Week-in-Review: Mon: China service PMI 54.1 (first acceleration since March), Japan service PMI 50.6 (prev 52.1), Aussie retail sales weak, Iran’s Rohani pledges moderation, EU composite PMI 50.5 (first >50 since Jan 2012), EU retail sales -0.9% yoy, UK service PMI surges 60.2, US extends embassy closing over terrorist threat, US service ISM 56.0 (Feb highs), bank lending standards ease, S&P -0.1%; Tue: 

Hope all goes well. Dusted off an Anecdote from my year at altitude, in the Alps. 1998. See below. Be back in Sept with full wknd notes. All the best, Eric Week-in-Review: Mon: China service PMI 54.1 (first acceleration since March), Japan service PMI 50.6 (prev 52.1), Aussie retail sales weak, Iran’s Rohani pledges moderation, EU composite PMI 50.5 (first >50 since Jan 2012), EU retail sales -0.9% yoy, UK s

Hope all goes well. Taking August off from writing. But figured, with over 4yrs of archived Anecdotes, it’d be fun to dust off a few favorites. Blasts from the past. You’ll find this week’s flashback down below. Best regards, Eric Week-in-Review: Mon: China to audit gov’t debt levels, China June industrial profits +6.3% yoy (May +15.5%), Japan retail sales -0.2% (+0.8% exp), Der Spiegel says German banks face new wri

Week-in-Review: Mon: China to audit gov’t debt levels, China June industrial profits +6.3% yoy (May +15.5%), Japan retail sales -0.2% (+0.8% exp), Der Spiegel says German banks face new write-offs, US pending hm sales -0.4% (+9.1% yoy), Dallas fed survey soft, S&P -0.3%; Tue: PBOC repo cash injection (1st in 5mths), Japan June IP -4.8% yoy, RBA Stevens very dovish (bldg. approvals plunge), German consumer conf ju

Hope all goes well. “You Passed,” read the email. No intro, no signature. Just those two beautiful words. My heart skipped a beat. Excited, humbled. You see, 6mths ago our team embarked on a mission. To deliver innovation to our industry. To help our most prestigious institutions solve three simple, interconnected problems: volatility’s too low, fees are too high, returns are too low. So with those two beautiful word

“I’m okay Dad,” answered Jackson, on my return from London. His eyes said otherwise. So I dropped my bags, went for a walk. To talk. “I lost the game, let everyone down,” explained my oldest, eyes downcast. You see, his Lacrosse team had tied the finals. So the referees called for a “Braveheart” tiebreaker. Which means each team fields two players; a goalie and center mid-fielder. The two middies face-off. Then fight

What a f’in train wreck. And like all tragedies, soon after you bury the broken bodies, bloodhounds first unearth incompetence. Then corruption. Kickbacks. Capital misallocation. It shouldn’t take long to pick up a scent. Spain has Earth’s second longest high-speed network; behind China. They got more lines under construction than all of Europe combined. Of course they also have the world’s lowest ratio of passengers

Hope all goes well. “Got four kids, I’m busy mate,” answered the London cabbie, at sunrise. “Me youngest is a little terror I tell you,” he continued. “Screams somethin’ awful, so I get him ’fore he wakes the others, else I’m in a right mess.” Osama bin… “And me crazy missus keeps chickens, at five this morning one lit up proper, cluckin’ away like she laid a golden f’in egg, wanted the whole neighborhood to kn

Premier Li made a promise. To offer markets “stable predictability.” Naturally, China’s dictators love stability. Predictability. After all, they’re human. And want what they can’t have. Anyhow, housing prices rose in 69 of 70 Chinese cities, threatening social stability. No surprise. You see, there aren’t enough women in China. And the best way to attract one is to have a couple condo keys bulging in your blue jeans

“My next generation of portfolio managers are our future, and they’re brilliant,” boasted the CIO, atop his prodigious pile. “But they still strive for complete information.” Which is investing’s greatest trap. Because complete information is investment opportunity’s inverse. His outsized returns this year can be traced back to a flash of insight late last year. You see, he’d sensed the policy shift in Japan was seis