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.

The folly of voting for the lesser of two evils is playing out in orange technicolor right before our eyes. MAGA voters voted for the Orange Man because he wasn't Kamala Harris. Fair enough. She, arguably, could have, in different ways, been even worse.

In mid-March Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic was added to a Signal group chat including top U.S. military brass and intelligence personnel that ultimately discussed plans for United States military forces to attack the Houthis in Yemen. The plans discussed on that group chat were eventually, successfully, carried out. Signal, although encrypted, is a commercial operation, not a government controlled secure communications platform. Here's the background. The Houthis are an Iran backed rebel group in Yemen who effectively control much of the country. To show support for Hamas, they have been launching rocket and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea effectively shutting down shipping through the Suez Canal and forcing ships to travel around the southern tip of Africa to get from the Middle East to Europe.

Richard Fields dives into the gripping saga of Butch Wilmore and Sumi Williams' unexpected extended stay aboard the ISS, the heroic SpaceX mission that brought them home, and the curious media blackout surrounding this historic event. Along the way, Fields reflects on the legacy media's priorities, Elon Musk's polarizing impact, and the broader implications of government efficiency. A thought-provoking read for space enthusiasts and media critics alike.