weekend notes

Hope all goes well… In early 2000, the Nasdaq soaring, American businessman Dennis Tito planned a trip to space. He paid $20mm to spend 8-days on the International Space Station (ISS), and then watched the 2001 bust from orbit. He was the first private citizen to leave earth. In 2008, Richard Garriott paid $30mm for 12-days on the ISS. On his 3rd day in orbit, he watched Lehman declare bankruptcy

“Augmented/Virtual reality (AR/VR) is being adopted at six-times the pace that was expected one year ago,” said the scientist. “The content is good enough, the technology fast enough and the price sufficiently low for adoption curves to start turning up hard,” he continued from the valley. “This is the next platform, merging reality and fantasy into something altogether new.” Big tech is racing to

Hope all goes well… “Drift. Apathy. Distrust,” barked Biggie Too, feeling it, already in a groove. “Frustration. Irritation. Uneasy anticipation,” continued the chief global strategist for one of Wall Street’s Too-Big-To-Fail affairs. “Biggie got this deep dark feeling he’s way too early,” whispered Too, lips pursed, right at home in 3rd person. “We lost our faith in politicians and the media. Ins

Hope all goes well… “I think it’s probably a little early to make that call Dad,” said Teddy, soaked to the bone, muddy, holding a fistful of poison ivy like a trophy. I’d asked whether he and Charlie would someday spend their weekends weeding in the rain with their kids. “I suppose it depends how your experiment works out Dad,” said Charlie, pulling pokeweed. “What experiment is that?” I asked, l

Hope all goes well… “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’ becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine,” wrote Nobel economist Paul Krugman in 1998. “Bitcoin isn’t a new innovation; it’s been around since 2009, and in all

The Fed cut rates to what had once seemed an impossibility. It then left them there. Skepticism that rates would remain perpetually low eventually gave way to acceptance, which was soon followed by financial engineering. Back then, in 1993, with overnight rates held at 3.00%, yield-enhanced structured products offered 4.00% yields, 5.00%, sometimes higher, but only if overnight rates remained unch

Hope all goes well… “Our model – which uses known data on 121 variables, from recorded deaths to demography – suggests that COVID-19 has claimed 7.1mm-12.7mm lives,” wrote The Economist. “Our central estimate is the real tally of ‘excess deaths’ is over three times the official count,” continued the publication, proceeding to explore the enormity of risks facing the developing world. T

“What are you thinking about markets here?” asked the entrepreneur, wedging the question into our conversation, but working hard to sound barely interested. I laughed, unable to contain it. “Oh, so you really called to ask about bitcoin,” I said, smelling his quiet panic. “Well, you know, yeah basically, I mean what do think about all this stuff going on?” he asked, not wanting anything other than

“The coaches called us into the office one by one,” said my oldest, finishing plebe year, his team having failed to make quarterfinals. “They told each of us exactly what we need to work on if we hope to ever see the field,” he continued. “They said I have almost everything except for consistency, but without that, I’m useless to them. If a human doesn’t drink water every day they die, and if I do