weekend notes

`Hope all goes well… “The history of mankind hasn’t yet seen the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons under control by bandits,” said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, broadcast across the nation, but clearly intended for foreign audiences. “Such a crisis will not be limited by just one country’s borders, the world will be put on the brink of destruction,” said the Putin pup

Anecdote: “We put on airtight bio warfare suits and entered this one room building with our squad,” she said, the two of us out for a long walk. “The room was filled with tear gas. It was hot. There were two girls in camo, tank tops, bare skin. They weren’t wearing gas masks. They were huge, totally jacked, screaming orders,” said my girl. “A few percent of people are pretty much immune to tear ga

Hope all goes well… “Chair Powell, what’s the value in pausing and signaling future hikes versus just hiking now?” asked Nick Timiraos from the WSJ. “I mean, not to be flippant, but I don’t lose weight just by buying a gym membership; I have to actually go to the gym,” continued the reporter, as his colleagues in the press corps looked on in awe, praying to someday engineer such a perfect question

Anecdote: “The internet now carries the flag of being subversive, possibly rebellious, chaotic, nihilistic,” said David Bowie in a 1999 BBC interview [here]. “I embrace the idea that there is a new demystification process going on between artist and audience,” continued the visionary, peering over the horizon, glimpsing a world of peer-to-peer connection, synergy, exchange. “Up until the mid-1970s

Hope all goes well… “I think the SEC is telling you that they are shutting down Binance.US. . . they believe the conduct is beyond egregious,” said the Chairman, the two of us talking pre-open, the agency’s second lawsuit of the week hitting the tapes. “But Coinbase is a different matter, this lawsuit is not about shutting down all tokenized trading,” he said. “This is a ratcheting up of the press

Anecdote: “The market is still wired for bearishness,” said the CIO, high atop his prodigious pile. “The VIX curve is still steep, the back end is quite high, and the vast majority rightly expect a recession in H2,” he continued. “To the extent that all the event risk ahead is seen to pass, you can imagine how people can get drawn back into the market. There is still ammo to propel this thing high

Hope all goes well… “Okay, tell me all about your year,” I said to Liv, home for a few days, a Plebe no more. “I have so many stories, what kind do you want?” she asked. I shrugged, smiled. “Funny ones, painful ones, sleeping under the stars, tumbled off a cliff, chased by a bear kind of stories?” she asked. “Or grenade launcher, tear gas, swampy and cold, embrace-the-suck stories – I got ’em all

Hope all goes well… Memorial Day already. Another year, flying by. Dusted off an old anecdote about birth-order, the dinner table, and ringworm. Back next Sunday with full weekend notes. E  Week-in-Review: Mon: Yellen says odds meeting all payments by 6/15 is quite low, center right (New Democracy) party does well in Greek elections – market positive, Fed’s Bullard expects 2 more hikes this y

Anecdote (July 2017): “Think hard about what you would like from your new coach and what you are prepared to give him,” I told Jackson (15). He’d requested a meeting with Darien’s head coach, a lacrosse legend. “Imagine two young people walk into my office,” I continued. “Person A says: I’d like you to help me build a great career. I’m really ambitious. Please help me.” Jackson nodded. “Person B s