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“Look at any technology industry and you’ll observe compounding market power,” said Big Foot. “Lots of people don’t believe this phenomenon applies to asset management, but I don’t understand why it would not,” continued the CEO of one of the industry’s largest investment firms. “Your first job is to invest in research to develop your alphas. Those produce profit and don’t just go away, even if over time they may dec

Hope all goes well… Nine days until the election. Nate Silver gives Trump a 13% chance of winning. The Economist’s Elliott Morris gives him closer to 10%. They both note that polling improvements since 2016 make a surprise less likely. And while there were 13% undecided voters then, there are 6% now. But there could be 154mm voters (144mm-165mm estimated range) today versus 137mm then. And there are rising risks of v

“China is now fully engaged in a financial war with the United States,” said the CIO from Asia. “And this view rises all the way to the top of the power structure in Beijing,” continued one of the region’s leading investors. “Whatever can attract foreign capital to China is seen by Beijing as being in the national interest,” he said. “So if it is in the national interest for a leading Chinese technology company to fa

Hope all goes well… “We’d like to thank every one of you for being here on this happy day in a rather strange time and a beautiful place,” I said, newly ordained by some online ministry, officiating my first marriage, not the most lucrative Plan B but better than nothing. One of my four sisters stood with her fiancé at the altar, another fifty family and friends zoomed in for the occasion. “Marriage is the most impor

“MMT has already led us to a better place,” said Warren Mosler, pioneer of Modern Monetary Theory. “If Washington had done just $1trln in fiscal stimulus like Obama did in 2009 rather than the $3trln they’ve already approved, we’d be overwhelmed by civil unrest,” he added, expecting another $2trln this year, followed by another $2trln in 2021 infrastructure. In recent years, central bankers called on politicians to e

Hope all goes well… “Will he live or will he die?” barked Biggie Too in baritone. “We going to get a stimulus or won’t we?” bellowed the Chief Global Strategist from one of Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail affairs. “Will he win or will he lose? Is he going quiet or they gonna drag him out?” And Biggie was just warming up, closing his eyes, head swaying in a slow Zoom groove. “We don’t get something pre-election, then we

Hope all goes well… “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” tweeted the president. Of Trump’s 56,600 tweets, this one drew his bitterly polarized audience together unlike any other, albeit for wildly opposing reasons. The President’s post received 1.8mm “Likes,” which was nearly 1mm more than his second mo

A“We constantly do exercises,” said Sea Dog. “They are our biggest show of force,” he explained. “When the Chinese act up, we quickly do an exercise close to Taiwan, it never hurts to remind people we can reach out and touch you.” Anywhere, everywhere, anytime. “We have contingency plans for everything.” Ready to go. “Certain events come up on the fly, unexpectedly, a President gets sick, a multitude of possibilities