Claims

Russian stocks from 1900-1916 kept pace with US stocks and had low correlation to them, but the 1917 revolution wiped out investors, demonstrating that historical valuation attractiveness provides no protection against regime collapse.

George Walton Williams, a gun runner in the 1860s, became the richest man in Charleston not because he got richer but because he accepted payment only in gold and silver (not dollars or Confederate dollars), and so when the Confederacy collapsed and currency failed, his wealth in precious metals preserved his purchasing power while everyone else's nominal wealth was destroyed.

In 1971, people incorrectly expected the stock market to crash after the gold standard was abandoned, but it rose significantly instead; this counterintuitive result led Dalio to study history and discover the pattern had occurred before in 1933.