Some time between the 12th and 13th centuries BC, more than 3,000 years ago, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, Odysseus, set off from the ancient city of Troy in modern day Turkey to begin the long journey back home. According to the mythology passed down from Homer, Odysseus and his crew encountered incredible challenges on their voyage. They were wracked by vicious storms. They were captured by a giant cyclops. They were turned into swine after meeting a witch named Circe (who later fell in love with Odysseus). They even managed to sail to the western edge of the world. But one of the most famous adventures of Odysseus was his encounter with Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus’s journey took him through a particularly narrow stretch of sea; on one side of the strait was a small, rocky islan

By the third century AD, it was hard to imagine Rome being in worse condition. Historians literally refer to this period in Roman history as the Crisis of the Third Century. And it was brutal. Roman citizens couldn’t believe what they were experiencing... it was incomprehensible to them that their fatherland had become so weakened. Inflation was running rampant. The Empire was stuck in a quagmire of foreign wars and had suffered some humiliating defeats. Rome experienced multiple bad pandemics, coupled with even worse government response. Foreign invaders were flooding across their borders on a daily basis. Trade broke down, causing shortages in many vital goods. And terrible social strife dominated people’s daily lives. Ordinary Roman citizens were at each other’s throats, and it was a ti

Benny Grossbaum was the embodiment of the American Dream. Born in London in 1894 during the reign of Queen Victoria, Benny and his family moved to New York City (through Ellis Island) when he was still a baby. At first the family was well off; his father ran a successful business, and they lived in a posh brownstone on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. But Benny was just 9 years old when his father suddenly passed away from pneumonia, and the family lost everything. The rest of his childhood was spent in abject poverty, and he later referred to this time of adversity as “the years that formed my character.” Living in squalor also lit a fire within Benny to become wealthy; he developed a passion for money... and for study. And from the time he entered kindergarten, Benny’s teachers recognized his

On March 2, 1629, after years of escalating tensions with his own government, King Charles I of England dissolved parliament and ordered all the politicians to go home. He was only in the fourth year of his reign, but Charles was already a very unpopular king. One of his worst habits was frequently abusing his power and taking unilateral executive actions-- raising taxes or passing new regulations-- which would ordinarily require the approval of parliament. But Charles hated going through parliament, and he routinely found ways to bypass them; often he would creatively interpret obscure passages of ancient laws as justification to do whatever he wanted. In one instance, Charles decided that a 400+ year old law, which had first been decreed under Henry III in the early 1200s, gave him the a

On the evening of April 17, 1006 AD, a little more than 1,000 years ago, human beings from around the world looked up into the night sky and saw a brilliant light, the likes of which they had never before seen in their entire lives. Most people thought it was a new star-- the brightest, by far, that anyone had ever observed. Some thought it was an omen or a sign from the gods. We know now that neither was the case. The phenomenon that everyone saw that evening was actually a supernova originating more than 7,000 light years away from Earth. And scientists now refer to it as “SN 1006”, named after the year of its observation. SN 1006 is especially famous because it is likely the brightest ever recorded in human history. It was so bright, in fact, that its light could even be seen in the day

Marcus Licinius Crassus didn’t exactly start from humble beginnings. Born into a prominent Roman family in 115 BC, Crassus started his business career as a young man with a whopping three hundred ‘talents’ according to the ancient historian Plutarch. (A ‘talent’ is a unit of weight used to measure gold and silver in the ancient world, so three hundred talents would be worth potentially $50 million today.) That’s a pretty hefty sum to get started in life. But Crassus was incredibly ambitious. He didn’t squander the money by living the life of a Roman playboy. Instead he started potentially the world’s first-ever privatized fire department… and used it to amass a vast real estate portfolio. Rome had already become the dominant superpower by the time Crassus was a young businessman in the 1st

Gold is really an amazing metal when you think about it. It doesn’t corrode. Coins buried underground or sunk at the bottom of the ocean for hundreds of years are routinely pulled up and brushed off, and they’re good as new. This strength and durability is precisely what makes gold so interesting as an inflation hedge. It undoubtedly takes a lot of work to produce a gold coin or bar-- so much labor, energy, technology, etc. A gold coin essentially represents all of the work… all of the effort and labor… that went into producing it. This is not unique. In the same way, a bushel of wheat represents all the labor that went into producing the grain. An iPhone represents all the labor and effort that went into producing it. Except that wheat doesn’t last. iPhones don’t last. Gold does. So gold

