“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

He flew West to East. To save fuel. Growing up poor does that. Reflected back on his 6yr re-education, confined to a rural village, paying for father’s revolutionary crimes. And on his subsequent rise up Party ranks. Yeah, Xi Jingping reflected on the steep price his nation paid for its revolution. Anyhow, he landed first in California, checked his shipping-port infrastructure investments. Threw Hollywood a bone, dou

Hope all goes well. China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines. Inhale… India, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Hong Kong. Yeah, bizarre. I thought the same as you. No one in Asia talks about Greece? Or Portugal? Not even Spain? Don’t they care that French banks are broke? Iran threatens Hormuz? Assad’s flattening Homs? Nope, they don’t. So I just shut up. Listened. And dedicated w/e notes to just that. Overa

Hope all goes well. President’s Day. And I’m off and away. To Singapore. China too. They got lots of people there. Ida has me meeting nearly every one. You see she knows me too well. I’ve never liked taking orders. Rules give me rashes. So she’s saved me from myself. From piercing the Great Firewall. Freeing Tibet. Taking Tiananmen. Left me with no time for meddling. Mischief. Misconduct. But guess what? I snuck Bazo

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

Take 64 Kilograms. No more, no less. Divide it in two. Load each half into opposite ends of a six foot pipe. Then smash ’em together, real hard. Wait 1 millisecond. Kaboom! A magical mushroom. And ever since Little Boy swallowed Uranium 235, back in ’45, big boys have looked at the world with fresh eyes. Yeah, nations either have, or have not. Critical mass that is. It’s all that matters you see, ’cause everyone has

Glued to the tube. In celebration. Go NY Giants! Naturally, I’m a fair weather fan. Love my Yankees too, yeah, just so long as they win the World Series. Spend a career buying/selling, longing/shorting, loving/hating the same mkts, over and over, in equal measure, and well, you lose the taste for loyalty. Anyhow, what a game! The Patriots never stood a chance. Of course, patriots rarely do. But they put up a good fig

Hope all goes well. Glued to the tube. In celebration. Go NY Giants! Naturally, I’m a fair weather fan. Love my Yankees too, yeah, just so long as they win the World Series. Spend a career buying/selling, longing/shorting, loving/hating the same mkts, over and over, in equal measure, and well, you lose the taste for loyalty. Anyhow, what a game! The Patriots never stood a chance. Of course, patriots rarely do. But th

Hey, you see the clip? NASA blasted a satellite. To The Dark Side of the Moon. So I fired up Pink Floyd. Cranked to 11. Of course, that album sounds far better now than in ’73. Digitized. Streamed. Wireless. Yeah, Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way, and OMFG, technology just races away. It’s Man’s only possible salvation – our way out of this mess, onto a bigger one, and so on, forever. But Roger Wat