Author Archives: James Salerno

What Brazil and the West Should Learn From 1970’s Chile

Posted on by

Brazil is referred to as “the country of tomorrow.” The only problem is that a country can only be called that for so long until people wonder when tomorrow will actually show up. It remains to be seen if Brazil can live up to its potential. Brazil has the goods to become a player – they are the 8th largest economy in the world, with a GDP nearing $3 trillion. Brazil is very high on other lists – unfortunately, they have the world’s highest net homicide rate per annum. They also have a propensity to routinely destroy their economy by electing socialists. Riding on a global wave of post-Brexit, post-Trump populism, Jair Bolsonaro was elected Brazil’s president in 2018 to address these problems. 

Memorial to Salvador Allende, Marxist President of Chile from 1970-1973
Continue reading →

Book Review: The Not So Wild, Wild West – Property Rights on the Frontier

Posted on by

The 19th century wild west is portrayed in movies as a lawless wasteland where the only rule was survival of the fittest. Thieves ruled the land, bank robberies were common, and violence was always right around the corner. This couldn’t be any further from the truth. Voluntary institutions established rules and norms, and property rights were absolute. This is a great book for understanding how property rights actually develop, and a harsh condemnation of rule of law through coercion.

The Not So Wild, Wild West – Property Rights on the Frontier
Continue reading →

Book Review: The Forgotten Depression – 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself

Posted on by

Everyone knows about the Great Depression that kicked off with the 1929 stock market crash. However, the crash of 1921 was much worse. Why is it that the 1921 crash is ignored by economists and historians? For one, it was not a “great” depression. The depression of 1921 was over in a year, while the depression of 1929 raged for over a decade. There are a multitude of reasons for this, and James Grant tackles the causes in this book.

James Grant’s look at the Forgotten Depression
Continue reading →

The Worst President?

Posted on by

The question is often asked, who is the worst president of all time? Surprisingly, you’re going to get a lot of overlap between mainstream left and right. They may disagree on specifics but look at any “best presidents” list and you will find that “do something” presidents always rank near the top. Presidents who waged war and governed as a monarch always rank high. “Forgettable” presidents who presided over times of peace and prosperity tend to rank lower. This is wrong. We should not rank presidents by how famous they are. We should not judge them based on whether they did unconstitutional things that we like or don’t like. There is one single metric for measuring how good a president was: Did they uphold their oath to defend the constitution? Based on that, who is the worst?

The Presidents of the United States as depicted by Louis Marx
Continue reading →

The Economic Reality of Africa – All Myths Examined

Posted on by

Africa is home to some of the oldest civilizations on Earth. Yet, by all metrics, it is the poorest continent. Whether it is GDP per capita, life expectancy, political freedom or literacy rates, Africa ranks dead last. Why is this? The answers you will often hear are white (European) colonialism, racism, corruption, lack of unity, instability and lack of resources. There are elements of truth to some of these, yet the reasons you often hear from today’s mainstream historians and race hustlers are misleading. For one, Africa is a continent, not a unified nation of people. There are 54 recognized countries in Africa, each with its own unique circumstances. I’m going to take an in-depth look at all of the perceived causes of poverty and use statistics from individual nations to challenge each.

Colonial Africa
Continue reading →

Valmy, and the Origins of Modern Warfare

Posted on by

The period that covers World War I, World War II, through the end of the Cold War, is sometimes called the “Long War.” Philip Bobbitt refers to it as such in The Shield of Achilles, which I reviewed here. The Long War is characterized as a battle of the nation-states that originated near the end of the 19th century. It was a battle over three constitutional orders: liberal democracy, communism and fascism. It was a period of time in which weapons technology advanced faster than any other period in history. These wars also took on a new level of nihilism via “total warfare,” where war became more than just a contest between professional armies. While greater weapons lead to greater potential destruction, there are also cultural issues at play. You have to go back further than World War I to find the origins of total war. You can look back at the French Revolution, and the Battle of Valmy.

Battle of Valmy
Continue reading →

How I Read History

Posted on by

I’m going to take a break from writing about history, and instead… write about history. Or more accurately, write about how I read history. I’m often asked how I select what to read. There are millions and millions of history books out there, how do you weed through the junk and get to the good stuff? How do you know if what you’re reading is fact, opinion, propaganda or outright lies? I have a few rules to abide by. As with most rules, they are not ironclad, but if you follow these, you’ll be off to a good start. Without further ado, James Salerno’s rules for reading history:

figuring out what to read can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be
Continue reading →

No Solutions, Only Trade-Offs – Ukraine Edition

Posted on by

The great Thomas Sowell often notes that when looking to solve problems, there are no perfect solutions, only trade-offs. You weigh the cost of your various options and look for the one that creates the fewest additional problems. You look for the best trade-off. Make your concessions based on three factors – compared to what, at what cost, and based on what evidence? Nowhere does this practice come into play more than in foreign policy. Today we’re going to look at the ongoing situation in Ukraine, and weigh the options based on historic parallels.

Crisis in Ukraine
Continue reading →