Overview: Frederick Eaton and William Mulholland grew up in entirely different worlds. Mulholland was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a low-level guard of the Royal Mail. William ran away from home when he was 15, spent seven years wandering about as a manual laborer first on a trans-Atlantic cargo ship, then in the…
Continued . . . In the meantime, the pivotal Battle of Yorktown was approaching. It might be the last major battle of the Revolution, and Hamilton desperately needed a command. It could be his last chance to achieve the compelling war victory his political future required. There was a body of men available to be…
Continued . . . While at the Treasury, Hamilton demonstrated acute political acumen by organizing his goals almost as though they were a set of Russian nesting dolls. Any single goal was only possible if the entire list was approved: a state may not pick and choose. There was some back-and-forth on this, as one…
Continued . . . King’s College – The letter caused Hamilton’s employer, who experienced the same catastrophic storm but lacked Hamilton’s expressive ability, to fund his study at King’s College (now Columbia University), where Alexander arrived in 1774. This was after Princeton declined Hamilton’s required terms of enrollment. At age 19, being supported by third…
Mercantilism began sometime in the 1400s, rising quickly before beginning a long, slow collapse. Its terminal decline began with the success of the American Revolution (England: 1783) and peaked with the independence of India (England: 1947) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Belgium: 1960). Mercantilism was, at root, a parasitical economic system whereby the…
The Dust Bowl (1931-1939) extended from southern Kansas to northern Texas, but was centered in the Oklahoma panhandle. This is largely prairie whose native shortgrass once supported innumerable bison. A characteristic of shortgrass is that it grows easily in areas where rainfall is as little as 10 inches per year. You know you’re looking at…
Introduction: Another recession, possibly a very serious one, is inevitable. We know it will happen, for it is part of the normal business cycle. The problem is that we don’t know when it will happen. It might be this year or it might be years / decades from now. Whenever it occurs, there will be…
Continued . . . Opportunity: One can make much money by (a) choosing the right investments or by (b) shunning the poor ones. In many cases poor investment decisions could have been entirely prevented by heeding John Farnam’s Three Rules: (1) Don’t go to stupid places; (2) With stupid people, (3) And do stupid things.…
Information, not Advice #20 Continued . . . The Energy Crisis Recession of 1980 – Duration: 6 mos. GDP Decline: 2.2%. Peak Unemployment: 7.8%. 10 yr T-Note Beg 10.80% / End 10.25%. Inflation reached a bit over 11% and the Federal Reserve, not unsurprisingly, raised interest rates to slow money supply growth. When money…
Background: Ultimately, if one looks deeply enough, the market value of an investment is a function of interest rates. Market value is a specific term, and neither price nor cost is a complete synonym. How often does someone buy a new car at full MSRP? And, technically, cost is what you buy something for minus…