Hope all goes well… “Japanese stocks are down 25% from last year’s peak,” said Yoda, high in the Rockies. “If our market fell 25% we’d be jumping out of buses – which is what we’d be riding.” Gulfstream G6s blinked overhead, filling the skies, Aspen fire flies. “Savers have been forced into so many risky investments,” he said, a warm mountain breeze appeared from nowhere, then vanished. “And now the S&P 500

Hope all goes well… “Gambling websites say Brexit’s a 3-1 bet against,” said the CIO. “And if you polled every one of us who wager for a living, I reckon 90% would say the Brits Bremain.” I mooed in agreement, nose nestled in tail, huddled in the herd. He mooed back. “But the polls are 50/50, margin-of-error kind of stuff, and they were pretty good in the Scottish referendum, the London mayoral vote too.” Brexit woul

Overall: “The man who has no imagination has no wings,” said Muhammad Ali, floating away, like a butterfly, his words carried by the wind. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it,” said Ali. Europe slumbered, greatness slipping its grasp, its lofty ambition – the power of union – n

“We’re trapped in an unstable equilibrium,” said Simplicity. “The Fed gets hawkish, the dollar rallies, stocks fall, the Fed gets dovish, the dollar falls, stocks rally, and the Fed gets hawkish,” he continued, dizzy, walking Occam’s razor edge. “This year’s money will be made when the cycle breaks.” A stubbornly hawkish Fed could break the cycle, raising rates in a determined fashion, enduring a dollar rally, weaker

Overall: “Negative interest rates have the effect of monetary tightening,” whispered Takehiro Sato, to his eight fellow board members seated in deep meditation, at the Bank of Japan. And as the paradoxical elegance of this Zen koan washed across their unsettled consciousness, he smiled, serene, a pristine mountain pool. “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” continued Sato, the dissident central banker, trying to

Hope all goes well… “Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!” he cried, atop a prodigious pile of private equity. “You hear that cry at the highs of every cycle, when the feeding frenzy gives guys like me the chance to sell our overleveraged deals, our walking dead,” he continued, dizzy from so many turns. And on alert for such a sign, he paused, hearing distant cries, moans, groans. But with the US non-farm payrol

“Someone once asked, ‘Are there any deals that got away from you that you wished you’d done?’” said the private equity managing partner. “Truth is, I wish I’d done every single deal that has crossed my desk over the course of my entire career,” he said, laughing, running his fingers through a greying mane. “It’s that simple. I would have lost money on plenty, but I’d have made so much more on the winners.” Would his

Week-in-Review: Mon: G7 meeting produces no firm actions (Aso/Lew disagree on disorderly Yen moves), Japan manu PMI 47.6, Japan trade surplus 6yr high (exports -10.1%, imports -23.3%), Australia revises inflation forecasts lower, Afghanistan Taliban leader killed by drone, Russia unemp 5.9% (retail sales 6.4%, real wages -1.7%), EU PMI -0.1 to 52.9 (service 53.1, manu 52.4), Greece approves necessary legislation to r

Hope all goes well… “Tough day little man?” I asked Charlie, kicking off family dinner. He looked at me, puzzled. “Your hair’s turned grey, seems premature, you’re six.” The table erupted. Jackson, Olivia, unable to contain their laughter. Teddy pounded the table, howling. Mara and I looked at one another, confused. And there sat Charlie, quiet, a sly smile. “Ok Teddy, so what happened today?” Tears rolled, sno

Overall: “It’s an apocalypse!” cried Italian Minister Lorenzin. “If we fail to reverse the trend, in 10 years there will be fewer than 350,000 births annually, 40 percent less than in 2010,” she continued, desperate. “Since 2011 we’ve lost 66,000 births per year, the equivalent of a city the size of Sienna.” Now, let’s be honest, ever since Romulus killed Remus, the average Roman male hasn’t discovered a problem he c