D.I.S.T.O.R.T.I.O.N. A symphony conductor listens to the orchestra’s sound. A chef savors tastes and senses aromas. A ski racer surveys a slope for the perfect line. Credit investors study delinquency trends. They tell the story of a credit portfolio’s performance. What is Delinquency? In credit terms, delinquency is a state between two endpoints: “current” and…
Coming Together While the public sector has been capturing the limelight for its massive effort to lead the nation through this crisis, individuals, communities and corporations have also been working tirelessly on our behalf. Here are just a few examples of noteworthy initiatives in the private sector: Almost 1 million job openings announced by companies…
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill Living History The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on Friday March 27, on the heels of the $350 billion Families First Coronavirus Response Act enacted just…
A trillion here, a trillion there This week we saw something we haven’t seen in U.S. politics in a long time: bipartisanship. The Senate passed an unprecedented $2+ trillion CARES-3 (“Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act”) bill that is expected to pass through the House and be signed quickly by the President. The bill…
What only a couple of weeks ago seemed like a distant distraction has become an all-consuming battle for most people on the planet. Our screens and inboxes are being inundated with Covid-19 updates and disconcerting headlines, which are almost certainly going to deteriorate over the coming weeks. We are all worried about our health, families,…
Few things in life are as easy as a layup or as certain as a slam dunk. We have taken these terms from basketball to describe everyone’s favorite opportunity, a sure thing……..So why is everyone shooting the “Three?” It’s called risk-adjusted return and it took an NBA team owned by West Coast VCs and operated…
“If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.” Dale Carnegie Carnegie was talking about how to make friends and influence people, but for our purposes the quote helps to explain our approach to building diversified portfolios of small balance, low duration loans. A beehive is an incredible enterprise, with tens of…
In “Unforgiven,” Clint Eastwood’s almost reformed assassin, Bill Munny, explains the impact of murder on its victim. “It’s a hell of a thing killing a man,” Munny explains to the Schofield Kid. “You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.” The same might be said for another outpost of the unforgiven:…
“I been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time I’d have said the right thing, but I must have used the wrong line I’d have took the right road, but I must have took a wrong turn Would’ve made the right move, but I made it at the wrong time…
Author William Faulkner said, “In writing, you must kill your darlings.” Faulkner’s advice to writers wasn’t directed at brevity, but at the discipline of abandoning a phrase or idea that you deeply love if it no longer serves the story. Hemingway was more direct. “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in,…