“I trace the boomerang to 1993,” said the CIO, a top performer, year after year. “It circles the globe, taking out one after another,” he explained. “China’s massive currency devaluation, coupled with its economic opening, produced a massive deflationary impulse that precipitated the 1998 Asian crisis.” Emerging market leaders then concluded they want cheap currencies and huge reserves as insurance against future cri

Hope all goes well… “We live in a world of trending markets,” said Yoda, high in the Rockies. “Fade nothing,” continued the market’s biggest S&P local, more to himself than to me. “Corrections are meaningless.” The dollar index marched from 80 last July to over 100.50, retreating Friday to 97.80 on Yellen’s command. “But a day will come when central banks tell markets to do one thing, and they will do the opposit

Hope all goes well… He stood smiling. But not quite his smile. Behind him in the photo was a wall of countless skulls. Each with its own story, forever lost, but for its final chapter, to Pol Pot’s killing fields. Jackson has accompanied his grandmother to Cambodia, to volunteer for an Operation Smile mission. Where doctors mend the world, one child at a time. Mara had cried, as he left our little oasis for something

Sent a note this week to one of my portfolio managers. He’d proposed a bullish Brazil theme following Dilma’s October re-election, which would’ve been a big loser. Here’s the email: We all get things wrong. The question is why? Improve on the margin, and long-term performance rises dramatically. So reflect back on your excitement after Brazil’s election. It’s a good example of a few things: (1) Politicians: Betting o

“Is interesting, no?” whispered Vladimir, to the mirror, smoking a cigar, surrounded by tabloids. The headlines betraying editorial bias. Putin’s Dead! A Stroke! Palace Coup! And, Vladimir’s a Father! Which is my favorite. Because faced with uncertainty, we believe what we want to believe, we fear what we want to fear. And I want to believe Putin slipped out to Lugano, where his 31yr old baby mama gave birth to their

“Countries with different ideologies, different priorities, different systems of government, cooperated to defeat the Nazis,” said Iraq’s Prime Minister, “It’s foreseeable we see countries which might not get along well in terms of their bilateral relations working to help defeat this threat.” Iran’s military mastermind, America’s nemesis, General Suleimani, draped in black, sporting a grim grin, sipping tea, appeare

“Can’t count the times I’ve thought, oh my god, maybe that guy’s just better than me,” grunted Bulldog. “In the end, they’re not,” he snorted, scratching a torn ear. “They’ve just never been rocked to their core.” The top performer in any given year is supremely confident. He’s operated within the no-fear zone, fully committed in the markets, because he doesn’t yet know how badly it can hurt. “The guys you want manag

Hope all goes well… “The VIX curve was flat at 20-21,” said Roadrunner, the market’s biggest volatility trader. “Everyone expected things to fall apart, which meant we had to rally.” And as stocks spent weeks grinding to all-time highs, on declining volume and collapsing volatility, the VIX curve steepened dramatically. “It’s easier for interesting things to happen when the curve gets steep,” he explained, looking le

“The Prophet took down idols with his bare hands when he went into Mecca,” said the militant, destroying a statue of the ancient Assyrian deity of protection, ignorant of the irony. Because the only thing more dangerous to a jolly band of Jihadis than letting a Buddha statue stand, is knocking one down. And besides, anyone confident in his own faith should quite naturally find no insult in the faith of another. “NEIN

I handed our three youngest kiddies gigantic Toblerone bars. They cheered, hooted. Jackson’s eyes remained closed, waiting. Into his hands I placed a book, on top of which was the photograph of a 13yr old girl, with a beautiful smile, sparkling eyes. “Who is she?” he asked. “Anne Frank,” I replied, “She wrote that when she was your age, it was her diary.” In Amsterdam I’d toured the attic where she spent two years wi