“Can’t wait for football season to end,” said Jackson, my oldest. Seemed odd, so I waited, quiet. “Literally can’t wait for lacrosse season.” He’s fourteen, Greenwich High. Now, my freshman year was an utter disaster. I’d moved from NYC to the suburbs, having only ever played dodgeball. So I cycled through every conceivable sport, in search of one I sucked at less than all others. Which resulted in an even tie: footb

Hope all goes well… “They can do anything these days,” said Charlie, seven. “Can they take your eyeballs out and replace them with robot eyes that see a million times better?” asked Teddy, eleven, hopeful. “They can turn a boy into a girl,” said Olivia, thirteen. “But they haven’t figured out how to turn a girl into a boy yet,” countered Teddy. “I have two transgender kids in my class, they’re brother and sister,” sa

“African countries have gone through three distinct phases,” explained the public servant. “The first was romantic socialism.” Africa shed its colonial rulers between 1956-1964; Kenya, Ghana, Namibia, Malawi, almost every country. “Independence leaders were generally honest. They felt the land and minerals were resources that should be shared, and believed a strong state was necessary to ensure this.” These countries

Overall: “Tell me, what is happening to America?” he asked, in Johannesburg, our presidential debate broadcast into the highest towers and lowest townships. “Can it be possible that Trump becomes your president?” he asked, perplexed, concerned. For South Africans, US leadership is not reality television, it’s reality. Globalization is America’s greatest export, weaving us all together, and for those on the economic e

Hope all goes well… “You’re an American so you’ve read Atlas Shrugged,” said the investor. We sat looking out across Johannesburg, fragrant, hazy. “When you read that book you can’t imagine such things could really occur,” he continued. “You think they’re exaggerated stories, told to make a point. But when I pick up the papers and read today’s stories, they’re taken straight from Atlas Shrugged.” Mo

“The next recession is going to be very gentle,” said my favorite strategist. “The excesses in this cycle are just not that big, or they’ve already corrected.” Industrials and resources have been cleaned out. Housing is fine, except for inconsequential bubbles in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden. And banks are too boring to blow up. “The gorilla in the room is obviously China, because a hard landing there w

Overall: “If I could, I would rewind time by many, many years, so that I could better prepare,” announced Merkel. “Wir schaffen das (we can do it) has become a simple slogan, almost an empty formula that underestimated the scale of the integration challenge,” admitted Angela, her mea culpa lifting the burden of denial, liberating her to act, to lead Europe once again. Her party had just lost its 4th regional election

Hope all goes well… “I’m a clever money maker, always have been,” said the CIO. “My father taught me well,” he continued. “And if you forced me to put my own money to work, there’d be only a few things to do.” Small idiosyncratic opportunities. “You couldn’t pay me to give my money to an equity manger.” Nor a credit manager. “No single sector gets me excited. There’s no major asset class that I would invest in.” And

“I’m sorry for your losses of lizards,” read the handwritten note, in red crayon. “I hope they had a good life,” continued the condolence from our neighbor’s daughter. We’d bought a bearded dragon for Teddy. And that first night, he fed it fireflies. Which we instantly discovered are reptile Kryptonite. And having poisoned the poor little lizard before he’d even been named, we raced back to the store. To double down.

Hope all goes well… “You must fade any meaningful rise in real interest rates,” said the CIO. “While dodging those moments when either politics or philosophy interrupt this trend.” German politicians punished the PIIGS for being profligate. But when soaring real rates threatened the union, they agreed to do whatever it takes. The Fed is hiking to provide room to cut, it’s a bizarre, flawed philosophical construct. “I