Hope all goes well… “My wife is a four-time veteran, she told me to suck it up, an epidural is the least of my problems,” I said to Wesley. “Yeah, she’s got a point sweetheart, you’re not going to be doing a lot of pushing,” said my nurse. “You see all I’m going to do is inject this little bit of something into your drip and all you’re going to do for me is count backwards from thirty to twenty.” In it went. “But I’m

Overall: “I went to buy me another goddamn bump stock,” shrieked the mentally retarded, Prozac-popping American on the Federal no-fly list, terrified it might be his last chance. “But the price jumped on me faster than you can say NRA.” You see, bump stocks were quickly out of stock. That’s what happens when you threaten to regulate something, anything. And when the NRA is open to restricting our 2nd amendment right

Overall: “The United States does not recognize the unilateral referendum,” announced Secretary of State Tillerson. What does it take these days Rex? 93% of voters in the Kurdistan region voted to establish an autonomous state in northern Iraq. And the only surprising thing was that 7% voted against independence. In 1776 an estimated 15-20% of the population in our Thirteen Colonies were British Loyalists. But votes d

Hope all goes well… “My colleagues and I may have misjudged the strength of the labor market, the degree to which longer-run inflation expectations are consistent with our inflation objective, or even the fundamental forces driving inflation,” admitted our Fed Chairwoman. “Our understanding of the forces driving inflation is imperfect, and we recognize that something more persistent may be responsible for the current

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure,” said the Englishman, stepping outside of himself. “That’s Goodhart’s Law.” Charles Goodhart observed that central banks measured money supply, and found certain M1 growth rates to be optimal. But once they targeted that optimal range, M1 lost its value as a measure. Market and economic actors adjusted their behavior to game the M1 system. So central b

Hope all goes well… “Just back from Tokyo,” said the strategist. “Closed door session kind of trip.” Twenty top Japanese and Chinese investors, business leaders. “Not a single one was terribly bothered by Kim Jong Un, it’s the other haircut they’re worried about.” No one has yet made a material portfolio adjustment. A few bought some Nikkei puts. “They’ve learned to live with crazy North Korean Kim’s for decades, the

“Whatever investment style you adopt will blow up someday,” said the CIO. “When that day comes, will you fold or double down?” he continued. We were discussing systematic investing. I see its future dominance and am building my firm accordingly. “If you’ve surrendered control to a machine, how will you make that decision?” he asked. Before I could answer, he supplied his own. “I’d rather practice making decisions alo

Overall: “Did he really call me Rocket Man?” cried the chubby Korean kid. “Yes he did Rocket Man,” said some nervous sycophant in a cheap suit, saluting his Dear Leader. “Did he call me a scared, barking dog?” barked earth’s most powerful man, typing a tweet. “Woof!” answered the President’s pack. “He called me a suicidal madman on Twitter!” stammered shorty, combing his black bouffant. “He said he’d tame Trump with

“Any other thoughts on the matter?” he asked. We’d spent quite some time discussing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and copycat cryptocurrencies popping up faster than North Korean nukes. I mostly listened, he knew far more about the subject; blockchain, distributed legers, mining, halving, hash rates. Unlike the S&P 500 realized volatility’s collapse to 8%, these new creations are realizing at 90%. Which makes them attractiv

Overall: “The global economy will recover, but the timing and strength of the recovery are highly uncertain,” said Ben Bernanke, the experiment’s architect. “Government policy responses around the world will be critical determinants of the speed and vigor of the recovery,” he explained, in January 2009. Lehman failed the previous September 15th. On that day, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet was $905bln, roughly 6%