Hope all goes well. “I don’t want us to delude ourselves,” he answered. “I’m old enough now to know how this is going to ultimately play out,” continued the philosopher. And I laughed, ’cause I’d asked about markets and he’d answered about life. “But in a world of activist central banks, every day’s a new adventure,” said the top performing CIO for many yrs running. “And today, it’s not that important to have a view,

Look! Up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Bertrand Piccard. Superman. He lifted off from Silicon Valley. Circled over San Fran, symbolically bound for DC. Wide-eyed children looked up, inspired, as his magnificent Solar Impulse flew overhead, silently. You see, it’s fueled by Man’s most powerful energy source: Imagination. And runs on Earth’s most abundant fuel: Solar Energy. The delicate plane’s a Swiss c

Swung by the Dakota, back in 1988, to visit a buddy. Met his doorman. A wounded man, gentle, sad, tragic. You see, one afternoon in 1980 a fan approached, asked when Lennon would return. The doorman dropped a hint. Then watched the guy cross 72nd street, to wait quietly, patiently. John arrived, the fella drew a gun, and did the unimaginable, shooting Lennon dead. Anyhow, I often visit the spot, considering gunshots

Wow man, it’s hard to know what to think. Don’t ya think? Syria’s pencil-necked dictator’s blasting women and children with chemicals. So say Israeli’s. Hagel says so too. And Assad sent the NY Times pictures of bearded Al Qaeda rebels, warning American’s to be careful what we wish for. Naturally, I just wish we’d all shave and make up. I also wish we weren’t so easily manipulated. But alas, we’re human. Anyhow, Merk

“Can you believe how universally despised this guy is?” asked the CIO, not waiting for a reply. “CNBC, Republicans, Democrats, economists, strategists, nearly everyone hates him,” he continued. “His biggest supporters are at best ambivalent, and it goes down from there.” You see, we were discussing central bankers. “Maybe ten people in the world understand central banking, and by the way, most of them are not running

Hope all goes well. “Can I tell you my fantasy?” he asked, over his fifth gin and tonic. And with five empty glasses before me, I nodded, preferring simple gestures to sloppy slurs. You see, we’d been exchanging war stories. And he, being one of North America’s biggest investors, has fought for decades. Winning more often than not, but always enduring the kind of stress few fellas can bear. “I wanna tattoo ‘John Thom

Strutted down Avenue of the America’s. Like John Travolta. Humming with puzzles, riddles, inspirations. You see, I’d been moving and shaking. With my boys. NY Titans. Devising solutions to finance’s biggest problems: overspending, entitlements. Relax bro, we cracked the code, got it covered. My phone shook. “We got a bunny Daddy! Mommy said you’d just love it!” shrieked Olivia. “Hershey’s so cute, she loo

“Rodrigo Sanchez, Ashley Ramirez, Destiny Suarez…” announced our elementary school Principal. You see 35 Latino students graduated from ESL (English as 2nd language) classes. The proud 8yr olds climbed the stage. Their working-poor parents beamed golden smiles. Another step on their thousand-mile march to the American dream. My son Teddy took the stage too. A mathematics award. But in Boston, an 8yr old child lay sti

Hope all goes well. “What makes this both iconic and ironic?” he asked, sliding me a gold coin. So I picked it up. Excited. I love riddles. Puzzles. “Well, there’s a Buffalo on one side, an Indian on the other.” He smiled. “They’re American icons, driven to near extinction by the Gov’t that minted them.” His grin widened. So I pocketed $1,395 of gold. And upon further reflection, chuckled. ’Cause we were both wrong.

Hope all goes well. “Notice something?” whispered Mara, as the sun slowly rose, lighting our room. “Yeah,” I replied, my first word of the day, in a tone at once happy, sad and nostalgic. “He’s not here.” You see for years now, like clock work, Osama bin Charlie, our youngest little terrorist, infiltrated our bed in a ritual pre-dawn raid. We’d hear his little feet patter down the hall. But he’s growing up. Nearly 4