It is January 2019. I’m the sole guest in an elegant dining room where a dozen tables are set with starched napkins and crystal water goblets awaiting patrons who will never arrive. Floor length drapes are pulled back and neatly tied on windows that look out over a manicured garden. A portrait of young Queen Elizabeth in a white gown is displayed above mahogany wainscoting. … Continue reading Bulawayo’s Ghosts
WASHINGTON: The Peterson Institute for International Economics on April 10 said the US economy is currently contracting at an unprecedented 50% annual rate with unemployment likely to reach 18% by June. But if the virus is contained and the shutdown is lifted, the Washington-based think tank predicts an equally rapid snap-back with the economy growing at a 50% pace in the July to September quarter. In … Continue reading What Will a Recovery Look Like? Part II
WASHINGTON; April 9, 2020: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented global economic shutdown, the kind of black swan event or exogenous economic shock we’ve been warned about. It happened with frightening speed. In just six-weeks the US economy went from 50-year low unemployment to 17 million people out of work. Share prices, at a peak in mid-February, plunged over 20% into a bear market. We’re experiencing a global … Continue reading What Will a Recovery Look Like?
Oakhurst, CA: In 1903 famed naturalist John Muir brought President Theodore Roosevelt to Yosemite National Park in California’s High Sierras. They spent three days hiking, riding and camping in the wild. Roosevelt was smitten with the beauty of the place and he and Muir declared “wilderness saves the human spirit.” These two pioneer conservationists began their Yosemite journey at Mariposa Grove, home to the world’s oldest tall trees, … Continue reading Hiking to Yosemite’s Tall Trees
In 1891 Mark Twain brought his wife and three young daughters to live in Berlin for six months. He wrote of the German capital, “it’s a new city, the newest I have ever seen, the main mass of the city looks as if it had been built last week.” The same might be said today 75 years after World War II’s fire and fury reduced … Continue reading Letter From Berlin: Wealth and Worry
