Author: Simon Black

In 1873 during the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, the government abolished its income tax. Aside from a single episode in 1894, there would be no income tax in the United States of America for nearly 40 years. It was during this period that the United States emerged as the largest, most powerful economy in the world. And the country achieved this with no income tax. No inflation. And very little public debt. Today it’s entirely different. The dollar has lost over 99% of its value since 1913. And the US has accumulated more debt than any other nation in the … Continue reading →

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July 30, 2015 Lausanne, Switzerland Usain Bolt has got nothing on Leonidas of Rhodos. Born nearly 2,000 years ago, Leonidas holds the record as the greatest sprinter of all time, winning more Olympic titles than anyone else in human history. At four straight Olympic games, Leonidas dominated all three sprinting events– the Stadion (roughly 200 meters), Diaulos (roughly 400 meters), and the bizarre Hoplitodromos– a 400 meter dash carrying 50 pounds of military gear. Bear in mind that he competed at a time when there was only a prize for first place. Second place was first loser. (And they didn’t … Continue reading →

March 30, 2015 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile What I’m about to tell you is not my own opinion or even analysis. It’s original data that comes from the United States Federal Reserve and national credit bureaus. 40 million Americans are now in debt because of their university education, and on average borrowers have four loans with a total balance of $29,000. According to the Fed, “Student loans have the highest delinquency rate of any form of household credit, having surpassed credit cards in 2012.” Since 2010, student debt has been the second largest category of personal debt, just after a … Continue reading →

March 26, 2015  Santiago, Chile  If there’s one lesson we can learn from the 20th century it’s that we should be suspicious of a government that actively tries to disarm its population. When the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia one of the first things they did was set out to disarm the population. There were already a series of strict gun control laws in place, left over from the time of French colonialism, but the Khmer wanted to take no chances. They went door to door asking people if they had guns, telling them “no one has a … Continue reading →