This should be easy. Honestly. We’ve seen it all before. Even us traders can remember. Bank of America revisited Mar ’09 levels. Of course, it’s still too leveraged, mismanaged, long housing – hell – it probably got greased too. Buffett’s getting buried, acting unconcerned. Morgan Stanley 1yr CDS hit 800bps, clients rush for exits. High-yield credit’s tanked. Yeah, same story, different yr. Of course, Geithner

Hope all goes well. Yeah, it happened. Snuck up on me. Always does. Autumn. Just seemed oddly darker one morning. The air changed too. Tasted different. Of course, next come pumpkins, followed by turkeys. Dradles. Then Santa. Good little boys get coal this year, naughty ones get orphaned. Yeah the Street’ll be snowing pink slips, it’s Occupied too. So what’s a scared little market-maker to do? Boo! Oooh. Yeah, they’r

“Three days of your life,” said Perry, thanking me for leaving Mara and our four kids to join his Mississippi clan. Opening the memorial was Minister Hong – a North Korean political refugee – so happy to escape communist repression he doesn’t realize no one understands a damn word he says. But no matter. Carl Parker had five kids, and his only daughter married a minister, who took the pulpit, led the beau

Hope all goes well. Jetted off to Mississippi. A proud farming town. Entered a home. One of my partners stood tall, surrounded by his clan. Their patriarch lay flat, at peace. Walked down the line, paying respect. Got to Perry. Hugged. Lost my words, he did too. And our eyes couldn’t quite meet, or things woulda gotten real wet. Been a rainy mth. Glad to flip the calendar. I turn 45 Tues. Yeah, thanks bro. Gettin’ ol

Leaders from rich countries flew private. Corrupt ones from impoverished nations did too. The rest stumbled outta 1st Class. Commodity exporters swaggered through customs, high on coking coal, copper, crops, cash. A couple Greeks did the perp walk, shamed, invisibly shackled. No doubt, each annual IMF meeting’s different. Last year’s hero is often today’s zero, and vice versa – as national fortunes (ego’s too)

“Ben wake up, c’mon honey, it’s me, Anna, you’re having another nightmare.” Poor little fella, they’re real scary. Recurring too. You see, despite his countless bailouts, blanket guarantees, swap line funding, QE programs, and operation twist – the economy still sucks. And it ain’t just here. Look around. Chinese manufacturing shrank 3mths running, and mighty Germany’s retail sales fell – so just imagine

Hope all goes well. Got things real wrong. Feels good to get it out in the open. No joke. Light is nature’s great disinfectant. Started Sept with a big bet: the Euro would fall versus Emerging Market FX. Check out a chart of Brazil’s Real (fell over 20% in Sept). OMFG. Anyhow, trading markets for over 20yrs conditions you to flee fast (and structure well). ’Cause if you live to fight another day, well, sooner or late

Teddy and I built a castle, made of sand. He positioned it just above the water line. We are all drawn to risky endeavors. We taunt Mother Nature, tempt fate – always have, always will. Yet before I knew it, his plan changed, they usually do. Teddy transformed the castle into a throne. There he sat, perched high, proud, defiant, smug, as the first waves gently swept in. We contained the damage, made repairs. But befo

Duck dude. The sky’s falling. Seriously. Today or tomorrow. And of course, it’s all our fault. Remember the 6 ton satellite we launched in ’91 during that nasty recession? Yeah, me neither. But time and gravity conquer all of Man’s creations – and it’s time. NASA always knew it’d end this way: a 500 mile long string of molten shrapnel sweeping Earth’s surface. With any luck, it’ll hit some Pakistani tribal area. Thou

It was one of those wks. Raining. Pooring. At home. At work. Yeah, that’s Life. What happened? Well, for many mths the 2/20 crowd’s been streaming through theatre turnstiles in Rio, Tijuana, Jakarta, Moscow, Mumbai, you name it – they just love foreign action films (we do too). Anyhow, some prankster musta yelled, “Fire!” Or even worse, “Grease Fire!” And all hell broke loose. The Mayfair/Mid-Town crowd rushed