Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope ay resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks.

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks!

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you should have received an email. Thanks!

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"Man has an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted." - Aldous Huxley

"Our life is what our thoughts make it." - Marcus Aurelius

"Living a life of integrity pays off, but it takes a very long time." - Naval Ravikant

"Even the good old days had their share of trauma." - Bhu Srinivasan

Wall Street vs Federal Government

But [JP] Morgan's view of the President as an equal might have been reasonable given the circumstances: U.S. Steel's revenues that year [1901] were $560 million; the federal government's total revenues through all its taxation powers amounted to $562 million. And Morgan had interests in multiple companies, while poor [Theodore] Roosevelt was a proxy for but one government. - Bhu Srinivasan

Now in many respects Wall Street runs the government and we have no politicians like Teddy Roosevelt to stand up to them.

Interesting Economic Theory

Another example of why I'm enjoying the book Americana so much:

Without the Gold Rush, industrial economies would have been forced to turn to more sophisticated forms of central banking to keep up with advances in technology, production, and science, just as legal frameworks governing eminent domain, patents, copyrights, bond indentures, and the limited liability of corporations had propelled economic progress. Instead, due to this accidental discovery, banking for the industrial age would be continue to be based on metals found in the ground until the next century.

Makes you think (which is the mark of a great book).

Eli Whitney's Revenge

Eli Whiney is remembered most by history as the inventor of the cotton gin which made raising cotton in the South extremely profitable. Problem is Whitney never made any money off his invention because it was so simple that people made their own without licencing his patent or paying him any royalties. In a way though Whitney would have his revenge. From the book Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism by Bhu Srinivasan:

Whitney was on to a more lucrative venture altogether. Starting in 1798, having come to terms with the fact that little money would come to him from the cotton gin, he had turned his attention to weapons. With his skill in manufacturing and fame as inventor of the cotton gin, he received an initial order for ten thousand muskets for $134,000 from the US government. His long-awaited fortune eventually came from guns. In doing so, Whitney set the stage for the Connecticut River Valley to become a leader in arms manufacturing, a competitive advantage for the North that poetically would be felt by South Carolina and Georgia decades later.

Really enjoying this book which looks at American history through the lense of capitalism and what the economic motives of the times were.

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"I begin to speak only when I'm certain what I'll say isn't better left unsaid." - Cato

"How is it that American democracy is held as sacred, when most immigrants come here first to participate in its capitalism?"- Bhu Srinivasan

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." - Robert Goddard

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become." - James Clear