This content is restricted to those people currently on the "weekend notes" email distribution. If you are currently on that distribution and would like access, please contact Eric Peters directly and we will provide a Username and Password.
Hope all goes well… Pollsters predicted the tightest race in modern history, between two candidates with wildly divergent policies. Which means few portfolios were positioned strongly in one direction or another. So, with Trump winning resoundingly, the only thing we can be sure of is that the price of just about every financial asset is wrong. The only question is how many months of buying and se
Anecdote: “Each stone here is a memory,” said the commanding officer. Thirty of us stood atop a granite mountain, in a semicircle, Hudson River to our east, West Point to the north, American flag flying overhead, black POW flag in its shadow. “And each stone also holds a lesson.” Mara and I joined Liv for a memorial hike in the lead up to Veterans Day. Her water polo team inscribed the names of fa
Hope all goes well… The blaze was reported at 00:44 GMT on Wednesday. Fifteen firetrucks arrived quickly. Fourteen hours later nearby residents watched as exhausted firefighters left the second largest indoor shipbuilding complex of its kind in Europe. Four Dreadnought Class nuclear submarines are being built at the six-acre BAE Systems facility, to replace four Vanguard Class subs that are schedu
Hope all goes well… “I don’t know why certain trees of the same species change color at somewhat different times,” I admitted to Charlie (15), sitting outside, a warm autumn night, the moon in hiding, the heavens alive. “I can’t name a single one of the insects making these noises right now, and I couldn’t even tell you what one looks like,” he confessed. “I know nothing about their life cycles, o
Anecdote: Day by day the reds deepened ever so slightly, imperceptibly, the yellows grew crisper, the oaks, twice my age, held on for dear life. Then all at once, the forest came alive, electric, autumn had arrived. Peak. There are months when nothing seems to move. And every so often, a day that forever changes the world. But such things operate according to some mysterious schedule that cannot b
Anecdote: “I’m really not sure,” said Jackson, six weeks into The Basic School (TBS), Quantico, Virginia. I had asked what direction he hoped to take his service as a Marine. “No particular path seems clear yet,” he added, outwardly relaxed, unperturbed, but as his father I heard the inner unease. He’s always been a linear person, goal oriented, a lover of games. Tell Jackson the rules and he’ll f
Hope all goes well… “Imagine what government agencies could look like in 4yrs,” wrote an X employee as a caption for two images, presented side-by-side [here]. On the left was a SpaceX Raptor engine from 2020, the mechanics of it a jumbled mess, wildly intricate, but still impressive, functional. On the right was the 2024 version of that same Raptor engine, its mechanics simple, sleek, as elegant
Anecdote: “No longer than a year,” said the young programmer, a proud Persian. His colleagues nodded in agreement. I had asked how much longer Ayatollah Khamenei and his regime would remain in power. Reformists had won a parliamentary majority only to have the conservative-controlled Guardian Council, judiciary, and Supreme Leader limit their ability to enact meaningful reforms. Student protests w
Hope all goes well… “When anyone studies a little or pays a little attention to the rules of Islamic government, Islamic politics, Islamic society and Islamic economy he will realize that Islam is a very political religion,” said Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s first Supreme Leader, sometime back before his death in 1989. “Anyone who will say that religion is separate from politics is a fool; he does n