Back in 2010 I was teaching at Cornell in my Pensions class and I was trying to explain to a rather arrogant young graduate student that gathering enough wealth so as not to need to worry about retirement savings per se (i.e. insufficient pension asset accumulation or what is often called unfunded pension liabilities) was a false sense of comfort. My point was that you have to think about the broadest implications of such macro…
We’re almost at the end of February and for whatever reason this year February in the North County of San Diego seems particularly wonderful. It’s 8 AM and we are about to get in the car and drive to Phoenix but in typical fashion I am ready and raring to go a full 45 minutes before our scheduled departure. Buddy is off with his doggy pals at daycare either wondering when we’ll come back or…
Two weeks from today, I will be in Valparaiso Chile preparing to board the Viking Jupiter cruise ship for an 18 day trip around Cape Horn ending in Buenos Aires Argentina. My biggest concern at the moment is the status of my right knee, which is still suffering from a fall 10 days ago where I landed with my full weight on a rock on that right knee. I have generally felt that it was…
We all know that I have too much time on my hands and that my laziness drives me more into sedentary pursuits than walking the roads in my neighborhood. That means I am reading more than ever these days. I have just read two articles that in strange combination have given me even more confusing thoughts than normal that I feel inclined to share. I feel like a kid who has just realized that outer…
Today I called a long-time friend who stills lives in New York City. I tend to see him whenever I’m in New York and the last time was in mid-December when I met with him and another mutual friend. We spent a full four hours at lunch having a wonderful time talking about our days in the trenches at Bear Stearns Asset Management, back what is now eighteen years ago. That’s a long time. It’s…
My high school buddies and I have been exchanging emails of late for the first time in many many years. The main topic is our days of motorcycling through La Dolce Vita streets of Rome in the late 1960’s. It’s fascinating to hear the recollections and perspectives of guys in their 70’s remembering their days of youthful exuberance from when they were 16-18 years old. Those days our heads were filled mostly with testosterone and…
I must have too much time on my hands because lately I have developed some macro themes as to what some of the next big things are that are going to assail us due to all the goings on. As much as I would like to blame everything on Donald Trump, I think that is becoming trite because while he is an empowering agent for much of the change which we are experiencing here and…
Steroids are synthetic substances similar to hormones like testosterone. They’re similar to hormones in several key ways. In terms of chemical structure, both are lipid-based molecules with a specific four-ring structure called a cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene nucleus (say that three times fast). This shared molecular architecture allows them to interact with similar cellular receptors. In terms of their biological function, like hormones, steroids act as chemical messengers in the body. They bind to specific receptor proteins, typically…
Today is the start of a three-day soaking rain that will do wonders for the garden and the reservoirs. At this moment, my visibility to the west and north is about fifty feet and to the east its maybe 100 feet. The shroud of mist is upon us and the warmth of the living room is certainly a comfort with Buddy curled up on the top of the sofa back, making a warm furry headrest…
We all know that pain is a part of life and from a young age we learn how we can best cope with it. We have all seen the Pain Scale at the doctor’s office that goes from 1 to 10 and uses little round colored faces to go from a blue/green smiley face at the #1 level (No Pain) all the way up to the deep red wincing or crying face (Worst Pain Imaginable)…