Larry is one of the great American’s. Born a bastard, given up for adoption, he was raised by a Russian Jew who took the surname Ellison in honor of Ellis Island, our welcome mat. Little Larry grew up poor in Chicago, wrote some damn good code, stayed a step ahead of the pack, and now at age 65, the Oracle has a $28bln treasure pile. Never finished college. Made in America. Couldn’t have happened anywhere else. Anyho

Hope all goes well. Consensus is swinging toward low interest rates, low inflation, and grinding rally in risk assets. Been banking some profit into that move. Doesn’t feel like it’s over, just rather be prudent and find new structures with better risk/reward. No shortage of opportunities these days. Truth be told, there never is. Overall: Strategists crunched stress test results, wrote painfully boring Monday missiv

Risk assets had great week. 149 of the S&P 500 companies have reported; 85% beat earnings est, ~70% beat sales est. The EU Stress Test was anything but. Hu says they’ll stimulate consumption in H2, sparking chatter that China’s nearly finished tightening. Brazil hiked rates by less than expected, cpi eased, fueling talk they too are nearly finished. Bernanke caused a hiccup on Wed by not sounding dovish at HH the

An old buddy owns stakes in the top clubs in NY & Vegas. Works his tail off. He’s an astro-chemist. Finds the perfect combination of rap stars, sport stars, porn stars, movie stars and Ford models then BANG, the young Sheiks, Trustafarians and 2/20 crowd (those of us without 4 kids) pull out their Amex Black. Bono, Gaga and Jeter don’t carry wallets; someone’s gotta foot the bill. The A-list loves him, so he sees

Hope all goes well. Sat back and watched for most of the wk, then took some chips off on Fri at profit targets. Sometimes its best to just sit on your hands. Feels like this move isn’t over and guys are still off-sides, but markets remain fragile and there are plenty of X-factors lurking. Overall: Risk assets had great week. 149 of the S&P 500 companies have reported; 85% beat earnings est, ~70% beat sales est. T

23 S&P 500 companies reported this wk. All but 3 beat earnings estimates, and revenue/share grew by 2.6%. The earnings fuelled a risk rally and renewed talk of enduring recovery. As BP plugged their leak on Thurs, weak-handed equity shorts were seen plugging theirs. Spain had a solid 15yr auction, spreads tightened to 446bps. Goldman settled with the Feds. Stocks rejoiced and printed highs Thurs (+7.2% from the J

Spent the wk touring monuments. The ones in NY get built by boys who make money. The ones in DC by boys who spend it. The former is gritty, dirty and electric, just like the business that foots the bill. NY monuments make money, just take a deep breath at Rockafeller, you can smell it. I love it. I’m biased, I know, it’s my hometown. Anyhow, went for a sunrise jog in DC. Empty streets, that city sleeps. Circled Georg

Hope all goes well. Had a great wk in NY & DC. Saw 22 investors and politicos. Closed a deal with a lotta zeros. He’d been watching us since birth, ignored our adolescence, thinks we’re grown up now. Navigated markets well. Friday’s decline was a shocker, traders are dizzier than Iranian yellow-cake. Overall: 23 S&P 500 companies reported this wk. All but 3 beat earnings estimates, and revenue/share grew by 2

I know 3 brothers. Boomers. Went to great schools, got great jobs, raised great families. Mid-to-late sixties now. One loved to ski and moved north, another loved golf moved south, the 3rd loved big living and small bills, moved to Mexico. El Guapo lived off real estate deals, now he’s as broke as the unfinished resorts he peddled to gringos. Vermont planned well, just put the big house of bricks up for sale, time to

Major brain damage this wk. UBS cut yr-end call for S&P 500 from 1,350 to 1,150, Barton Biggs sold his tech shares, JP Morgan called for declines in EM stocks, Investors Intelligence hit highest bearish sentiment since Jul ’09, and stocks dutifully surged. EM stocks had best wk in 7mths as China said they’d keep policy moderately loose and Korea hiked rates for 1st time in a show of confidence. European CDS sprea