Month

Hope all goes well… “Tighten your seat belts,” instructed the pilot, as calm as calm could be. “Please make absolutely sure there are no heavy items near you that are not properly secured,” he added, in a voice so perfectly even that it induced sheer panic. And at that, the woman next to Mara joined the horrid chorus that had started like popping corn and built steadily as the turbulence intensified. Throughout the c

Hope all goes well… “What happens when two tribes each believe that theirs can do no wrong?” he asked, sitting on the bank, history flowing like a river. “Or what results when two tribes convince themselves that the other committed some sin first, and this then justifies an unethical response of similar proportion?” he wondered aloud. “And is there ever a point, where the members of one tribe reflect on its own trans

A“WeWork never had a fighting chance of being worth more than zero,” said Lithium, hands-free on Highway One. “It’s arguable that Uber and Lyft have a chance to make it – at least their business model should survive in some form,” he said, banking a turn, the Pacific to his left, Malibu’s dunes lit by autumn sun. “Softbank mastered the art of the sardine factory.” In legendary investor Seth Klarman’s book – Margin of

A“Let’s run Dad,” said Charlie, and off he went down the trail. We’d spent the day at altitude, climbing cliffs. Charlie is our youngest of four, which means we rarely return from an adventure without my little man bumping up against his limit. Mountains have a wonderful way of helping you find that pressure point. From there, you must decide where to go – climb or crumble. Charlie melted down. And having worke

Hope all goes well… “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device,” said Charlie, my 10yr old, reading lyrics to his favorite song, Hotel California. We listen to music, discuss the lyrics, one of my great joys in life. “I think it means we can do things to imprison ourselves, to trap ourselves,” he explained, a little confused. I nodded, though of course, lyrics can mean different things to different people. “A

A“When Ceasar conquered Gaul, they sent food back to Rome,” said Warren Mosler, a pioneer in Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). “Winners get things from losers – Rome never sent tribute,” he said. We were discussing economic misconceptions. After a decade of monetary experimentation led to negative interest rates, stagnant economies and perplexed PhDs, it’s time to reconsider our basic assumptions. “If McArthur arri

Hope all goes well… “He just engineered another rate cut,” said Roadrunner, the market’s biggest equity vol trader. “The Fed is chasing Trump’s tail,” he continued, stocks rebounding bond yields plunging. Trump knows lower rates are good for equities and thinks a strong S&P will wash away his sins. “The numbers seem to be tracking the trade war, and with each leg lower in economic data Powell commits to doing som