anecdotes

“What is Dollar/Yen?” asked the renowned macro investor, using that exchange rate as a metaphor for the abstract instruments he trades. “It is nothing, that’s what it is,” he said, answering his own question, smiling, aware of the irony that by trading ‘nothing’ he built a fortune. Unlike a company, Dollar/Yen neither produces a product, nor a pays a dividend. You can create it from thin air. There’s no practical lim

“The Fed created a wall of money,” said the revolutionary, an intellectual, who as a young man, battled political suppression, oppression. Rose against Apartheid. Bravely. Non-violently. “As that money flowed to emerging markets, many cried foul, and now that it is leaving, they are crying again,” continued the central banker, his voice calm, confident, his eyes dry. “We are genuinely concerned about the effect of ca

The drought broke, the floods flashed, the land slid. So naturally, we headed for the hills. Parked at the trailhead, and our Suburban flew open. Out spilled four kids, my loyal golden. Rattlesnake Creek roared below. We raced to its bank. Wolfie leapt into the gurgling waters, plunged beneath the surface, proudly retrieved a large stone, dropping it at my muddy feet, tail wagging; his kind heart bigger than his brai

“iRobot makes the Roomba and this telepresence robot – of course I bought one, I buy all these kinds of things,” said the brilliant investor, an engineer, racing down Highway 1 in his Tesla. “Google was buying every private robotics company under the sun for 50x revenue, so the masses bought iRobot dreaming it’d someday be worth that kind of multiple,” he continued. “But Google had already passed on iRobot; you know

“I knew that day, without a shadow of a doubt, I knew,” explained my new buddy. Before that break-through, before becoming a household name with $100mm+ in annual sales, he and his brother spent five years living in a van. Broke. Slinging t-shirts. “We didn’t care about clothing, still don’t, for us the t-shirt was a way of sharing a message.” And in search of something inspired, they turned to Shakespeare, Homer, Ch

“I’m always scared about the way people’s opinions are determined by their ethno-linguistic backgrounds, where they went to school, their generation,” explained the European investor, choosing his words carefully, enunciating them precisely. “I pick up newspapers in four languages and read four different interpretations of the same event,” he continued. “Just because you can now fly anywhere quickly, and move capital

“I was labeled a Marxist after my speech in Hong Kong,” said the CIO from Tokyo, rather puzzled by the attack. You see, we’d been discussing the oldest conflict in all of economics; the fight between labor and capital for society’s economic spoils. How that conflict is resolved, determines the political construct of nations. “Following the Great Depression and WWII, Keynesians strived to put everyone to work.” So wit

When my children laugh, really laugh, I laugh too. And sometimes bite my lower lip, wiping away a tear. When they hurt themselves, I get angry; a primal, protective instinct I suppose. And when I read of atrocities, I make jokes. To shield myself from the horror of what we’re capable of. But when a friend dies, leaving behind his beautiful wife and young children, I just cry. And when I cry, I head into the mountains

“I believe we have a duty to care for those who came before us, for those who come after,” he said. And he has. He does. A decade ago, his father-in-law was slain as he lay in bed with his wife. A random act of violence, committed by impoverished young burglars. In South Africa. “Afterwards, my mother-in-law moved in, became the second mother to our children,” he continued, describing the profound depth of her impact