the South African government began talks
A Japanese woman was surprised when Hong Kong Express Airways required her to take a pregnancy test before boarding her flight. They made the poor woman sign a form indicating her body type was observed by staff to appear pregnant. The test proved she wasn’t. The woman was travelling to Saipan, the largest
Emma Gingerich doesn’t remember any joy in her childhood. She grew up without electricity or running water, and took only one bath a week. Education was so limited that to the best of her knowledge, the earth was flat. She didn’t even know how to speak fluent English, even though she grew up
[Editor’s note: This letter was written by Sovereign Man team member Joe Jarvis, who recently moved to Puerto Rico.] Local Puerto Ricans invariably tell me I’m overpaying on rent, and that I could have found a cheaper place to live. I’m sure that’s true. But somehow I’m not upset about my gorgeous view
The price of gold is up nearly $100 since Christmas, reaching around $1,575 per troy ounce as I write this letter. This most recent price bump is due to the panic over Iran. But the gold price is up nearly 20% over the last year, so there have obviously been plenty of other
In late 2002, about 17 years ago at this time of the year, I was a young Army officer deployed to the Middle East. It was just a few months before George W. Bush gave the order to invade Iraq, though all my fellow officers and I knew with 100% certainty that we
We just capped off a spectacular weekend in St. Lucia with members of our Total Access group to explore this country’s Citizenship-by-Investment program. I’ve written about Citizenship-by-Investment programs before; these are completely legal programs that exist in several countries where foreigners can invest a particular sum of money in a country and become
