weekend notes

Hope all goes well… “We have all become so equal here in Sweden,” said the programmer to Mara, who had joined me for a spin through Scandinavia. They toured her workplace, one of Stockholm’s innumerable, thriving tech companies. “A boy here would never dare ask me out,” explained the beautiful Swede, laughing, kind of, outnumbered by males four-to-one. “They would never think to hold a door open f

Hope all goes well… “You read my email?” I asked Jackson, Thanksgiving morning, the air around him electric. “Yeah, it was weird,” he said, smiling. I’d sent him an anecdote I wrote five years ago (see below), when he was eleven. It captured a conversation I’d hoped would weave its way into his fabric, and figured it was worth repeating as he mentally prepared for man-to-man coverage of Connecticu

Hope all goes well… “Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic,” said Stan Lee, artistic genius, RIP. “It’s a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon,” continued the f

Hope all goes well… “Congratulations to President Trump for the seats taken in the Senate and confirmation in crucial states, against everything and everyone: lefty journalists, actors and singers, directors and pseudo-intellectuals. #godonaldgo,” tweeted Matteo Salvini, Italian Deputy Prime Minister, proximal leader of Europe’s anti-establishment upheaval. Overall: “You can always count on the Am

Hope all goes well… The latest odds of the Democrats taking the House are 86%. The odds of the Republicans holding the Senate are 83%. But so many races are within the statistical margin for polling error. And even if you knew the outcome, would you know the right trade? A Republican sweep is supposedly good for markets, a Blue Wave is bad. And yet, we’re at that stage in the cycle where strong gr

Hope all goes well… “Hey, where the hell’s my pipe bomb?” muttered Nancy Pelosi, irate, shaken. “And where’s mine?” cried Chuck Schumer. “What’s so special about Cory Booker and Kamala Harris?” whined Kirsten Gillibrand. Diane Feinstein grumbled the same. Michael Bloomberg hired a consultant to explore the matter. “Here’s a crayon. Go check Elizabeth Warren’s mailbox. You find anything heavy, read

Hope all goes well… “Wanna know what they’re asking Biggie?” bellowed Biggie Too, rocking through life in third person. “They say Biggie, tell us why this market is so oversold but can’t catch a bid,” continued the Global Chief Investment Strategist for one of Wall Street’s Too Big to Fail affairs. “They say Biggie, tell us why the Feds announced a $800bln budget deficit from all that pretty stimu

Hope all goes well… “I’ve been to three meetings, but I couldn’t tell you the club’s name,” confessed Jackson, my 16yr old. “Something to do with battling domestic abuse,” he continued, “The more clubs you have, the better your college app.” Club inflation has arrived, the Phillips curve finally kicked in. “My other club is SADD or something like that.” I asked what it meant. “Students against dum

Hope all goes well… “The US is experiencing a remarkably positive set of economic circumstances,” said Jay Powell. “There’s really no reason to think this cycle can’t continue for quite some time,” continued the Fed Chairman. “We’re a long way from neutral Fed Funds at this point, probably.” Unemployment returned to the 1969 low of 3.7%, spurred by an unprecedented late-cycle fiscal stimulus. Q3 e