Latest published articles

Palladium: The Metal That Became More Expensive Than Gold

Most people have never heard of palladium. Ask someone on the street to name a precious metal and they will say gold. Maybe silver. Maybe platinum if they know jewelry. Almost nobody would say palladium. But in January 2001, palladium became the first precious metal in history to break $1,000 per ounce. More expensive than gold. Chapter 19 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells how this obscure metal went from $120 to over $1,100 in four years. A 10x increase. And it all came down to one country: Russia.

The 4-Hour Body: Eating the Elephant and Learning to Swim in 10 Days

“Just remember: somewhere in China, a little girl is warming up with your max.” That’s what Olympic weightlifting coach Jim Conroy tells his athletes. Welcome to chapters 33 and 34. One is about adding 100 pounds to your bench press. The other is about a guy who was scared of water learning to swim a mile in the ocean. Both come down to the same idea: eat the elephant one bite at a time.

The 4-Hour Body: Eating the Elephant and Learning to Swim in 10 Days

“Just remember: somewhere in China, a little girl is warming up with your max.” That’s what Olympic weightlifting coach Jim Conroy tells his athletes. Welcome to chapters 33 and 34. One is about adding 100 pounds to your bench press. The other is about a guy who was scared of water learning to swim a mile in the ocean. Both come down to the same idea: eat the elephant one bite at a time.

The 4-Hour Body: Becoming an Effortless Superhuman

This chapter starts with a former Soviet Special Forces instructor punching Tim Ferriss in the butt. Not a metaphor. Pavel Tsatsouline was literally checking muscle tension at a kettlebell certification event. Welcome to chapter 32.

The Bre-X Gold Fraud: The Biggest Mining Scam in History

St. Paul, Alberta. A town of five thousand people in the Canadian prairies. The town’s only claim to fame is a UFO landing platform, built in 1967 for Canada’s centennial. A concrete pad with a sign inviting extraterrestrial visitors to land. Nothing ever landed. But in the mid-1990s, something stranger than aliens happened to this town. Chapter 18 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Bre-X Minerals, the biggest mining fraud in Canadian history.

The Bre-X Gold Fraud: The Biggest Mining Scam in History

St. Paul, Alberta. A town of five thousand people in the Canadian prairies. The town’s only claim to fame is a UFO landing platform, built in 1967 for Canada’s centennial. A concrete pad with a sign inviting extraterrestrial visitors to land. Nothing ever landed. But in the mid-1990s, something stranger than aliens happened to this town. Chapter 18 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Bre-X Minerals, the biggest mining fraud in Canadian history.

Mr. Five Percent: The Copper Trader Who Caused a $2.6 Billion Loss

How do you hide $1.8 billion in losses for over a decade? You stay at the same desk, you forge your boss’s signature, and you pray that the market turns around. Chapter 17 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Yasuo Hamanaka, a copper trader at Sumitomo Trading in Tokyo who controlled 5% of the global copper market, lied about it for eleven years, and brought down the biggest single-company trading loss the world had ever seen.