Blog Archives

Oil Dropped Below $60-Markets Do Not Ignore Oil

Oil

[Updated: April 13, 2016] I touched on the global markets having a whiff of deflation two weeks ago in this blog. It seems to have picked up speed. Today the Dow dropped by 300 points and 10-year Treasury yields dropped to much lower levels (2.08%) in the wake of a pretty spectacular drop in oil since August but really accelerating in October.

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Lessons from Steve Schwarzman - Chairman and CEO of Blackstone

Steve Schwarzman

Steve Schwarzman is the co-founder and Chairman and CEO of Blackstone, which is the largest alternative asset management firm in the world. Schwarzman has built a financial colossus and extraordinarily successful asset management firm that is by far the global leader in alternative investments.

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What Is Your Story? Creating A Story Where You Are The Hero

Bob Weir Grateful Dead

Marc Andreessen said something in an interview that I have thought a lot about over the years. I have been a big fan of Joseph Campbell who was an expert on myths and deconstructing the hero’s journey into its most important components and structure.

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Federal Reserve Response to the Market’s Beseeching - Power of Structural Forces

Federal Reserve

It’s been a very busy three weeks of travel so I’m going to keep this one pretty short and sweet. And while I often write a thousand words or more, this post will hopefully support the adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

The Federal Reserve finally responded to the market’s beseeching that it pauses its rate increases and not be on a “damn the torpedoes” path of raising interest rates and shrinking the balance sheet.

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The Skyscraper Indicator - Is the Luxury Home Bubble Bursting?

skyscraper-indicator

A little while back I read an article by Ron Insana regarding New York luxury condos and how he believed that the top was in and the bubble was bursting. This is in conjunction with another article I read on Bloomberg.com about the weakening London luxury home market.

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One Mis-Step Away - Answers Come After the Question is Posed

Question

Answers can only come after a question has been posed. Thus, formulating great questions is the first, and most important, step to growing one’s base of knowledge. As I have written in my book, the two most important questions I need the answers to in terms of our investments at CWS are:

What is going to happen to our Net Operating Income?

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A Return to Charts - Focusing on Interest Rates and the Economy

charts

It’s been a while since I have focused on the economy and interest rates so I will return to one of my periodic chart-o-ramas to try to capture some of the dramatic changes taking place in various markets and how investors have gone from embracing risk to shying away from it,

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From Interest Rates to Insights - Feel to Heal

Interest Rates Gary Carmell

The fact that I’m not going to spend much time on this chart must mean that I still feel the need to release things deep within my subconscious with regard to the loss of Roneet.

10-year-treasury-Constant-Maturity-Rate Interest Rates

While rates were rising I wrote a few times that I was perplexed that they were doing so given the headwinds of tariffs and increasing tension with China,

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China and a New Cold War - Prioritizing National Security over Business and Investors

China Cold War

In some ways, I can understand investors looking through the threat of tariffs on multiple fronts by President Trump as just his standard negotiating tactic to strike a better deal. Despite very derogatory statements directed towards our strong allies and trading partners of Canada,

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T.R., Dana Delany, and the Power of a Platform

Dana Delany Teddy Roosevelt

Kudos to Heidi Garland who handles my social media. She is quite in her postings on my behalf on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I never know what interesting tidbit she might be posting. Of all the platforms, Twitter is the most ephemeral as tweets are sent and they tend to have a short shelf life to them.

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