The World Is Not Static
The Earth operates on longer cycles than we do. Deserts expand and recede. Seas disappear and return. Even Polaris is temporary. Stewardship demands we plan accordingly.
Teach Your Kids About Investing (Without Telling Them)
I spent over 20 years learning how markets work. Then I tried to teach my kids. Charts glazed their eyes. Monopoly taught them the wrong lessons entirely. It took a Renaissance gem-trading board game to make compound growth, concentration risk, and strategic patience click. Sometimes the best financial education doesn’t look like education at all.
The Opportunity Cost of Not Answering the Question
“When a potential client asks a direct question, answer it directly. Even if the response is not known, answering I do not know is acceptable…. It is also acceptable to say no.”
The Scale Problem With Space
What looks close in the night sky almost never is. The Moon, the Sun, and even the nearest stars are separated by distances that defy everyday experience. Using a simple scale model, this piece explores how far “far away” really is, and why space stops being something you can walk through or draw long before you reach the stars.
When Banks Try to Be ETF Hosts, the Margins Usually Win
The most important development is not that banks are stepping back. It is who is stepping forward.
Why Most Family Offices Should Fail (And How to Build the Rare Exception)
Why Most Family Offices Should Fail (And How to Build the Rare Exception) “Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man, but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity“ Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and philosopher (1795-1881) Unfinished portrait of Thomas Carlyle by John Everett Millais (1877). Source: National
Greenland: A Controlled Experiment in Collapse
Twenty years ago I read Jared Diamond’s Collapse. The story of Norse Greenland still matters because it shows how societies rarely fail suddenly. They fail slowly, through reasonable decisions that no longer fit a changing world.
Is Trump Governing Like a Socialist?
Comparisons between Trump and Bernie Sanders are increasingly common. This piece steps away from rhetoric and examines specific executive actions to assess whether recent economic policy relies more on administrative direction than on market pricing and private decision making.
When the Reserve Asset Changes, the Bond Markets Notice First
Bretton Woods anchored money to convertibility. The post-1971 system anchored it to credibility. Today, exchange rates and balance sheet policy are increasingly part of the same surface, and the bond market is where those pressures first become visible. The long end is no longer just pricing inflation. It is pricing institutional discipline.
SFDR 2.0 and the Repricing of Sustainability
Europe has simplified the rules. The question is whether capital will follow credibility instead of labels. A Reset in Market Signals Europe is rewriting how sustainability shows up in financial products. Article 8 and 9 labels are being retired. Three new categories take their place: Sustainable, Transition, and ESG Basics. The stated goal is clarity,
CFA vs CAIA: What Studying Both Markets Reveals About Complementarity
Studying both CFA and CAIA reveals how public and private markets complement each other. Learn about IRR illusions, benchmark thinking, and portfolio allocation insights from 20+ years of experience.
Between Solar Storms and Space Junk: Why We Need to Rethink How We Fund the Stewardship of Space
We rely on a layer of digital scaffolding in orbit, and that scaffolding is vulnerable to forces we barely understand and cannot predict with precision.
Just because we cannot see the risks above us does not mean they are not real.
When a Tip Is Not a Tip: How Service Charges Lost Their Meaning
A tip is a message of thanks. A charge is a matter of accounting. When the two become indistinguishable, the meaning collapses.
From Sovereign Bonds to Monte Cristo: A Tale of Two Waterloos 📚
What connects a research paper on emerging market bonds to Alexandre Dumas’ masterpiece? Both emerged from the post-Napoleonic era—but only one explores what truly counts.
🎭 I just quoted a dead guy who never said what I quoted.
Turns out “what gets measured gets managed” isn’t Drucker either—and the real version warns against exactly what we’re doing with it.
🌿 Unlocking the Secrets of ESG Data: A Guide for Asset Owners!
Differentiating Article 8 funds from Article 8+ claims poses challenges, especially concerning their ESG commitments. The EU’s SFDR regulation provides standardized reporting via the European ESG Template (EET), simplifying data analysis. This facilitates transparency, enabling stakeholders to evaluate genuine ESG performance without sifting through extensive sustainability reports.
🤖 I just watched AI take over my computer.
An AI agent navigated websites and executed tasks while I watched, frozen. The future arrived faster than expected. What happens when AI triggers more AI?
Imagine getting paid to use electricity!
Battery storage costs have plummeted 90% since 2010. The arbitrage opportunity is staring us in the face: bank free solar at noon, sell it back at 7pm when everyone gets home and prices spike.