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Hope all goes well… “Can we keep these tadpoles Daddy?” asked Charlie and Teddy. I shook my head, paternal reflex. “We already have two turtles and a bullfrog. So why not?” they pleaded, forgetting our countless other pets. And in their defense, once you expand a balance sheet past the point of absurd, why ever stop? But having lost virtually every such battle waged in recent years, I grasped for a straw. “Their momm

Hope all goes well… Dusted on an anecdote from 2015 for Memorial Day (see below). Back next Sunday with full weekend notes. Week-in-Review (expressed in YoY terms): Mon: IS terror attack kills 22 in UK, Portugal deficit less than 3% limit (only France, Spain and Greece exceed 3% threshold compared to 24 countries 6yrs ago), Fed’s Kaplan targeting 2 more hikes in 2017, S&P +0.5%; Tue: Japan PMI -0.7 to 52.0 (6mth

Hope all goes well… “If you had only one wish Daddy, what would it be?” asked Charlie. A quick jump to 5.00% ten-year treasury yields came to mind. “I’d ask that you four kiddies have fascinating lives.” Teddy was first responder, “Seriously Dad? Of all the possibilities in the entire world, that’s the best you could wish for? How about curing every disease? How about Kim Jong-un giving up all his nukes?” Charlie fol

Hope all goes well… “We were Dr. McDowell’s chosen five,” said the professor of medicine, proud, struggling to maintain his composure. And Fetcher McDowell’s four other protégés raised their hands, standing amongst us, paying respects to a man who had touched us all in different ways. As one person spoke after another, the tapestry of a life well-lived took shape, its many threads connected in ways that richened the

Overall: “Macron appeals to people’s hopes and not their fears,” said Obama, hoping for another $400,000 speaking engagement from some insolvent French bank. Obviously, Obama endorsed the articulate young man, long on idealism, short on experience. The two are sides of a coin. And just as Obama would have trounced both Hillary and Trump if he’d been granted a 3rd crack, so too would Macron have beaten Hillary and Tru

Hope all goes well… “When the bogeyman goes to sleep he checks the closet for Chuck Norris,” said Teddy. “Chuck Norris doesn’t dial the wrong number, you answered the wrong phone,” continued my 11yr old, laughing, crying. And diving deep through so many layers of senseless market memories, petty Fed dot-plot archives, and useless Phillips curve arguments, I accessed my dusty college cache. “When Chuck Norris was born

Hope all goes well… “Some bad guy robbed our gas station today, he had a mask and gun,” said Charlie on Monday. “The same guy robbed Chase bank today,” said Olivia on Tuesday. Pressure on hedge fund fees has thrown Greenwich into a state of anarchy. “The guy robbed the same bank today – the exact same bank, two days in a row! Can you believe it?” screeched Teddy on Wednesday. And of course I can, volatility is

Hope all goes well… “Where did the first acorn come from Daddy?” asked Charlie, staring out the Suburban, on the drive home from lacrosse. “And where did the mountains come from?” continued my inquisitive 7yr old. “How was the world made?” he asked. “But where did the universe come from?” he asked, excited that each answer quite naturally led to more questions. “But then what came before the Big Bang?” asked Charlie,

Hope all goes well… Dusted off an anecdote from May 2015 on the topic of meaning. Back next Sunday with full wknd notes. Week-in-Review (expressed in YoY terms): Mon: US deploys warships to Korean waters, China to offer Trump better fin services access and beef/grain imports, Kuroda “will maintain QQE until core CPI exceeds 2%,” Russia “have discussed oil output cut extension,” France forecasts Q1 GDP +0.3% (full-yea

Hope all goes well… “False flag attack!” cried the alt-right conspiracy theorists, infuriated with their President. “Abu Ivanka!” tweeted Arabs throughout the Middle East, thanking the Father of Ivanka for finally confronting Assad. “Trump wants to prove to the world that he is no ‘businessman president’ and that he will use US military force without hesitation when he considers it necessary,” declared Chinese state