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Hope all goes well… “You read my email?” I asked Jackson, Thanksgiving morning, the air around him electric. “Yeah, it was weird,” he said, smiling. I’d sent him an anecdote I wrote five years ago (see below), when he was eleven. It captured a conversation I’d hoped would weave its way into his fabric, and figured it was worth repeating as he mentally prepared for man-to-man coverage of Connecticut’s leading wide rec

Hope all goes well… “Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic,” said Stan Lee, artistic genius, RIP. “It’s a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon,” continued the father of Spider Man,

Hope all goes well… “Congratulations to President Trump for the seats taken in the Senate and confirmation in crucial states, against everything and everyone: lefty journalists, actors and singers, directors and pseudo-intellectuals. #godonaldgo,” tweeted Matteo Salvini, Italian Deputy Prime Minister, proximal leader of Europe’s anti-establishment upheaval. Overall: “You can always count on the Americans to do the ri

Hope all goes well… The latest odds of the Democrats taking the House are 86%. The odds of the Republicans holding the Senate are 83%. But so many races are within the statistical margin for polling error. And even if you knew the outcome, would you know the right trade? A Republican sweep is supposedly good for markets, a Blue Wave is bad. And yet, we’re at that stage in the cycle where strong growth looks to be bea

Hope all goes well… “Hey, where the hell’s my pipe bomb?” muttered Nancy Pelosi, irate, shaken. “And where’s mine?” cried Chuck Schumer. “What’s so special about Cory Booker and Kamala Harris?” whined Kirsten Gillibrand. Diane Feinstein grumbled the same. Michael Bloomberg hired a consultant to explore the matter. “Here’s a crayon. Go check Elizabeth Warren’s mailbox. You find anything heavy, readdress it to me,” bar

Hope all goes well… “Wanna know what they’re asking Biggie?” bellowed Biggie Too, rocking through life in third person. “They say Biggie, tell us why this market is so oversold but can’t catch a bid,” continued the Global Chief Investment Strategist for one of Wall Street’s Too Big to Fail affairs. “They say Biggie, tell us why the Feds announced a $800bln budget deficit from all that pretty stimulus but our small ca

Hope all goes well… “I’ve been to three meetings, but I couldn’t tell you the club’s name,” confessed Jackson, my 16yr old. “Something to do with battling domestic abuse,” he continued, “The more clubs you have, the better your college app.” Club inflation has arrived, the Phillips curve finally kicked in. “My other club is SADD or something like that.” I asked what it meant. “Students against dumb decisions, or drun

Hope all goes well… “The US is experiencing a remarkably positive set of economic circumstances,” said Jay Powell. “There’s really no reason to think this cycle can’t continue for quite some time,” continued the Fed Chairman. “We’re a long way from neutral Fed Funds at this point, probably.” Unemployment returned to the 1969 low of 3.7%, spurred by an unprecedented late-cycle fiscal stimulus. Q3 earnings are expected

Hope all goes well… “I was trying to preserve the institutional credibility of two institutions,” said Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republican. “One, the Supreme Court is the lone institution where most Americans still have some faith. And then the US Senate as an institution – we’re coming apart at the seams,” continued the Senator, having managed to buy a week for the FBI to investigate the Kavanaugh allegations.

Hope all goes well… “I’m not like the investors you’re meeting here in Sydney,” he said. “I live 40km inland, to the west. My friends and neighbors feel left behind, the elderly struggle to keep the heat on in winter. It’s a different world.” Australia has a new prime minister, its 5th in 5yrs — Scott Morrison is the socially conservative architect of Australia’s hardline anti-asylum seeker policies. “My peers