Brazil’s Fin Min Mantega started the wk by stating the obvious, warning of an emerging “currency war” on Mon. Geithner ended the wk, embarrassing himself on Fri, saying he wasn’t sure what a currency war is, but at any rate “we’re not going to have one”. Ever eager to teach bumbling Treasury Secretaries valuable lessons, Mr Market pressed the USD lower vs everything. Gold hit an all-time high, oil broke $80 and coppe

Hope all goes well. Just finished an insane 2 wk tour of NY/Switz, met great folks and had fun but there’s no place like home. The Swiss are more concerned about the world than New Yorker’s, but their economy’s humming and FoF industry stabilizing. Overall: Brazil’s Fin Min Mantega started the wk by stating the obvious, warning of an emerging “currency war” on Mon. Geithner ended the wk, embarrassing himself on Fri,

Switzerland’s the most magnificent country on Earth; it’s a fact. You know, I spent my 30th yr in the mountains high above Geneva, lived alone in a hut — quite literally. I did nothing but climb, and bagged a good many peaks. Left my childhood behind and discovered myself that yr. That’s why we climb mountains, to discover ourselves. Somewhere within the responsibility and vulnerability of being tied to another

I like all kinds of people, rich and poor. But poor people sadly don’t have much money. And of course plenty of rich people are poor in other ways and vice versa, but I’m talking about paper here. So I spend most of my time with rich ones — call it an occupational hazard. They tend to be more interesting but don’t laugh as hard, still though, we have lots of fun. So a buddy invited me to a conference. He was ke

Hope all goes well. No place buzzes like money-making Manhattan, I got pretty high. Things are picking up, you can feel it; maybe not in the real economy, but certainly in the paper economy. Met lots of bears with bulging eyeballs, squeezing does that. Guys don’t seem long yet. Overall: The mkt jumped and dollar dumped Mon in anticipation of Bernanke restarting his printing press. Free money is such a powerful halluc

The mkt jumped and dollar dumped Mon in anticipation of Bernanke restarting his printing press. Free money is such a powerful hallucinogen that you see all kinds of funny things. The PIIGS had good bond auctions, despite CDS in Ireland jumping to record highs (476bps). But more surreal was Petrobas’s $70bln share issue, 3.7x the biggest IPO ever, 10 days before presidential elections. Elsewhere, some lousy news conti

Hope all goes well. Great wk; saw my family, made some money, added some risk. Looked for clever option structures to be short the US dollar. Found a bunch. Lucked out and took some Euro/Yen shorts off before the Bank of Japan intervention. Off to NY next wk and then Switzerland the wk after; thank god we manage risk better than my schedule. Overall: StrongChinese data printed, IMF judges said they’ve stuck a “soft l

StrongChinese data printed, IMF judges said they’ve stuck a “soft landing”. New Basel III rules gave banks 8yrs to issue new equity capital, hilarious & predictable. EU & US data wasn’t great, no surprise there. But elsewhere, oh my, Erdogan won his referendum, Turkish stocks hit record high; Lira jumped. India hiked 50bps on robust growth/inflation; Rupee surged. Japan’s Kan survived leadership challenge, vo

Bumped into one of the big boys at a top 3 US bank. He’s a buddy so I came clean. Told him my story: You see, when your bank got the big bailout my capitalist conscience cried, “Eric, move your accounts from this wounded lamb and give it to a wolf.” But that’s a real hassle and I’m kinda busy, and of course you had that gov’t guarantee; I did nothing. Then without warning you cut my home-equity line of credit from $5

What a silly wk, hot air and garbage everywhere. WSJ announced the stress tests were unreliable (my kiddies knew that), and FT announced German banks need $135bln to meet rule changes (of course the rules won’t change for yrs). But the beach boys, hungover and tan, saw the tape on Tues and sold, sold, sold. Anglo Irish split into a good/bad bank, said, “the final cost won’t bankrupt Ireland”; so now we know the odds