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Hope all goes well… The planet’s most powerful military threatened to reconsider NATO unless Europeans meet their spending commitments. Europe’s leaders repeated unfulfilled pledges to do just that, returning to their parliaments to find the funds. Earth’s biggest consumer threatened to impose 10% tariffs on another $200bln of imports from the planet’s largest producer. Beijing vowed to retaliate. Its deeply indebted

“I have no great gifts to offer other than a deep sense of the magic that’s possible for all of us…especially the kids,” wrote the guide, checking in from the Rockies. Teddy, our 13yr old, escaped Connecticut’s sea-level insanity to join him at altitude. In a blind race to Ivy League admission, America’s children now suffocate in summer sports. Two club leagues, sometimes three, speed clinics, strength training. “He’

Hope all goes well… “You know the one thing I want you all to take away from this experience?” I asked the kiddies. No one said a word, I was grateful, who knows what they were thinking. The shock of our latest family crisis had started to subside. And we were pretty sure Oliver would be okay in the end, his leg more shattered than the transatlantic Alliance. “Someday, when your husband or wife runs over the family d

Hope all goes well… “If the main priority is fighting this administration then we need to address the systemic problems that resulted in his rise in the first place — and that is perpetuation of the economic, social and racial injustice in the United States that has led to a rift that has created the room for a rise of a demagogue like Donald Trump,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the authentic, charismatic 28y

Hope all goes well… The principal is a germophobe and instructed her 400 8th graders to “clean their sweaty, filthy hands” with disinfectant wipes before shaking hers on stage. The graduation ceremony’s low point was the 14yr old male soloist, hitting peak puberty, voice cracking, uncontrollable. Poor fella. Olivia teetered across the stage in her newly purchased platforms, narrowly avoiding a face plant — that

Hope all goes well… “How many do you think will hatch Daddy?” asked Charlie, buckled in the back seat. He’d discovered a prehistoric snapping turtle laying eggs in our yard. We collected all 27, placed them in an incubator. “Not sure little man, depends on how many were fertilized.” He nodded, processed. “So how exactly do turtles fertilize eggs?” he asked. And seeing an early opportunity to put one of life’s most aw

Hope all goes well… Every so often I depart from the usual weekend notes format to share a particularly thought-provoking piece of our internal research. Today’s is titled, “Considerations on Rising Inflation” [click here to view the thought piece]. Lindsay Politi authored it. She spent the first 15yrs of her career building a $10bln TIPS business for Wellington where she was a consistent top quintile performer and w

Hope all goes well… “Dad, you won’t believe what just happened!” cried Charlie, running into the house, finding me writing, in need of an opening paragraph. “Two hawks were fighting in the sky and one dropped a huge frog that landed right at our feet!” Mara and I had kicked them all out of the house. “It had a dislocated shoulder, so we put him in the pond, but then his heart stopped. He was probably scared to death.

Hope all goes well… Dusted off an anecdote about the point of this ride (see below). Back next Sunday with full weekend notes. Week-in-Review (expressed in YoY terms): Mon: China/US announce trade war détente,   Japanese exports +5.7 to +7.8% (imports +6.5 to +5.9%), Iran rejects 12 new US demands for new nuclear treaty, Turkish lira -2% (10yr bonds +35bps to 15.00%), Italy’s Five Star and League propose Giuseppe Con

Hope all goes well… “Teddy was talking in his sleep again,” said Charlie, stumbling into the kitchen, eyes bloodshot. “He kept saying, ‘That was such a great idea, I should’ve done it.’” I felt Teddy’s pain, haunted by that same recurring nightmare; the unavoidable consequence of 28yrs trading markets. “But I didn’t want to wake him up even though my mouth was really dry, and figured if I got a drink in the bathroom