Most people have a peasant mentality. Throughout human history, in fact, the vast majority of people never thought much beyond their tiny village, let alone traveled. But there have always been some people who have had the intellectual courage and curiosity to think far beyond their own borders. And they’ve often been richly rewarded for it. Adopting a global mindset essentially means thinking about the entire world when considering your options. And more options is almost always more beneficial. If you’re thinking about retirement, more options will greatly increase the chances of finding the right place that has the right weather, cost of living, medical care, and lifestyle that you desire. If you’re thinking about business, considering your overseas options will greatly increase your ch

When the infamous British smuggler Robert Jenkins sailed past Jamaica in April of 1731, he probably thought he was home free. Jenkins had a ship full of contraband which he had picked up in the West Indies, and he was heading back to England to sell his goods in London’s premium markets. But Jenkins wasn’t transporting drugs or alcohol, or even anything especially exotic. His ‘contraband’ was sugar. Big deal. The West Indies at the time, though, were mainly under Spanish control. And Spain insisted that no one could export sugar from their territory without their express approval, along with paying heavy taxes and fees. Most traders didn’t care. By 1731, Spain was a declining power. Everyone knew it. The once-dominant Spanish Empire had been vanquished by military defeat, political incompe

The country that controls the global refined lithium supply will be the superpower of the 21st century. And it’s only a matter of time before that country emerges. Right now, 96% of lithium is mined in just four countries: Australia, Chile, Argentina, and China. But that’s deceptive. Because the countries that have the lithium don’t necessarily own the lithium. You see, China is never content with its own resources. And it is rapidly moving to corner the global lithium market—in a bid to become the only powerful electro-state in the world. To get there, China has systematically steamrolled its way into the other three major lithium mining countries. The second-largest lithium reserve in the world, located in Australia, is underwritten by Ganfeng Lithium, a Chinese company. Greenbushes, the

By the early 300s AD, ancient Rome’s population was in significant decline. Modern historians haven’t nailed down a precise number for Rome’s population— and estimates vary— but the clear consensus is that population peaked in the first or second century AD, and then began a rapid fall. We know the reasons why. Roman citizens were sick and tired of the corruption, inflation, taxes, crime, social decline, constant chaos, etc. and they sought greener pastures elsewhere. Bear in mind that this was happening at a time when the barbarian invasions had already begun. Every year there were more and more border incursions from the Goths, Alemanni, etc., many of whom stayed and settled in Roman territory. This is important to understand; even though Rome was gaining population from these migrant tr

Around 23,000 years ago on the southwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee, a small paleolithic tribe of hunter-gatherers made an incredible discovery that would forever alter the course of human history. They realized that, instead of relying on fishing, hunting, and foraging for edible plants, they could actually grow their own food, right out of the ground. We know this happened because archaeologists have uncovered roughly 90,000 seeds from the site-- including different species of barley, various nuts (almonds, pistachios) and fruits (raspberries, figs). More strikingly, the remains of several small dwellings have been excavated. And a number of stone tools were found on the site, including a grinding stone and several flint blades and sickles. These findings are clear evidence that the

At precisely 8:13PM eastern time on the evening of October 28, 2003, a lonely 19-year old schoolboy took to the Internet to complain about the latest love interest who had left him dejected and angry. “Jessica,” he wrote to the precisely zero people who paid attention to his LiveJournal blog, “is a bitch. I need to think of something to take my mind off her. I need to think of something to occupy my mind. Easy enough, now I just need an idea.” It took about an 90 minutes… and a fair amount of booze… for inspiration to strike. And by 9:48PM he wrote an updated post, describing his “idea”. He wanted to hack into the school’s official servers and download the photographs of every student on campus; he would then write a program that would randomly select two of those photos, place them side-b

