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
Hope all goes well. 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/Mi
Stormed through NY. The headwind we once faced has shifted; felt a breeze at my back. I’m real grateful. Met many old friends, new ones too. Consensus across my 20 meetings? Mkts are pricing bad economic/political news and they’re gonna get it (for a long time), but banking systems ain’t gonna freeze-up like’08-’09, ’cause central banks got good playbooks, but Obanke is running outta ammo, oh yeah, Europe’s a t
Hope all goes well. Stormed through NY. The headwind we once faced has shifted; felt a breeze at my back. I’m real grateful. Met many old friends, new ones too. Consensus across my 20 meetings? Mkts are pricing bad economic/political news and they’re gonna get it (for a long time), but banking systems ain’t gonna freeze-up like’08-’09, ’cause central banks got good playbooks, but Obanke is running outta ammo, o