✍️ Happy 4th of July! What Is Really America’s “Secret Sauce”?
“We’ve got a secret sauce. It’s such a good secret that I don’t know what exactly it is!”
Dear all,
the 4th of July is here, and today America celebrates Independence Day! The 1776 Declaration of Independence set the stage for Americans to prosper by declaring:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
It also marks 250 years of history, setbacks, comebacks, progress, resilience, capitalism and exceptionalism! Today is a great reminder of the courage it took to build this nation, and the dedication it takes to keep it moving forward.
Wishing all Americans a very Happy 4th of July! Have a great celebration, full of joy, gratitude, and unity as we step forward together into a brighter future!
I’m not an American citizen, but I’ve lived in the U.S., among quite a few other countries, so I know a thing or two about various approaches and systems. I can say with confidence that, generally, the U.S. has the “secret sauce”:
Warren Buffett said quite a few times that the U.S. has the “secret sauce”! 2014:
“We have the secret sauce, and it unleashes human potential like no system has ever unleashed it in history.”
In 2026, in his latest interview during the Berkshire Annual Meeting:
“We’ve got a secret sauce. It’s such a good secret that I don’t know what exactly it is.” (Buffett laughter 😀)
I think that many of you would like to know more about the ingredients that make this “secret sauce”, so I’ll also cover that in a separate comprehensive report:
✍️ What Is Really America’s “Secret Sauce”?
In the meantime, here's a preview via the following very sleek chart for 10,000 words.
Nobel Prize Winners (in scientific fields) from 1905 to 2025 — U.S. leading by far:
👉 one can be lucky once or twice or more times, one can be an unexplained outlier, a product of sheer randomness, one can fake it, or benefit from a favorable regime for a while — yet none of that can hold up for 120 years!
today, nearly 40% of the world’s leading scientists, or those in the top 200,000 globally by citations, are based in the U.S. — no other country has more than 10%!
half of the scientific Nobel Prize winners over the past decade call America home!
between 1940 and 2020, approximately 27% of U.S. based Nobel Prizes in science went to winners born outside the U.S.!
👉 for more than a century, the U.S. managed to attract top talent from all over the world through great incentives and an ecosystem where together they can thrive
As I always like to say: the scientists, researchers, innovators, geeks, optimists, crazy ones, the naive and dreamers that dare, the ones that challenge the status quo, the mavericks, the ones who fall but get back up and keep trying again and again and again — ARE among the top heroes of society…! 😉
Put them all in the same place & magic happens! Kudos, chapeau, respect, gratitude … just hats off to them🫡 🫶 🙏! America works because it performs and rewards!
Until then, coming back to Buffett, my next report is covering Berkshire Hathaway:
✍️ Buffet’s Berkshire: The Legacy Continues! Stash Away Baby! Fundamentals, Buybacks, Optionality, Valuation, and … Patience!
And in case you missed my latest U.S. Economy decoded through the lens of real-time, high frequency and alternative data, enjoy this unique report:
Wishing all Americans a very Happy 4th of July! And never forget, keep compounding: family, friends, community, capital, knowledge, research and mindset!
With respect,
Mav 👋 🤝