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean caused a tsunami to strike Japan. You probably remember seeing this in the news, because, directly in the path of the tsunami sat the Fukushima nuclear power plant. As the waves crashed into the reactors, the plant’s cooling systems lost power and the nuclear reactors overheated. Pressure built until explosions spewed radioactive materials into the environment. Now, Japan realized that the Fukishma nuclear accident was a major anomaly... and that the historical data clearly show that nuclear power is safe. So they moved on and continued investing in nuclear. Yet half a world away, Germany decided to shut down its own nuclear power plants because of what happened in Fukishima... even though Germany is obviously not prone to tsunamis and

On the 26th of February in the year 1401, an English priest named William Sawtrey was hauled before his Archbishop to learn whether he would live or die. Sawtrey wasn’t a witch or satanist, or even a criminal. He was, however, an early leader in a breakaway religion known as Lollardism, which both the Church and the English government viewed as a major threat. The Lollards followed the basic plotline of Christianity. But they criticized the heavy taxes that people paid to the Church, and they questioned the ways in which the Church spent its riches. More importantly, the Lollards believed in the separation of church and state. They also strongly opposed war and preached that all Christians should live in peace. Those last points were enough for the English government to treat the Lollards

At a campaign rally earlier this month, President Trump promised that if he is elected, “We will keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. It is currently under major siege. Many countries are leaving the dollar.” What he’s referring to is the extreme privilege that the US has, i.e. that central banks around the world hold the US dollar in reserve as form of savings. The entire world also conducts trade in US dollars. Since World War II, the vast majority of cross-border transactions among international businesses have been settled using US dollars. Today, US dollars account for 54.8% of central bank holdings around the world. That’s still a lot, but it’s down from around 70% in the late 1990s, according to the latest IMF data. And the US dollar is currently used for 42% of inter

The United States used to have a strong grip on the global lithium supply. In 1996, the U.S. produced over a quarter of the world’s lithium. A quarter century later, it’s at less than 1%. The grand total of lithium mines producing in the U.S. now? One. The actual production number is so embarrassing it’s withheld on U.S. Geological Survey reports. Meanwhile, lithium has transitioned from barely-used metal to vital energy component. But it’s estimated that the solitary Silver Lake mine, located in Nevada, produces enough lithium for about 80,000 EVs. That’s less than 1% of what the U.S. will need by 2030—for EVs alone. And that doesn’t even include the demand from utility-scale battery storage to make the switch to renewables. In other words, Silver Lake is a puddle. The United States despe

Upon Marco Polo’s triumphant return to Venice in 1295, he arrived not only very much alive… but also very rich, laden with gold, jade, silk, ivory, porcelain, jewellery, and, of course, noodles. The famed explorer had just spent 20 years exploring the mysteries of the East. He was gone so long, in fact, that people thought he was dead… But Polo’s festive return didn’t last long. Venice’s peace was beset by war against another nation-state, Genoa. War changed everything. Polo was thrown into prison. Not one to waste time, he decided to relay his most important treasures – his memories – to a fellow prisoner… dictating what became an enduring classic: The Travels of Marco Polo. My favourite chapter? “How the Great Khan Causes the Bark of Trees, Made into Something Like Paper, to Pass for Mon

Remember, the Federal Reserve is supposedly pulling out all the stops right now to tame inflation. And as part of that campaign, they’ve been aggressively raising interest rates for more than a year without any regard or even awareness for the consequences. Just three days before Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse back in March, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve told Congress that everything in the financial system was just fine. Yet SVB went bust (three days later) in large part BECAUSE of the Fed’s interest rate hikes; the bank had bought $120 billion worth of US government bonds, most of that in 2020 and 2021. Now, US government bonds are supposed to be the ‘safest’ asset class in the world. But even government bonds lose value when interest rates rise; this is the immutable law of the bo

There’s a really dirty four-letter word that starts with a “C”. No, not that one. This is a word you simply cannot say around Greta Thunberg, otherwise her ears will melt off of her face. I’m talking about coal. And it’s about to have its moment. One reason is that global population grows each year, and every one of them needs energy in some way or another—to keep the lights on, to fuel the machines that harvest their food, to power virtually everything that keeps life going. Second, the world population generally becomes wealthier each year. Billions of people in China, India, and Southeast Asia are better off now than they were ten years ago. As economies develop, they consume more food, more goods, more electricity— and all of that requires more energy. More efficient technology offsets