The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

-Richard Feynman

Rentier

Rentier

A Rentier is someone who lives off income from investments, particularly from renting land or property. This term was historically used to describe members of the landed gentry who derived a significant portion of their income from rents collected on their estates.

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.

– Charles Colson, Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon

Remember the concept of the cleanest dirty shirt. We live in a relative world so if we misbehave and others misbehave more, we don’t get punished because we have the reserve currency and are the place where people outsource savings to. As long as we remain the cleanest dirty shirt, we will not be punished. If others become cleaner than us, we will be punished, but for right now we are the cleanest dirty shirt.

-Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz chief economic advisor and president of Queens’ College, Cambridge