weekend notes

Hope all goes well… Dusted off an anecdote from five years ago about China, America, what the world needs (see below). Mara and I blew out of Dodge this weekend. Left behind our four kids, two dogs, nine chickens, two turtles, a rabbit, two lacrosse tournaments, a Jazz concert, junior prom, countless carpools, the utter fiasco we call our routine life, and my writing. What a great few days we’ve h

Proxy: The worst combat since the 2014 war left 4 Israelis and 22 Palestinians dead last week. The latter launched missiles from Gaza into Israel. The former retaliated. One is supported politically/financially by China. The other by America. Of course, it all unfolded in the run up to the latest Beijing/US trade negotiations. On cue, Iran threatened US forces in response to our sanctions against

Hope all goes well… “Fed overtightened,” bellowed Biggie Too, global chief strategist for one of Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail affairs. “Tech spending is rolling over, ISM was a shocker.” In the background, a steady rhythm of tariffs and trade thumped, traders bouncing to the beat. “Investors were thinking that with Beijing’s stimulus, the rest of the world would catch the US. But that didn’t happ

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.