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Hope all goes well… Dusted off an anecdote about the mysterious nature of markets, physics, quantum entanglement. I take late summer off from writing. Making more space for family, reading, wandering. Wishing the same for you. All the very best, Eric Week-in-Review: Mon: US durable goods orders -9.4% (-9.3%e), factory orders -4.8% as exp. South Korea CPI 2.1% as exp. Turkey CPI 33.52% (34.10%e). Trump says he will be

Hope all goes well… Dusted off a piece I wrote in January 2021 titled The Case for Digital Assets (see below). I figured back then that it would probably take a decade or so to integrate blockchain technologies into the foundation of global finance. We seem to be tracking. And the process should accelerate with the regulatory changes now underway – the infrastructure race is on, starting with dollar stablecoin.

Hope all goes well… “You go ahead at your training pace, I’ll carry on at mine,” I said to Charlie, my youngest, now taller than me, the two of us headed up the mountain, the trail straight, insanely steep, a 1,500-foot climb. “You’re going to smoke me buddy, wait at the top.” And off he went at what seemed like a run, an eager 16-year-old’s pace, leaving me to my thoughts, so many questions, heart pounding. The memo

Anecdote: “First half of the ruck went fast,” said Teddy, final day of Air Assault School, known as the toughest ten days in the army. Roughly half the cadets fail. On the last day of Air Assault, you must march 12-miles in less than 3hrs, carrying 40lbs of gear. “Then out of nowhere, I cramped up. I was well ahead of time and kept going, punching my legs to loosen up.” A pace car with paramedics carries up the rear,

Hope all goes well… An unexpected joy of having kids in the Academies is getting to know their friends, living their extraordinary lives. Of his class of 150 at BUDS, 30 survived Hell Week. He texted us a picture of the top of his raw head, the hair worn away. Someone’s got to carry the boats. “We were marching through sand, delirious, the guy in front of me wasn’t carrying his weight, he’d been lagging for weeks. We

Anecdote: Back in the days of box cutters and cavemen, a terrorist attempted to light an explosive hidden in the sole of his shoe. His fellow passengers tackled him. And for 20yrs, Americans have removed our footwear in airport screening. The TSA just removed that requirement, our technology has caught up, finally. I was talking to the CIO about a rather dark, high-conviction investment theme. Technology is empowerin

Hope all goes well… I vaguely remember what happened after the stock market closed on Liberation Day. Traders sold whatever they could, S&P 500 futures, Bitcoin too, which they drilled down to around 82,300. And then when Trump bombed Iran on that random weekend not so long ago, markets were all closed except for Bitcoin, which they slammed down to 98,250. I suppose that the boys who bought back their leveraged s

Hope all goes well… Dusted off an anecdote from 2017 about raising kids, and life (see below). Wishing you all a very happy 4th of July long weekend. Back next Sunday with full weekend notes. E Week-in-Review: Mon: US Chicago PMI 40.4 (43.0e). UK GDP 1.3% as exp. Germany CPI 2.0% (2.2%e). Italy CPI 1.7% (1.8%e). Poland CPI 4.1% (4.0%e). The EU is willing to accept Trump’s 10% universal tariff but wants lower rates on

Anecdote: London, England. Five of us on stage, asset managers. Four years ago, there were 200 people in the audience. Last year 550. And now, 850. No blue hair. Still plenty of billionaires. Even the guys in sneakers wore suits. About every other attendee had their laptops open all day, taking notes, analysts. Brevan, Citadel, Millenium, Moore, Tudor, the big quant shops, and all the major allocators. Crypto is grow

Hope all goes well… “He tried to cut spending through peace,” barked Biggie Too. “But the war in Ukraine is raging on. And now he got this new taste for B2s and bunker busters,” bellowed Biggie, Chief Global Strategist for one of Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail affairs. “And he tried to DOGE discretionary spending, but that was a bust too.” Indeed. “So, looks like he’s going to go for broke and pump this economy into a