anecdotes

“If you’re going to panic, make sure you panic first,” he said, approving of the way Bernanke handled monetary policy. Raised an only child to a single mother of modest means, he’d finished first, earned a place at the world’s greatest engineering university, then rushed to NY. Where he built a small fortune. As one of Wall Street’s most profitable prop traders. American dream. “Bernanke needed to act very aggressive

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. Well, actually, my children have. And on Easter no less. Now, this may sound hypocritical, and yeah, you hate that, but I want to enter the kingdom as a wealthy man. For the life of me though, can’t figure out how to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle. So I pray if I raise fine kids, you sneak me through the back door. Which brings me to last Sunday. My four angels fough

Life. Business. An uncertain future. Man’s potential. Maximizing it. From the day we’re born, till expiration. Yeah, that pretty much covers our conversations. Years ago I explained to my Dad what I do – he’s a rocket scientist, so you see, I’m kind of a disappointment. I tried to make my work sound real complicated, fancy. But he kept asking questions. And arrived at this conclusion, “So you essentially guess betwee

“Their option expires after April’s new Moon,” announced one of America’s top middle-eastern military advisors. You see, without a lunar lamp, Israeli F-18’s, are harder to down. “US and Israel have different Red Lines,” he said. America’s committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuke. Israel’s committed to preventing Mullah’s from acquiring the capacity to build one. “It’ll take 5-6mths to make 1 bomb, but they

I take smarter risks now. Relative to my early twenties. You see, back then I did crazy stuff. Like free climbing the Whitestone Bridge. Yeah, watched the sunrise light up NYC. Dangling my feet off the tower. Or racing superbikes, through Chicago, on hot summer nights. And once you rip it up on a rice rocket, well, sports cars are, quite frankly, pretty boring. Relatively speaking. Now I drive Jeeps. They’re kind of

“Shale gas will revolutionize North American manufacturing, we’re seeing the start of a big wave, a trend,” he told me. And he knows. He’s leading it. Yes, Bruce Aitken, CEO of Methanex, is Earth’s biggest Methanol producer. Which you make from Natural Gas, then use for all kinds of things. He’s got plants around the globe, but not in America. “Twenty years ago, the US Gulf produced 8mm tons/year, which collapsed to

Never thought I’d see one. Mankind’s rarest creature. Humanity’s unicorn. He won independence, from Britain, in 1965. Ruled till 1990. Remained in Gov’t thru 2011. The world’s longest serving Minister. As a young leader, Lee Kuan Yew engineered a plan. To transform his small, crowded, impoverished, resource-poor peninsula into a roaring Tiger. A sparkling Asian jewel. He inherited Britain’s blessed Rule of Law, but f

A ball player. Not half bad. Promising. But it’s early innings. He’s 15. Smart, dumb too. In equal measure, like me, and you. Knows how to swing at a pitch. But truth is, so many are thrown his way, he lets plenty pass. The latest is a fastball. Right down the middle. An invitation. To adventure, in Vietnam. Anyhow, I watched the young batter. At the plate. Time slowed. I imagined him exploring Hanoi’s slums. Surroun

The endgame seemed dreadful. Most guys would agree. So I’d done what I could to dodge destiny. But in the end, each action I took sparked unacceptable side effects, unintended consequences. Every path proved a dead-end. And you see, men through the ages (and especially these days), trapped within such a maze, do one of two things: start wars, or kick the can down the road. Of course, wars are dumb, and while they giv