The Grain Report: A Blog about Post Traumatic Prosperity

Growing up in Canada, I suppose one doesn't hear very much about Kentucky or Appalachia but I  had a relatively good impression of the place - elegant horse racing, nice whisky (for some reason Americans add an extra "e" to the word) blue grass music and good hearty meals like fried chicken. J.D. Vance writes about his family origins in Kentucky and Ohio and his Scots-Irish relatives who came from Appalachia as a proud, violent group who is suffering from a poverty of opportunity and fallen into a pattern of broken families, drug abuse and unemployment in Hillbilly Elgy. On that point, I am not sure the path of J.D. Vance's family really originated with Scots-Irish nationality.  I recognize some of the cultural traits of Scots-Irish in Vance's family such as a streak of independence, a pronounced tendency towards feuds and grudges and an attraction to military service but many Canadians have Scots-Irish nationality (Look at the old street names in Toronto - it...

I have been listening to Chris Hogan on the Dave Ramsey show on Sirius XM radio for the past several months and decided to pick up his book   Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth - and How You Can Too and I was impressed the quality of advice it offered . In this book Hogan points out that most people are not born wealthy and they don't become wealthy through inheritance  or working for a living.  Hogan outlines the fact that most millionaires  work ordinary jobs such as teacher, accountant and engineer and became wealthy by making regular, consistent contributions to stable investment plans.  Quite often millionaires  became rich by participating in simple workplace pension plans over a number years.  This was something taught to me in a first year Finance course, when we learned about present-value-of-money equations and future-value-of-money equations.  It's a mathematical truth that Hogan's advice works. ...

On the weekend, I watched Leicester City get downed 0-1 in the FA Cup.  Personally this marked the first English soccer match that I have watched in several years.  It was excellent to be watching competitive sports on television.  Interestingly, I found I missed the storylines and narratives that emerged from the game quite a bit more than the spectacle or watching the limits of human potential. I don't live anywhere close to the United Kingdom and the time difference between Saskatchewan and GMT is six hours, so watching matches can present a problem at times.   I don't have a close personal connection to any of the clubs (except a great-grandfather with some weak links to Chelsea), I have tended to focus on following favorite players or team cultures. Many of my old favorite players are now retired.  On the culture note, I was impressed by Brendan Rodgers in particular - he was a positive and engaging interview and his analysis of his teams' perf...