Posts Tagged ‘ history ’

Why Military History and Lemay: The Story of Now

Sep 17th, 2009 | By | Category: Featured, Morning Whiskey
"Why are you writing so much about Gen. Curtis Lemay?" asked one reader. "Really Byron, what does Lemay have to do with investing?" asked another. "It makes for really interesting history," said a third reader, "but where are you going with the Lemay series?" Fair enough. Let's think about why a ...read more

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Posted in Featured, Morning Whiskey | 4 comments


Industrial Slaughter and War: The March of Progress

Aug 14th, 2009 | By | Category: Featured, Politics
In science and technology, knowledge builds up as people make new mistakes: Technology may, like digits in an actuarial table, improve and compound, accumulating gradually over time. But in love, finance, and the rest of life, people make the same old mistakes, over and over again. As soon as the ...read more

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Posted in Featured, Politics | 2 comments


Making History and the Myth of Progress

Aug 12th, 2009 | By | Category: Featured, Politics
No history recalls what the 5,000 or so Normans must have felt when they saw the English coastline in 1066, nor what they had for breakfast, or how their wives and daughters missed them at home on that day. Nor does it tell us how the peasants in Toncarville coaxed ...read more

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Posted in Featured, Politics | 11 comments


Foundations of Crisis, Part III: War (So What’s Next?)

Jan 21st, 2009 | By | Category: Featured, Politics
The real watersheds in history, crises that make or break a civilization, occur roughly every 100 years. The most recent ones in American history that will resonate without looking up the facts in a reference book are the Revolution, circa 1782; the Civil War, circa 1863; and WW II, circa ...read more

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Posted in Featured, Politics | 3 comments


Foundations of Crisis, Part II: Generations

Jan 20th, 2009 | By | Category: Featured, Politics
Generational conflict has been recognized since ancient times. The twist here is the discovery of several things that have previously eluded observers. One is that the well- known conflict between fathers and sons is only half the story; there aren't just two generational types that alternate (e.g., liberal and conservative), ...read more

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Posted in Featured, Politics | 5 comments


Foundations of Crisis

Jan 19th, 2009 | By | Category: Featured, Technology
Everybody wants predictions. The following article does a little better than that, in that I wrote it back in November of 1997, outlining several theories of history, and pointing to a logical way of anticipating what will likely happen to the world at large over the next generation. As you will ...read more

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Posted in Featured, Technology | 6 comments


Gold: Cheap as Chips…?

Aug 19th, 2008 | By | Category: Gold
The sharp drop in world gold prices starting in late July knocked the cost of physical metal more than 20 percent off its record top of mid-March at last week’s low point. That level — just above $750 per ounce — also happens to sit right where the uptrend starting in ...read more

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Posted in Gold | No Comments »


History of Financial Disasters 1763-1995 Book Review

Mar 14th, 2007 | By | Category: Macro Economics
HOW CAN YOU AVOID financial disaster? First of all, it helps to understand the nature of disaster. What is a disaster, after all? People use the word "disaster," but what does it mean? And of course, if you want to avoid a financial disaster, it would help to know what ...read more

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Posted in Macro Economics | No Comments »