Being clear-eyed and full-hearted doesn’t mean being passive, weak, or silent.
It means resisting every effort to supplant our autonomy of mind with symbols of identity, no matter the source.
Extreme language during election season isn’t anything new.
But this time it really is different. Our response must be different, too.
The question is not whether Trump will accept the election result if he loses. He won’t.
The question is whether a Missionary with actual power will join him.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m thoroughly despondent about the calcification, mendacity, and venal corruption that I think four years of Clinton™ will impose. Trump, on the other hand … I think he breaks us. Maybe he already has. He breaks us because he transforms every game we play as a country — from our domestic social games to our international security games — from a Coordination Game to a Competition Game.
The outcomes of NFL games are inordinately influenced by officials relative to other sports. This is not new. The Narrative environment faced by the NFL in 2021, however, IS new.
I’m not sure they’re ready for it.
When a famous person shakes his or her finger at you, they’re not telling you a fact.
They’re telling you how to think about a fact.
Called It - Election Edition
Men of God in the City of Man is a nine part series about a narrative virus that infected the charismatic and Pentecostal churches in the United States. It isn't a story about Christian Nationalism. It isn't a story about January 6th. It isn't a story about why people voted for Trump. It is a story about a story. It is a story about the language that created a self-sustaining movement defined by its unwavering belief in a fundamentally corrupt electoral system.
Recent Notes
Pricing Power (pt. 3) – Government Collaboration
What killing active investment management? It’s not some monster hiding behind the rabbit. No, it IS the little white bunny. It’s the Zeitgeist of capital markets transformed into a political utility, innocuous on the surface … but with killer teeth.
How do you defeat the Zeitgeist? You don’t. The smart move, in fact, is to help the killer rabbit.
But there IS another way.
The Zeitgeist | 2.22.2019
Highs on trade hopes, mixed on trade talks, creepy refrigerators, CRM for Main Street and Insurance Love Stories.
Gravity Sucks
Usually we draw attention to narratives not because we like them, but because we believe investors can’t afford to ignore them. But the intense gravity of a directionless narrative is a different matter altogether.
The Zeitgeist | 2.21.2019
In which we focus on struggles and changes at asset managers, Soc Gen misses the boat, and markets ‘move’, ‘inch’ and ‘advance’ on trade optimism.
The Zeitgeist | 2.20.2019
Pesky stock analysts, an earnings season focus on power and energy, and a late run on descriptive terms for the China Trade negotiations.
In the News | Week of 2.19.2019
We’ve moved on to a motley crew on the back end of earnings season, with a couple noteworthy larger names: Walmart and Berkshire Hathaway.
ET Live – 2.19.19
We’re back with a third edition of ET Live! On the docket for this session: MMT and the Zeitgeist that brought it to the forefront of our political and economic discussions.
The Zeitgeist | 2.19.2019
In which we learn about new voices in the hospital, we pile on the Fed, and we exult in stocks “edging up” on trade talk progress (I’ve forgotten what take we’re on).
C.A.F.
The hardest job for any financial adviser is knowing when a fiduciary mindset should guide us to take a stand, and when it should guide us to adopting flexibility. If we claim to have a process, we have to have an answer for this.
The Zeitgeist | 2.15.2019
Lots of ‘playing’, ditching New York, and a piece of hard-hitting analysis demonstrating that sitting at the crossroads of government and business can be personally profitable.
Duck and Cover
We don’t have to treat it like a cardinal sin any time an author, politician, consultant, adviser or expert tries to make us feel a certain way. Just don’t be the only one at the table who doesn’t realize what’s happening.
The Zeitgeist | 2.14.2019
Today’s Zeitgeist poses a riddle: what is noxious, may not be a catalyst, extends a rally and awaits cues all at the exact same time?
The Zeitgeist | 2.13.2019
In the 8th or extra innings (what about the 9th?), allocations to alternatives, fixed income ETFs, offensive hacking and “markets up on trade deal hopes” (again).
The Zeitgeist | 2.12.2019
Maine cashes in, investors cash out, stocks get a lift from trade hopes (version 28), the Brexit pantomime and a shadow over strawberry fields.
In the News | Week of 2.11.2019
Soft drinks, REITs, midstream companies, CROs and video games round out the start to the second half of earnings season.
The Zeitgeist | 2.11.2019
Why VC loves fintech for some reason, populist messages, “optimism over trade talks” take 25, and more popullsm.
But We Need the Eggs
We’re all passengers in the backseat of the State-driven car, and we all suspect that our drivers might be high-functioning lunatics, and we’re all terrified about what they might do next.
But we need the eggs.
Blast from the Past
What the rise and fall of baseball cards can and can’t tell us about bubbles and the turning of markets into utilities.
The Zeitgeist | 2.8.2019
Fawning Tesla press, coming storms, ESG and data, striking a balance between tasteful display of art collections and pay cuts at banks, and post-Yorkshire pudding walks.
The Zeitgeist | 2.7.2019
Today’s specials: Megadevelopments in Chicago, online grocery shopping, slowdowns at Apple, vagueness at Alphabet and Canadian weed.