Words of Wisdom on Life, Happiness, and Investing
In this short essay – a letter to his son on his 16th birthday – my partner Porter Stansberry provides some good advice about making important life decisions.
Click here.
For Investors Only: Current-Day Scams to Watch Out For
Sir Gregor MacGregor
Have you heard of Sir Gregor MacGregor, the early 19th century Scottish mercenary and shyster?
In this essay, my colleague Garrett Baldwin tells the story of how MacGregor came to Florida and pulled off one con after another, before returning to England as the self-dubbed Prince of Poyais, a fake country whose land he sold to hundreds of hapless investors. Baldwin also explains how, in earning the title of “the founding father of securities fraud,” MacGregor created scams that are still being played on investors today.
Click here.
Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades
By David Steinberg
352 pages
Published July 13, 2021
“Insecurity combined with arrogance is good DNA for a comedian. So is anger, aggression, and sadness.” That’s the first sentence of David Steinberg’s Inside Comedy, described by one reviewer as “a lifelong story of comedy and its brilliant careers, told by a consummate insider.”
It’s an easy, upbeat read. Funny. Insightful.
Critical Reception
* “In his new, entertaining, and enlightening book, [Steinberg] gives a reader a colorful and personal panorama of the laugh makers he has known, plenty of them.” (Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune)
* “Steinberg paints deep and intimate portraits of the comedians we know and love. He tells us their life stories, how they found comedy, and gives us insight into who they really are. In doing so, he also takes us through the development of comedy over the past several decades.” (Molly Sprayregen, Associated Press)
* “Steinberg’s recollections are as vivid as they are hilarious.” (Michael Ruzicka, Booklist)
About David Steinberg
David Steinberg is a comedian, actor, writer, director, and author. At the height of his popularity, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was one of the best-known comics in the United States. His directing credits include episodes of Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women.
Steinberg appeared on The Tonight Show more than 150 times. Click here to watch a clip of his first appearance.
The Great Taki on the War in Ukraine
“What’s frustrating as hell,” writes Taki in his latest essay, “is the inability, or unwillingness, of Uncle Sam to stop the slaughter.”
Click here to read the entire thing.
No, Freddie. This Is One Problem We Don’t Need to Worry About.
In this piece, Freddie deBoer joins a conversation about whether America’s elite college students may be hurting themselves by being too competitive.
So… this is a problem? Something that needs to be fixed?
No!
The labor issue Freddie and others should be worried about is not that a small slice at the top is working so very hard, but that a very large slice of the working population in the middle is not working harder. For various reasons (including technology), per capita productivity in the US is going down. That will eventually result in a lower GDP and a lower per capita income.
This is another example of how so many perfectly smart and educated people acquire beliefs about the economy that they wouldn’t consider applying to themselves or their children. Don’t have enough money to pay for that fancy new pair of sneakers? Work more hours or get a better-paying job!
Click here.
Myth and BS: Tales of Monetary Manipulation from Pharaohs to Fed Heads
If you think America’s $34 trillion debt can be managed by smart people, read this essay by Bill Bonner.
Dating Dynamics Today and Why It Matters
I’ve been looking at YouTube discussions lately on the subject of how relationships between the sexes are changing. It’s unsettling. Even disturbing. There is, for example, a surprising percentage of young women in the digital dating world that are not interested in men that are less than six feet tall and earn less than $400,000!
If that piques your interest, click here for a good account of it from Olivia Reingold, published in The Free Press recently.
“Paris Was Yesterday” by Taki in Taki’s Magazine
The opening paragraph:
“A reader’s inquiry as to why I think Paris was yesterday has me remembering times past. When did the party end? According to the point of view of many night owls, the party ended when the Queen of the Night, Regine, shut down ‘New Jimmy’s’ and moved to London, where she flopped. Boring accountant types believe it was ‘les événements de soixante-huit,’ the student-worker revolt against de Gaulle, that did Paris in. Any way one looks at it, the events of 1968 signaled the party’s over, and it has stayed over ever since.”
Read the entire essay here.
Freddie deBoer’s Latest Book
Freddie DeBoer
The Washington Post does not pretend to be impartial – neither in its reportage, its editorial, or even its book reviews. So you’d you think it would write a nice, left-leaning piece on Freddie deBoer’s latest book: How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement. But no. WAPO’s reviewer pretty much trashed it because of deBoer’s fair-minded and well-defended criticism of the worst aspects of the BLM rioting and looting.
Check it out here. And then order deBoer’s book!
“Shipping Out”
By David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace in 2006
On Tuesday, I posted David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College. His reputation by that time – secured primarily by his 1996 magnum opus Infinite Jest – made him, as David Olin said in the LA Times, “one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years.”
Shortly afterwards, I listened to an interview with Wallace’s sister after he committed suicide in 2008. One thing that she said surprised me: She never knew him as the gloomy, isolated, depressed, and sometimes abusive person he was said to be. In fact, she said, she knew him to be an easygoing person with a gentle sense of humor.
I wrote that off as a sibling trying to support her brother’s postmortem reputation. But then this morning I read this piece by Wallace that was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1996. It is very good. Impressively good. Just as smart and clever as I expected him to be, but also gently funny in a humble, almost self-effacing way.
See if you agree. Click here.