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Hope all goes well… “I can’t find anything; Argentina 2038 bonds were trading in the 30’s and 40’s,” said the investor. “But now they’re close to 50,” he said. “Guess there’s some carry left in Venezuela,” he said, more to himself than to me. “And Ivory Coast’s defaulted bonds yield 6%.” We both laughed. Simultaneously seeing that he’d found something after all. ‘Cause when you realize the only thing left to do is bu

Hope all goes well… Pushed open the Ministry’s heavy doors. The magnificent building a monument to Argentina’s prosperous past. Behind the shoddy front desk sat seven young women, chatting leisurely. To my right stood two guards, to my left another. I presented my passport, exchanged pleasantries, confirming their English was superior to my Spanglish. And with no other visitors in the grand lobby, the eleven of us na

Hope all goes well… Enroute from Argy. Snuck in all sorts of meetings before they shut the joint down for World Cup. Back next Sunday with full weekend notes. In the meantime, dusted off a futbol anecdote from early last year (see below). Week-in-Review: Mon: China trade +7.0% (+6.6 exp), Japan Q1 GDP +6.7% qoq (Q2 exp -4.0%), Japan Apr C/A surplus Y187bln (3rd mthly surplus), S&P +0.1%; Tue: China May PPI -1.4%

Hope all goes well… “Hard to find cheap stocks for the wrong reasons,” admitted the global strategy head for some too-big-to-fail bank, far from home. “But there’s something wrong in a system where money needs to be free,” he said – I think. You see, yet another LaFerrari had just rumbled into valet at Nobu, Malibu. “Yet in the real economy, even at zero, no one’s really borrowing, lending, spending.” Another s

Hope all goes well… “Here with the kiddies for the paddle-out, crying,” texted Mara. I paused, in Times Square, opened the photos. Thousands headed into the Pacific, with their surfboards. At sunset. Carrying flowers. To honor the slain UC Santa Barbara kids. The surfers formed a vast circle. Tossed flowers into the middle. And sang in sad celebration of the young lives. Lost. Overall: “The focus should be on minimum

Hope all goes well… “There were robots absolutely everywhere,” said the scientist, developing innovative materials to cut the costs of harnessing solar. “Their productive efficiency was staggering,” he continued. “What takes us hours to do with prototypes for one wafer, they do with sixty wafers in 3 seconds.” The Chinese continue to dominate global production, transforming manufacturing hubs into economic ecosystems

Hope all goes well… “Can you believe we’re partying with this congressman?” whispered the Vice Chairman of Wall Street’s greatest bank, playing blackjack, atop a $1.9trln pile of client chips. At that big Vegas conference. “That’s my favorite quote of the night,” I told Gary, laughing. You see, I just love guys who never forget where they’ve come from, and we’re both public school idiots from NY. “What’s your 2nd fav

Hope all goes well… “So explain why bond yields decline when the Fed tapers?” asked Yoda, high in the Rockies. “And explain why stocks won’t go down when earnings aren’t going up?” continued the mkt’s biggest S&P local. “Explain why the S&P is at all-time highs when the Russell is below its 200day average?” he asked. “And explain why energy stocks trade like internet stocks when December 2017 oil trades at $8

Hope all goes well… “Can’t believe I’m telling you this,” confessed Dirk, an investment banker, swinging on the pole. I tucked a twenty into his thong. “When I started in the biz, I’d sell companies to private equity firms, they’d make things efficient, hire good sales people, everyone won, even employees.” There were 15 PE firms in his sector, now there are 400. “Promise you won’t reveal my name,” implored Dig

Hope all goes well… “If you have a strong thesis and get a deep pullback,” started the CIO, a fella who has the former and stopped out due to the latter, “you mechanistically put the position back on.” Long growth and short emerging markets has suffered the kind of swift trend reversal seen every 5-10 yrs. “But only once market positioning gets cleaned up.” Which is closer to done, than just begun. “Markets periodica