players

Met a professor, taught at Yale. He’s real smart and better yet, used that blessed gift to build serious wealth on Wall Street. We’re all born with gifts, clever guys figure out how to use ‘em well. Anyhow, he taught the History of Financial Crisis, telling stories to hungry youngsters, of the battle for power and money on the Street. And kids love listening to lyrics from guys who’ve walked the walk, got some scars,

Dizzying week, anything not bolted-down rotated – particularly attitudes. US/EU growth expectations surged, emerging mkt expectations sagged. Chicago PMI rocketed to 68.8 (highest since ’88), German PMI hit 60.5, but Brazil printed just 53.1, China 54.5, and Australia (China’s mine) fell to 46.7 (5th mthly drop). Citigroup’s Economic Surprise index measures how strong actual economic reports are relative to consensus

Hope all goes well. Crisscrossed our stormy nation this wk: Florida, Cali and Vermont. Dodged every storm but the one that hit Bloomberg screens. Made money on dollar shorts, equity & corn longs, but got buried under some interest-rate bets. Shoveled a few of those out of the portfolio, may revisit once the weather improves. Overall: Dizzying week, anything not bolted-down rotated – particularly attitudes. US/EU

The fun part of 2011 ended; earnest resolutions, trades of the yr, hopes and dreams for good things to come. World got back to business. US GDP was soft. Timmy G announced, “It’s not an expansion that’s going to offer a rapid decline in unemployment.” US budget deficit’s on track for $1.5trln, the $14.29trln debt ceiling approaches, Fed balance sheet’s $2.43trln (triple ’08 level), and S&P warned they’re eyeing o

American’s are simple creatures. We love underdogs, work hard & innovate, get easily whipped up into righteous frenzy, quickly start fights, frame our battles in good vs evil, and expect to always win. The Cold War was scary, but suited us perfectly. Naturally we won. Then after a decade of celebration, partly funded by the peace dividend, things got confusing. As global military/economic hyper-power, we lost our

Hope all goes well. What a week. Mara and the kiddies had the stomach bug, vomited night after night. Of course mkts caught it too and puked on Fri. Almost feels like late-Jan ’10, when a new-year rally got infected by that awful Greek virus. Now it’s Egypt, caught it from Tunisia. Something nasty and contagious is swirling around the Med. Overall: The fun part of 2011 ended; earnest resolutions, trades of the yr, ho

In the market’s never-ending race, it’s fascinating to watch relay batons passed from one year to the next. This wk the 2010 fear that PIIGS would sink and the EU disintegrate was passed to a new concern, the threat of higher global interest rates (strong statements by Merkel, Sarkozy and Trichet, combined with confidence the EFSF will be preemptively doubled, led to an upgrade by traders/strategists for the Euro’s i

Hope all goes well. Great trip to London/Paris. Packed planes, hopping cities and rising prices. London tabloids, radio and tube chatter are dominated by “unchecked” inflation. Seems that Mayfair hedge fund managers are the only altruistic citizens not hiking prices in London. Overall: In the market’s never-ending race, it’s fascinating to watch relay batons passed from one year to the next. This wk the 2010 fear tha

20yrs ago I crossed paths with a brilliant contemporary, figured we were headed in different directions. How naïve. We liked playing games: his mortal, mine money. But the older you get, the more you discover that lives and cash are fungible in the game of global politics/economics. As a young man, he earned a PhD that made Defense Ministers want him, then developed the experience, poise and rolodex that made aerospa