He Should Have Bet On Cattle Futures -- May 11, 2016

Wow, he should have bet on cattle futures. Chelsea's husband lost 90% of his hedge fund's value:

The son-in-law of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is reportedly closing a hedge fund he started that bet on a Greek economic revival but lost around 90% of its value.

Two sources told the New York Times that Eaglevale Partners, the hedge fund firm founded by Marc Mezvinsky, husband to Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, will be closing the Eaglevale Hellenic Opportunity fund. The fund had raised around $25 million to buy stocks from Greek banks and government debt.

The principle behind the fund was that the Greek economy, after going through the crises that have made big news the past few years, would see a revival that could be a boon for investors. The Times notes, though, that while some investors scored big gains, others suffered the fate of Mezbinsky’s fund, depending on the timing of the bets.

Most of the loss, I presume, was "other people's money," something his family knows a lot about.

By the way, guess where Marc learned his financial skills: after Stanford University he worked eight years for ... drum roll ... Goldman Sachs. We should have known.

Another famous employee of Goldman Sachs (actually the CEO at one time), Jon Corzine, also lost a lot of "other people's money." From wiki: [Corzine's] company filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2011 after losing $1.6 billion of customer money and Corzine resigned on November 4, 2011.

Whatever.

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The ObamaEconomy: It Takes A Village To Raise A Child

The Problem: They Never Leave Home

Bloomberg talks about the new American home -- multi-generational living: adult children living at home, as a form of downsizing.

I love these euphemisms.

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The Music Page

The 60's were a huge decade for music. I am watching and re-watching two documentaries, one on Bob Dylan and one on the Bee Gees; and listening over and over to the Beatles "1" album -- their 27 number 1 hits.

It is "instructive" to follow these three (the Beatles, the Bee Gees, and Bob Dylan) simultaneously through the 60's. Add Brian Wilson and I think one could argue one has the four most important / influential song-writers of the decade. I don't know much about Brian Wilson, so I can't say much about him. But my thoughts regarding the other three:

Elevator, 30-second sound bites:

• Bob Dylan: not understood at the time; probably the most important of the three.
• The Beatles: polished; great production; as much instrumentalists as singers, song-writers.
• Bee Gees: vocalists and song-writers; as such, better than Dylan or the Beatles.
• Of the three, Bob Dylan was probably the one genius. 
• The best voices, best harmonizers, most distinctive voices: the Bee Gees.
• It's most interesting to compare the first #1 songs of each of the three (the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Bob Dylan).