weekend notes

Hope all goes well… “The economy is roaring,” said Vice President Pence, unemployment having just hit a 50yr low of 3.6%. “The President is very interested in bringing fresh ideas to the Fed. People with a renewed and fresh perspective. People who understand the dynamic approach to this economy that he’s been putting into practice,” he said. “When I was in congress, we had a debate about the Fed’s

A“This next phase will require real vision,” said Lithium, handsfree on Highway One. “Getting here, to a place where Tesla, Uber, Lyft and their ilk are selling lots of stuff while burning through billions was a forecastable thing,” he explained. “If you had predicted 5yrs ago that Uber would have 4mm drivers, at a loss of $4bln per year, and people were going to love it, the only true foresight w

He’d always liked to walk. Admiring a world in constant flux. And while no single moment is ever the same, there are times when the pace of change from one day to the next simply takes your breath away. Mid-spring offers at least a few such days every year. Autumn too. And the first snow. In between are long stretches where the world changes so subtly as to appear at a standstill. The same applies

Hope all goes well… “We live in a world without one single truth,” said Yoda, high in the Rockies. “We’re told so many different truths that people struggle to choose which to believe,” continued the S&P 500’s largest market maker. “The process erodes faith, trust, leaving us grasping, swinging from one thing to another.” And he looked out, distant peaks, the snow slowly melting at altitude, a

Hope all goes well… Dusted off an anecdote from 2016 about sucking less, playing smart (see below). Back next Sunday with full weekend notes. And Happy Easter. E Week-in-Review (expressed in YoY terms): Mon: Credit Suisse to take majority stake in its Chinese joint venture (2nd finance company to do so), Putin plans meeting with North Korea’s Kim, Rusal plans 1st US investment since sanctions lift

AFor earth’s first 4,539,800,000 years there was no one. 3,200,000 years ago, Australopithecus stood upright in Ethiopia, took a step, left a footprint, we named her Lucy. 400,000 years ago, Homo Erectus harnessed fire. 200,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens appeared, hunting, gathering, looking upward in wonder. 12,000 years ago, we took to farming, at which point progress accelerated, slowly at first.

Hope all goes well… “They’re all liars mate,” said my London cabbie. “May was a Remainer. How were we going to get a good deal when our negotiators don’t want to leave?” he asked. I shrugged. “They’ll stall until they can say it’s not what people want no more — happened in every country that ever wanted a referendum or held one,” he said. “The EU paid to move a Land Rover factory from the Mi

Hope all goes well… “I think they should drop rates and get rid of quantitative tightening. You would see a rocket ship. Despite that we’re doing very well,” said President Trump from the White House lawn, his helicopter all warmed up, waiting. “I would say in terms of quantitative tightening it should actually now be quantitative easing,” added the President, packing his Fed with hacks like Moore

A“The second term of Barack Obama was the final nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and developed the greatest republic in the history of mankind,” said Mara, incredulous, reading aloud an email from my mother. I sighed, my Mom, an otherwise loving woman, has taken to forwarding fanaticism. “A coalition of blacks, Latinos, fem