Bleep… Bleep… Bleep… Technicians tracked the secret course. It landed softly, quietly, at an undisclosed location, on Kazakhstan’s desolate steppes. Military trucks raced to the snowy scene. Gently lifted the brave crew from the craft; two Russians, one American. They’d returned after 166 isolated days of working together, in mankind’s noble symbol of cooperation, exploration, progress; the International Space Statio

“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

Hope all goes well… “This is my favorite quote daddy,” announced Teddy, my 8yr old, completing a collage for his school, Roosevelt Elementary. “You do know I named you after Teddy Roosevelt,” I said, “He’s one of my favorite people in all of history, probably America’s greatest president.” And my little guy, full of chutzpah, an extraordinary zest for life, smiled broadly, proudly. Then Teddy read the quote, laughing

Hope all goes well… Eric’s been removed from power. The People’s Republic of Peters is now under our absolute control. His hollow “Be home soon” promise grew wearisome. His “Let them eat cake” refrain was pathetic, outdated, doomed. The “Unless we kill it at work, there will be no allowance, no food on the table” claim was shameless propaganda, a barefaced lie, perpetuated to serve no one other than himself. He fled

Week-in-Review: Mon: China Feb PMI 50.2 (HSBC PMI 48.5 – 7mth low), NK launches 2 rockets into sea, Russian stocks -10% (CBR hikes 150bps to 7%), US Jan personal income +0.3% (+3.6% yoy), personal spending +0.4% (+3.5% yoy), PCE prices +1.2% yoy (core +1.1%), Feb ISM manu +1.9 to 53.2, Jan construction spending +0.1% (+9.3% yoy, 22% below 2006 highs), Feb vehicle sales +0.7% (+15.5% yoy), S&P -0.7%; Tue: PBOC Zho

Hope all goes well… Where’d we be without communists? Or online newspapers? Particularly ones controlled by xenophobic saber-rattling politicians. And how boring would life be without war criminals? Or video games? Especially free ones. So Beijing’s People’s Daily developed a free online video game; “Kill the Devils.” Target any one of Japan’s 14 Class-A WWII war criminals, who scurry around the screen. While million

“Hello, my name is Xi,” started Jinping. And the room replied in harmony, “Hello Xi.” He went first, because having the largest population, Xi naturally has the biggest problems. “And my greatest challenge is pollution in Beijing,” admitted China’s President, coughing, cornered. For the only thing more dangerous than too much Mandarin pollution, is not enough; heaven forbid Chinese smokestacks slow, the smog clears.

“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

Hope all goes well… “Nothing’s cheap, nothing’s distressed, real estate is way too expensive throughout Asia ex-Japan,” said the CIO of one of America’s great family offices. He would know; been investing there for yrs. “They don’t want us making money over there anyway,” he continued, speaking of China’s elite. “So I pay the brightest Asian mgrs 2/20 to fight for returns and get to see those mkts through their eyes.