Playing the Waiting Game This weekend I learned of the passing of an old colleague from Bankers Trust. He had been in hospice and I had tried to go see him several weeks ago, but was told by the family that he had faded too far by then. I jumped on the visit the day I returned from a trip, having heard he was in hospice when I left for the trip. I literally chose…
It’s a Rich Man’s World Money, Money, Money was written by ABBA in 1976, the very year I graduated business school and started a forty-three-year (so far) life in the business world. The song is ostensibly about a woman (presumably a lithe young Swede) trying to find a rich man to take her out of her misery of working all day and all night to pay the bills. She wants to go to Las Vegas…
The Princess and the Grain of Rice In 1992 I was asked to take over the Retirement Services Department of Bankers Trust Company. At the time, Bankers Trust was the leading retirement services bank with more 401(k) participants being serviced and more pension funds being serviced than anywhere else. I had been involved in the space indirectly by buying the largest pension company in Chile for the bank and buying, creating, and building an array…
What Makes Me Sick When you get past sixty, health suddenly becomes a big issue regardless of your state of repair. It all makes sense and you don’t need a big imagination to figure out why. For the longest time when I was young I thought I would be lucky to make sixty. Now, at sixty-five I have a greatly revised point of view, but probably not for the reasons you suspect. I have always…
What a Difference a Day Makes Easter Sunday is meant to be a day of rebirth. I’ve never been a strict interpretationalist when it comes to the Bible, so you won’t see me talking about rising from the dead so much as mentally doing some major Spring cleaning. We do all have our “come to Jesus” moments in life and I feel as though thanks to AG William Barr, who could have given this report…
Napping on the Quaalude Sofa It’s been a long time since we’ve done this. I’ve only been with Kim for fourteen years, but I can honestly say that I haven’t done this since the ‘80’s, when it was all the rage. And then we did it more in the Hamptons than anywhere else. It’s nice to do it again and I have to be honest and say that it was not without some trepidation that…
Tesla Magic My brother-in-law is all about leading-edge technology. He bent my ear for years about an electric car. So, a few years ago I decided to buy a Tesla X after sitting in one and finding it quite comfortable for me. The X is the Tesla version of an SUV even though it looks like an SUV-light. I got the regular 75D model since the quickness and top speed were more than enough for…
The Bagel Suit My father was married seven times, as best I can count. He had three of us with my mother (marriages #1 and #2). He had two daughters with Shirley (#3). He had another daughter from a marriage in Northern California (#4). He had a son from an annulled marriage in Mexico City (#5). I can’t identify #6 or the possibility of children, but I know Bobbie, #7, with whom he had no…
Sneaky Pete When I first heard Elizabeth Warren speak on the topic of bank regulation, I considered her a reactionary socialist. Over the years, I have listened carefully to her ideas and think she has many fine and well-reasoned ideas that would greatly benefit the nation. Universal healthcare and even universal income are enlightened and forward-looking ideas that could make a positive and meaningful improvement in the life of Americans. That, of course, would hinge…
Science and Other Flights of Fancy In 1964, at the age of ten, Chris almost burned his family’s house to the ground. The fault lay in the science. Luckily, the damage was limited to the downstairs bedroom closet and it’s surrounding area. That was lucky because this was an expanded log cabin from about 1850 (the oldest home in the neighborhood). It was old enough and dry enough, being all wood, to have gone up…