If you thought that Americans today are worse off financially than previous generations, you’re not off the mark. The feeling that the cost of living is increasing while the ability to buy things we previously took for granted is decreasing has been demonstrated by survey data that shows that Americans today are not doing as […]
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In response to the recent attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil production, which both the United States and Saudi Arabia blamed on Iran, President Trump decided to impose even further sanctions on Iran, which he characterized as the highest sanctions ever imposed upon a country. The new sanctions target Iran’s central bank and sovereign wealth fund, […]
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If you’ve been wondering what happened to Venezuela’s petro cryptocurrency, you’re probably one of the only ones. The cryptocurrency, much hyped by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, was slated for disaster almost from the beginning. Supposedly backed by oil reserves, Maduro had to force the cryptocurrency onto Venezuelan government employees in order to get it to […]
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In this new era of wokeness, one of the quickest ways to score political points is to dredge up old information about your political opponents that can be seen in light of modern thinking as racist, sexist, or insensitive. And with “cultural appropriation” being one of the hot new buzzwords, anything that shows a (white) […]
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The past decade has seen interest rates at historically low levels for the longest period of time ever. The effect that has had on the economy has been enormous, with governments, corporations, and households all taking on massive amounts of debt in order to take advantage of low borrowing costs. But despite interest rates being […]
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Austria-Hungary was one of the last countries in Europe to adopt the gold standard, officially adopting the gold standard in 1892. Its Maria Theresa silver thaler was one of the most important trade coins of its era and remained an important trade coin into the 20th century. As Austria-Hungary’s neighbors began to adopt the gold […]
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Saving and investing for retirement isn’t something that many people are familiar with until they’re thrust into the workplace and forced to make investment decisions for themselves. No one takes classes on retirement planning, it isn’t taught in high school, and even most parents don’t sit down with their children and go through the essential […]
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One of the things that endears President Trump to so many people, even to those who aren’t his biggest fans, is the fact that he never backs down. Sure, he may jump around from position to position on certain things, particularly when he doesn’t feel they’re important. But when it comes to big issues, once […]
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The late 19th century saw the development of numerous small-bore rifle cartridges. The first smokeless cartridges, such as 8mm Lebel and 8x57mm Mauser, saw a significant decrease in bullet size from the 10-11mm prevalent during the blackpowder era to .30- to .32-caliber. From there numerous militaries began to experiment with and eventually field cartridges firing […]
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The United States is nearly alone among major world central banks in not moving towards negative interest rates. That zero lower bound remains a lower bound. But in the event of another financial crisis, might the Fed decide to push rates below zero, just like the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have […]
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