Category: Lifestyle Design

June 20, 2012 Vilnius, Lithuania One of the things that’s really unique about this part of the world is having access to so many people with first-hand experience of living under Soviet rule. It’s a bizarre thing to say, but the stories they have to tell are extraordinary. Last night I had dinner with some friends,

June 19, 2012 Vilnius, Lithuania Exactly three years ago, we launched this daily e-letter… and needless to say, it’s been eventful. It should be clear by now that the topics we routinely discuss in our daily conversations are actually happening: – The grand fiat experiment is unraveling. – Governments are, in fact, going bankrupt. –

June 18, 2012 Vilnius, Lithuania After about an hour’s worth of air traffic congestion delays around JFK airport, I finally departed New York City yesterday evening en route for Vilnius, Lithuania… one of my favorite inconspicuous corners of Europe. The route took me through Helsinki, Finland for a brief connection, and I was on the ground long

June 13, 2012 New York City In Medieval Europe when most people were living short, brutish lives wallowing in muddy serfdom, there was one city that served as a shining economic beacon for the rest of the continent: Venice. At the time, Venice was one of the richest places in the known world, underpinned by its

June 12, 2012 New York City There are consequences to being flat broke. There are consequences to investing any level of confidence in a financial system underpinned by debt and the creation of paper currency. There are consequences for ignoring reality and pretending that everything is normal. This is one of them: European officials yesterday

June 8, 2012 en route to San Francisco When you hear two politicians in the US going toe to toe arguing about public finances (i.e. money that isn’t theirs), they’ll often cite numbers published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In political circles, the CBO is considered an honest broker… an objective referee that simply

June 7, 2012 New York City One of the great absurdities of our modern financial system is that a nation living within its means, i.e. spending less than what it confiscates in tax revenue, is no longer the norm. Living within your means is now considered ‘austerity’. And unfair. Whether in the UK, Europe, or

The big news out of New York City these days is Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s proposed ban on the sale of soda drinks over 16-ounces (about 1/2 liter) at restaurants, movie theaters, sports stadia, street carts, fast food chains, etc. Bloomberg stressed that we have a responsibility to combat obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, and that the government

June 4, 2012 New York City This past Friday, Barack Obama was at a Minneapolis-area Honeywell plant touting his economic recovery credentials to cheering disciples. One of the excited faithful was a young boy, fifth-grader Tyler Sullivan, who took the day off from school to hear the President speak. The President was full of the usual

June 1, 2012 New York City This week saw yet another move from the Chinese government to internationalize its currency and eventually overtake the dollar. The latest? Direct foreign exchange between the Chinese renminbi and the Japanese yen. In other words, when the two nations trade, they’ll no longer need to use the US dollar as

May 30, 2012 New York City After a ridiculous 6-hour delay that bordered on the surreal, I finally arrived to New York’s Laguardia Airport last night at nearly midnight. Miraculously, my checked bag arrived quickly… and without the usual trappings of physical abuse from airport ground crews. The taxi line was long… but I eventually settled

May 29, 2012 Denver, Colorado, USA There’s a rather peculiar tribe of people in northern Uganda known as the Ik that has completely mystified anthropologists for decades. You see, the Ik are unlike just about any other people on the planet in that they shun cooperation, community, and even family. Due to the constant disruption of