Keep Calm and Learn History (Short #3)

This past Christmas, my wife bought me a pretty nerdy present. Given that I have a little nerd in me, especially when it comes to history, I have found it really interesting. Maybe more so now than ever.

The gift she got me came from a company called “Letterjoy” which describes itself as,

“A Membership for People who Really Love History: Get weekly “snail mail” from George Washington Theodore Roosevelt, Marie Curie, and other legendary figures.

The letters arrive each Friday and look like the images below. They also include a separate page that describes the letter’s context, time period, author, and recipient. Authors include people like Thurgood Marshall, Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Carnegie, as well as lesser-known figures throughout history who did extraordinary things.

Today, I received one that was written by the Superintendent of the Western and Atlantic Railroad in 1862, John S. Rowland, about a group of Union soldiers who snuck into the south to steal a Confederate train and steam it north into Union territory, sabotaging Southern infrastructure along the way. While the mission ultimately failed and the troops were all eventually captured or killed, they were heralded as heroes. In fact, nineteen were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroics, becoming the first recipients of the country’s highest military honor.

As you can probably tell, these letters come from vastly different time periods, highlight unique parts of U.S. history, and profile fascinating events. This said, after reading them now for the better part of three months, something obvious has emerged that is especially relevant today — there is nothing we haven’t seen before.

While government, technology, financial markets, societal norms, and countless other features of life have changed dramatically over time, human nature hasn’t. The fact is, people make decisions, which causes other people to react to those decisions, which then leads to another reaction, followed by another, another, and another.

This pattern is as old as time, it has just sped up with how quickly information travels these days.

Today, we are simply living through another one. The Trump Administration made a decision regarding tariffs, which has caused other world leaders to respond “in kind”, which has caused investors to shed “risk assets”, which has caused others to panic, which has led to much more attractive prices and buying opportunities.

Are we close to the bottom?

I have no clue, but I do know this — do yourself a favor and turn off CNBC or your Bloomberg Terminal, put down the Wall Street Journal, and stop looking at your portfolio.

Instead, be a history nerd and go back to reading a book, an old Berkshire Hathaway annual letter, or, even better, a letter from Letterjoy.