250 Years of Freedom
- Brandon Mull, CFA, CFP®
- Jul 3
- 5 min read
There's something quietly extraordinary about celebrating the Fourth of July in 2026. This isn't just another summer holiday with fireworks and grilling. This year, America turns 250. A quarter millennium. For proof that the ideals written into existence on July 4, 1776 are among the best, you don't need to look much further than the longest-running experiment in representative democracy the world has ever seen. At Marathon Wealth, we think about time horizons constantly. We talk with clients about 20-year plans, 30-year retirements, and multi-generational legacies. But 250 years? That is a truly long-term perspective we usually don’t grapple with day to day.
The Freedom to Build Wealth
The founders didn't just guarantee life and liberty. They guaranteed the pursuit of happiness, which is necessarily inclusive of the economic realm. The freedom to own property. The freedom to start a business, take a risk, fail, and try again. The freedom to invest your savings in something larger than yourself and participate in the growth of an entire economy. Milton Friedman and others at the University of Chicago were champions of this idea, popularizing the concept in mainstream of intellectual discussions about freedom in the 1960s and 70s.[1]
Most of human history has been defined by systems where wealth flowed upward by birthright or conquest. The American capital markets (and their concepts, which have spread globally), are one of humanity's most successful attempts at democratizing prosperity. The publicly traded stock market alone has created more broadly distributed wealth than any wealth-transfer program ever designed, with much of that wealth owned by retirement funds both public and private. When you own a diversified portfolio, you own a piece of every innovation, every breakthrough, every company that figured out how to do something better than it was done before.
To truly appreciate the ingenuity embedded in the American system we have to acknowledge that it has not always been perfect, with regard to politics or markets.
One of our favorite books in the investment canon is Edwin Lefèvre's Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. Written as a firsthand account from a professional trader, operating at the start of 20th century, “reading the tape” for his own book. It is a tale of risk taking and market psychology that brings vividly to life an era when markets were raw and unregulated. The Panic of 1907 is the kind of crisis Lefèvre's world inhabited. While somewhat lesser known than the Great Depression that followed, it’s an especially interesting anecdote and a tale of personal courage. What saved the United States in those three weeks marked by bank runs and a market collapse of almost -50% was actually not a government program or bailout. There was no Federal Reserve yet. Rather, it was J.P. Morgan himself. When markets seized, he physically locked the most powerful bankers in America in his private library on Madison Avenue and did not let them leave until they had agreed to pool their resources and stop the bleeding, writing personal checks to the New York Stock Exchange and other institutions to restore confidence. He effectively backstopped the U.S. financial system with his personal credibility and his own balance sheet.[2]
A century later, the housing crisis of 2008 offered a haunting echo: overleveraged mortgage products, misaligned incentives, and a reckoning that devastated retirement accounts and cracked public trust in institutions. While the particulars, time, and circumstances were vastly different than the century before, a consortium of private and public institutions came together to repair and stabilize the system. While these two events (and many others we could write about) were uncomfortable, the important footnote is that all came with a second act. The markets recovered. The architecture was rebuilt. The economy gradually grew again. Failure happened, but the underlying institutions proved more durable than the crises that tested them. We think it’s a good feature that the system is “easy to fix”, rather than “hard to break” and a reason why it has lasted so long. Compared with the available alternatives, we think the American system of markets remains among the best available for collective national advancement and prosperity. One that makes the possibility of living a good life attainable and that leaves not just your own family, but everyone, better off.
The Fabric of the Nation
At 250, we might also be wondering, what about our political system? Especially in a season (or perhaps more truthfully, the past decade or so) when the political world feels loud and the headlines feel relentless, what can we make of our politics? At the risk of sounding overly sentimental, we take our deepest solace not in any policy or program, but in the people around us. Clients, friends, and neighbors who are quietly building, faithfully providing, and taking care of their families. Living by enduring values that no headline can touch and making choices that no political edict can mandate. As George Washington stated in his farewell address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute to patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."[3] He understood that the true pillars of a healthy republic were never found in its institutions alone, rather they were found in the character of its citizens, living well at the grassroots level every single day. So, this fourth of July as much as any, we’re grateful for and celebrate a few things:
Free markets: which have raised the global standard of living more dramatically than any force in the modern era, despite their imperfections, and in many ways, through them.
Property rights and rule of law: the invisible infrastructure that makes long-term investing possible with a defined rules for governance and exchange.
The freedom to plan: with solid institutions that endure and reform, creating a stable landscape and level playing field, we have the freedom to look ahead, set goals, and build strategies that reflects your values and your vision for the future.
The tax code's incentives for savers: yes, even the IRS gives us tools to work with such as IRAs, 401(k)s, Roth accounts, 529 plans, and charitable giving strategies that reward planning and foresight.
The people: We’re grateful for our clients, families, communities. The hard work and character of everyday folks are the true and enduring source of American strength.
Whether you're watching fireworks over the lake, grilling with family, watching a World Cup game, or sneaking in a round of golf this weekend, take a moment to appreciate what 250 years of this experiment has produced. Happy 250th, America!
[1] Friedman, M. (2016). 61. Capitalism and Freedom. Democracy, 344–349. https://doi.org/10.7312/blau17412-074
[2] Lefèvre, E. (1923). Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. George H. Doran Company. [pp. 110-117]
[3] Washington, G. (1796). Farewell Address. Final manuscript draft published September 19, 1796.
Recent Readings:
Eye on the Market, June 2026 – JP Morgan
The New Economics of U.S. Power – Observer
