The Retirement Survey I got a reminder today from Cornell University to participate in their Retirement Activity Survey. I decided to fill it out more for interest about what they were asking and trying to sort out rather than to be a good retiree. To begin with, I feel a little funny being considered a Cornell faculty retiree. Yes, I taught at Cornell for ten years and yes, as a 50% employee I qualified…
Money Matters That old expression, “I hate it when that happens” comes to mind whenever I find myself thinking of money. It’s funny, I made a career out of running and building large money management businesses (Bankers Trust Private Banking, Deutsche Asset Management, Bear Stearns Asset Management) and yet I have little or no respect for money. Wow, that seems like a big disconnect, but I would argue that the experience of running money…
I love to Singa In 1936 Warner Brothers produced a Merrie Melodies cartoon short about a little crooner owl who called himself Owl Jolson. He was born to German parents who were traditional classical music buffs, just like Al Jolson’s 1927 classic movie, The Jazz Singer. Like in that movie, he was cast out for his musical preferences and found his way to Gong Productions (now you know where Chuck Barris got his Gong…
Money Laundering In 1994 I was asked by my superiors at Bankers Trust to take over the global private banking business. I had mixed feelings about the assignment since I had only been in my prior job for eighteen months (just about the time one gets a head of steam going) and private banking had been one of the backwaters of banking for years, being what was called a “walk the dog” service business. …
The Art of Leisure I’m learning. Today is just another May Saturday. There is nothing special about it. I’ve done my May motorcycle ride. Memorial Day is a week away. I have a business trip to a conference in Rotterdam in two weeks, and then three weeks after that (six weeks from now) we have our annual family trip (this year to Ireland). That leaves seven more weeks of summer and the month of September…
The Gulf Between Us Chuck wanted desperately to make this deal happen in Qatar. There were many good reasons for that, but none was better than the fact that seeing this groundbreaking technology advanced and even accelerated by the funding only a wealth pool like the Qataris could resource was the best of them. Everyone thought Chuck was all about making money and a casual observer would be justified in that thought, but someone…
I’m Back in the Saddle Again I’m very excited at the moment. I’m sitting at San Diego airport on a rainy, foggy Sunday when Kim and I are heading back to New York after a ten-day hiatus out here for a motorcycle ride and a few days of communing with our Casa Moonstruck and our siblings. Our flight is delayed two hours due to weather and I don’t seem to give a shit. First of…
Lip-Synch Dave was partially of Italian descent and thus had more or less olive skin. He wasn’t swarthy looking, but he generally took sun well. That meant that he tanned easily and wasn’t prone to sunburns. He had had a sunburn or two during his life, but not often and not easily. He used protective lotion, but only if we going out to sunbath or it was particularly hot. He was not a lather-up-rain-or-shine kind…
The House Janice sat at the kitchen table sipping her coffee and watching the morning news on the secret drop-down flat-screen TV she had installed in the kitchen cabinet when she renovated the kitchen last year. It was her dream kitchen repeat with six-burner cooktop, twin dishwashers for party clean-up and a full beverage center with wine cooler and beer/soda cooler drawers. It was accented in her favorite color, fire-engine red, and had a mosaic…
Ala-fucking-bama I’m very upset with the entire state of Alabama. It is interfering with my marriage. My wife is so upset with the newly passed and signed abortion law that she is railing about men interfering with women’s rights to be in control of their own bodies. I have pointed out that it was a female legislator in Alabama that sponsored the bill and a female governor that signed the bill into unconstitutional law. I…