Independence Day cheer

Happy Independence Day to all.

As we in America celebrate the 4th of July, the date commemorating the approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776, I thought it would be instructive to take a look at the famed document itself, and the history behind it.

For those who would like to learn more about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, see the Wikipedia link above.

You may also want to read and compare the document's various drafts (first draft, reported draft, engrossed copy) which can all be viewed here at the Online Library of Liberty.

And lastly, some valuable thoughts on the Declaration and its principal writer, Thomas Jefferson. We should also mention Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet, Common Sense, became the widely read rallying cry for American independence from Great Britain.

For more on this, please see the following articles.

"Jefferson on American Liberty" - Gary Galles.

"Thomas Jefferson, Rebel!" - Frank Chodorov.

"The Sudden Emergence of Tom Paine" - Murray Rothbard.

"The Declaration of Independence" (Audio MP3) - Robert LeFevre.

Clean Money - John Rubino: Book review

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Slate profiles Victor Niederhoffer

Slate's recent profile of writer/speculator, Vic Niederhoffer has been getting some attention from traders and finance types in recent days. I thought we'd take a look at it here too, to offer up some possible educational value from Vic's experiences with trading and loss. Here's an excerpt from Slate's profile of Victor Niederhoffer : " I've enjoyed getting your e-mails. It sounds like you've thought a lot about being wrong. Well, the reason you contacted me, to call a spade a spade, is that I'm sort of infamous for having made a big, notorious, terrible error not once but twice in my market career. Let's talk about those errors. The first was your investment in the Thai baht, which pretty much wiped you out when the Thai stock market crashed in 1997. I made so many errors there it's pathetic. I made one of my favorite errors: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered." That is key. There are certain decisions you make in li

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Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety . My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes . Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes 2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4.

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