The Shit-Show Yesterday the New York Times published an article that the Bond Market is screaming one of its worst signals by going into the rare and portentous inverted position. That means long rates are lower than short rates. That means people are getting bearish about the economy and liquidity is starting to dry up. In forty-five years on Wall Street I learned many lessons, but none starker than to pay attention to…
Planning the Beachhead Next week I am going to Rotterdam for a conference. It is a conference I attended last year, which in and of itself is meaningful in that it demarcates the passage of time in our current scientific and commercial initiative. Last year there were 150 in attendance. I suspect this year will be closer to 200 attendees. This is only the third year of this conference and given the money-making nature…
Body of Evidence Charlie had always been a big man. In fact, he had been a big youth and a big child. He never completely understood where it all came from since his mother was 5’4” and came from sturdy Eastern European stock that was certainly broad, but not particularly tall. His father was a tall man for his era at 6’0” and narrow of hip and overall physique. Somehow that genetic combination yielded…
Rhode Scholarship I grew up in awe of Rhode Scholarships. There was something about its student/athlete mix of excellence that made me think that these thirty-two annual selectees were uber-special. The scholarship has sought to “instill a sense of civic-minded leadership and moral fortitude in future leaders.” I thought it was noteworthy when I heard that Bill Clinton was a Rhode Scholar. Then I met my friend Frank in 1991. Frank is a good…
A Low-IQ Individual It turns out that according to Donald Trump, Joe Biden is “a low-IQ individual”. He and Kim Jung Un are in agreement on this. Of course, Kim Jung Un called Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” last year. The word dotard, according to Merriam-Webster means a person in “a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.” Using the thirty-five-year-old North Korean dictator as a benchmark…
PYO Years ago I found some prints done by an artist that concentrated on old barns and clouds. I liked the barn prints, but I loved the cloud prints. There are few things I like as much as a big sky. It may be what appeals to me most about being out west. I guess because there are fewer trees and small hills, there always seems to be a big sky. Lately I have realized…
Guns & Roses Guns do not regularly come into my consciousness, but this morning I got an email from a friend who hails from Oklahoma and who was home for a visit with dear old Mom. This guy is a motorcycling friend who now works as a movie art director. In other words, he is a design professional and a liberal and urban sort of guy. But his roots are in Osage country. He…
Trash Talk I think its fair to suggest that the era of telephone land lines, an important part of our communications network for 100-125 years, is dead. The growth of land-lines pretty much happened in the normal exponential curve that can be seen for any new technological innovation. It began with the Bell patent in 1876, grew to a few million installed lines in 1905, got nationalized as a strategic asset by the government…
The Warrior Cult Patrick was a loyal citizen from the time of his youth. He was born of the Roman Empire to a clerical family living in Western Britain (what we now think of as Wales). He was intended to study the classics and either take his place as a Roman orator and politician, like his father, or perhaps a priest like his grandfather. But his mother was a Celt and a Druid princess at…
Integrity Matters Merriam-Webster says this: Definition of integrity 1: Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: INCORRUPTIBILITY 2: An unimpaired condition: SOUNDNESS 3: The quality or state of being complete or undivided: COMPLETENESS The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. Dwight D. Eisenhower…