“You are goddamn good looking man,” he grunted, nearly nicking his nipple. And wiping his shaven chest clean, the desperate little dictator winked at his greatest fan. “Is fitting, no?” he continued, speaking to the mirror, admiring his crooked smile, his unpredictable, icy eyes. “It is I who am #1, yes, it is I who turn weak hand strong; in end, it is always I.” Indeed, Forbes crowned him mankind’s most powerful man

“I want to puke,” he said, beginning our conversation as he begins everything in life; flat out. “I’m just as nervous that this thing turns on me as I am that it keeps running,” continued the CIO. “That’s my cultural curse; never happy, always miserable,” he admitted, laughing, in a tone that perfectly blended one part Woody Allen, one part Arnold Schwarzenegger. Which is the unique balance of self-doubt and supreme-

Hope all goes well… “We’re not particularly smart, but we’re smart enough to know,” started one of the most intelligent investors in my circle. “It’s been easy to make money for years,” he continued, out-performing stocks yet again. “As others who lag the S&P try to catch up, they take concentrated bets in the same names.” That dynamic’s unstable, look no further than the recent event-driven debacle. “There’s a n

Nothing changes. Everything changes. And that never changes. “October 26th was another historic day for Afghanistan in which the British invaders officially accepted the military defeat of their fourth invasion,” announced the Taliban. As British soldiers ended combat operations for the fourth time in 200yrs. And American warriors wound down the longest war in our 240yr history, returning to prosperity’s heaven

Hope all goes well… “I sat beneath a 100 foot pine,” said the grey-haired legend. “Looking up at peaks,” he continued, pressing his hands to a prayer. Then holding finger-tips together, widened his palms, to form the shape of a mountain. “They pointed to something higher, heaven, the stars.” He paused, holding the position, as we sat in silence, considering our own mountains. “I knew then, somehow, I knew that I woul

“The kiddies would like to know what the excitement at your firm is all about,” said Mara, over waffle breakfast. And not one to pretend to have pursued a noble career path, I gave it my honest best. “Well, there’s this country called Japan,” I started. “It’s kinda like an island, but not exactly, right?” interrupted one of my little Einstein’s. “Yeah, it’s an island – anyhow, Japan’s filled with really old people th

“It raises fascinating ethical issues,” said the scientist, and just hearing his voice, I relaxed. You see, he’s the smartest person I know. And having survived a near-certain death sentence back at university, he’s devoted his life to helping others do the same. “Does the treatment of one justify the risk to others?” he asked. “In Africa now, they don’t perform CPR on victims, the benefit is so low, the threat to he

Hope all goes well… “A million thousand infinities all connected,” said Charlie, returning his thumb to gob for effect. It had started like these things do. “To the moon,” he’d said. I replied, “To the moon and back.” Inflationary illusions. Next came the sun, stars. Distant galaxies. Infinity and beyond. But all hyperinflations end abruptly. And keen to teach my kids economic principles so they’ll study subjects of

They lay moribund. Eyes rolled back. Puking. Spewing. Surrounded by doctors, hermetically sealed in hazmat, with more degrees than sense. Outside the bio-containment unit, media monkeys went bananas. Shrieking deflation, depression, destruction. Yet the plague spread unchecked. New Zealand released inflation numbers. Despite 3.7% GDP growth, record immigration, a housing boom, post-quake reconstruction bonanza, and 9

“Is this one for real?” asked Jackson. And of course it isn’t. It couldn’t possibly be. You see, he’d asked for a bedtime story, having graduated from ones I tell the younger three; fantasy interwoven with myth, legend. So I told him about Syria and Iraq. Where a barbaric army magically appeared, in old Toyota pick-ups, to conquer an area the size of Britain. Imposing medieval laws. Enslaving apostates. Beheading the