No Joking Zone I am a strong believer in the value of a sense of humor. To me, being able to joke around about things sets people at ease and helps to break down the hierarchical barriers that often prevent the level of open communications that are essential in good management. There are many cautionary signs these days about what one jokes about. Since many people create jokes that are either off-color or politically-incorrect…
While Rome Burns Back in 1989 I went to the Amazon on a side-trip connected to a business trip to Brazil. In the prior five years, I had been back and forth to Latin America dozens of times as I ran first the Latin debt crisis team and then built from the ashes the Emerging Markets Department of Bankers Trust. During that time Brazil was our biggest debtor at over $1 billion and one…
The Sovereign State of Mine, Mine, Mine Yes, you heard that tight, Donald Trump is having a temper tantrum over a place he’s never been, has only 50,000 indigenous inhabitants (the size of Sheboygan, Wisconsin), and has only one and a half golf courses, one of which appears to be on a glacier or something similar. What it does have is a lot of land, with less and less ice and something called rare…
Jetsetting Blues Today is fly back to NYC day. We are big fans of JetBlue and their direct transcontinental service, especially their new Mint Service. It is as good as any international or domestic carrier that we fly (acknowledging that many of the Asian and Middle Eastern carriers are pretty awesome if you have mega-bucks). For some renovation reason JetBlue has been relegated for eighteen months to the old Terminal 1 at SAN and that…
Seeing Red I’m generally not inclined to link one story to another and prefer that each story stands on its own as opposed to being part of a series. So, while yesterday’s story is preamble to this one, you be the judge of its independence. Yesterday we bought a red car. We had decided in advance and together to buy a white car, which is really funny to me because I have a favorite and…
Silver Alert Yesterday was a day for acting like I was finally retired. Granted it’s August and lots of people are away enjoying themselves, but I am here in San Diego and it was Monday (the proverbial start of the work week). All our siblings are either off to work or off to home. Lazing about the house has a certain charm to it, but there were a few errands to take care of, so…
Ostrich Outreach I am reading about Quantum Technology and China’s push to dominate the space while Jamie Dimon and the Business Roundtable redefine the basis of corporate purpose to go beyond pure shareholder value. Something he has chosen to support since Rep. Katie Porter schooled him on the cost of living in Irvine, California. When you combine those thoughts with the goings on in China and Hong Kong and the shifting sands of capitalism and…
Remoteness Today I am sitting at my desk in San Diego. We are on a hilltop that looks in every direction. My office faces north, east and west. It is in an alcove and it literally has windows on three sides that gives me the feeling of being suspended over the mountain-top. This is the view from which and the likely time of day during which I will be doing my work from starting in…
This is the Job The eerily omniscient Mark Felt movie ended at 9pm. What an unbelievable story; a President with henchmen installed in DOJ, CIA and FBI and all other agencies who give more loyalty to a misguided and ill-intentioned traitor of a leader than to the nation and people they are meant to serve. That couldn’t possibly happen again, could it? And now I was looking for another movie to take me through to…
Controlled Falling Back in May when we were driving out of Death Valley I experienced the feeling of free falling as we descended out of the high desert to the valley floor. I wrote about it and likened it to parasailing down a mountainside. Today, I took a summer ride up up Palomar Mountain on South Grade Road (S6). It is a nine mile ride up from the Rt. 76, which runs along the base…