On a personal level there are two ways to win friends and influence people. One, force: Be my friend or I'll beat you up. Or two, cooperation: I'll make something you want and trade it to you for something I want. Force leads to fair weather friends. Once the perception of being able to deliver on that threat of force recedes, friends quickly disappear. A win-lose relationship is never going to be very successful in keeping a relationship.or friendship over the long term. Cooperation leads to longer term more stable relationships. It's win-win. Trust increases over time.

Hi, this is Richard Fields with this week's Report From the Fields. There are three primary ways to get what you want in this world; luck, politics and work. Luck, by definition, is something we have no control over. That leaves politics and work.

Outside of Rand Paul, the Senator from Kentucky, Senator Mike Lee of Utah is probably one of libertarian's most favorite Senators. On economic and regulatory issues he is excellent. He is in favor of balanced Federal budgets and limiting the size of government to bring them about.

During the Presidential campaign last year when Elon Musk predicted he could reduce Federal spending by $2 trillion, we wished him godspeed. We also were highly dubious. After all, $2 trillion represented roughly 30% of Federal spending. Since spending for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, interest on the national debt and miscellaneous other quasi-welfare programs are essentially on auto-pilot...and represent about 70% of spending, a $2 trillion cut would mean cutting everything else the government spends money on, all the three letter agencies, the Federal court system, Congressional salaries, Air Force One, you name it. We were right. Now Musk claims cuts of $170 billion, or about 1/12 as much as the original $2 trillion projection. Critics claim that figure is inflated. Despite the hew and cry from the left that the government was being dismantled, Federal spending in the first 100 days of the Trump administration is almost exactly equal to the corresponding 100 days of 2024. At best, maintaining the status quo.

A couple of weeks ago I reported on my impressions of my travels on the Silk Road, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. When I filed my report, I had not yet visited the last country on my itinerary, Turkmenistan. The first four Stans I visited seemed to be stumbling to some sort of accommodation with free market capitalism. In Turkmenistan, not so much. First the country has been cursed with abundant oil and gas wealth, all controlled by the government. Said government is a Republic in form but in practice is an autocracy controlled by the President who succeeded his father as President in 2022. It's hereditary one man rule. The legislature and judiciary rubber stamp the President's wishes.

The abundant and comfortable lifestyle ;to which Americans have become accustomed is a result of the fortuitous combination of an abundance of the four factors of production; land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship to turn the first three factors into widespread wealth.

Land encompasses agricultural output, mineral resources, forests and fresh water. We have those in abundance and they're not disappearing soon.

Hi, this is Richard Fields with this week’s Report From the Fields. I’m reporting from the Silk Road, the overland trade route that connected China with Central Asia and Europe from the third century BC until the 15th century AD. Central Asia is currently the Stans, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, now independent nations but until recently under the control of the USSR. That’s where I am.

It’s been a couple of weeks since “Liberation Day”. Are you feeling liberated yet? Probably liberated from your money if you had it in a 401k or IRA heavy in stocks. And maybe a little smug if your investments tilted toward real money. Gold.