I don’t know whether its the world we live in these days or the specific circumstances we find ourselves in on our hilltop and in our semi-retired states, but both Kim and I find ourselves increasingly at philosophical odds with people we want to maintain relationships with. This is happening at the personal level (both friends and family to varying degrees) and at the institutional level with the organizations we have been trying to either…
Yesterday, Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani met face-to-face in the Oval Office of the White House. This was characterized by many as a timeless contrast of the fascist and the communist. Fascism is a far-right authoritarian political ideology characterized by dictatorial leadership (concentrated power in a single leader or party), forcible suppression of opposition (elimination of political pluralism and dissent), extreme nationalism (often with racial or ethnic superiority themes), militarism (glorification of military strength and…
In 1985 I was running the largest merchant banking unit in my bank, something called the New York City Division. It was what all my peers aspired to do, but I found it sort of boring to be doing things like helping ITT do its next acquisition or helping Ron Perlman at Revlon reshape his juggernaut. I was asked to go up to talk to our Vice Chairman, who said the Management Committee wanted to…
We all have our quirks. One of my quirks has always been that when I order something, I rarely, if ever, return it. If it doesn’t fit, I stuff it in a lower drawer or just put it in the give-away bin. This is completely contrary to Kim’s way of life with regard to online shopping. The number of packages she gets is only slightly greater than the number of packages she returns. Our Amex…
My dear friend Frank is the guy who mentored me in the handling of private equity investment. He was a venture capitalist long before it was even known how cool it was to be a venture capitalist. Frank is a Marshall Scholar who attended the London School of Economics just when America was entering the 1960s. He did a stint in the Army like any good red-blooded American male did in those days, but luckily…
Today I have been watching the latest Ken Burns extravaganza called The American Revolution, another PBS documentary, this one about the most important revolution in the history of mankind. We all tend to think that it was the French Revolution which was the most impactful, but I think it might be debatable based on how we define “impact”. Most people would be surprised to learn that before heading to Wall Street some fifty years ago,…
This morning I spoke to my friend Steve, who lives in Phoenix. He mentioned that he and his wife Maggie have bitten the bullet and rented an apartment to move to starting in two weeks. He talked about the move less about not wanting the rigors of a large sprawling house and garage, and more about this being an opportunity to finally get a grip on downsizing and cleansing. Steve is of Scandinavian heritage (and…
I am more focused on personal healthcare than I can remember ever being. One obvious reason is watching my brother-in-law struggle with his various maladies and the healthcare system’s back-and-forth about how best to handle it. I’ve seen the importance or specialist expertise in immediately fixing problems. I’ve seen specialists contradicting one another as to the state of their patient, perhaps overly focused on their specialty without adequate consideration of the bigger patient issue. I’ve…
Today here in Southern California, we are having he storm of the year and it has been pouring down much of the morning. Luckily for us, we here in San Diego are not getting the worst of it…the folks in the L.A. area are once again getting the brunt of the deluge. I’m sure we will be hearing about mudslides and such based on the large amount of wildfire-scarred hillside land that is now exposed…
Like many like-minded people across the globe, I am always stunned by the abject lack of guilt that gets displayed by Donald Trump and much of his following, whether in the Administration, Congress, the Judiciary or the general public. Let’s start by asking ourselves what exactly guilt is. Guilt is a powerful moral emotion that serves as an internal compass for our behavior and relationships. Guilt is the uncomfortable feeling we experience when we believe…