Close on the heels of commissioning its first home built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, "high resolution photos...show for the first time...China's third carrier (under construction) but the first to be equipped with modern technology. At the waterline, the new ship will be about 1,000 feet long and 130 feet wide." This, according to a Washington Post article September last. China, very clearly, means business. Quoted in USNI News around the same time, US Admiral Christoph

Today, the Electoral College meets to confirm former Vice President Joe Biden's promotion to official President-Elect. The system has been working over time, just as it has been worked over time. It hasn't bowed, it hasn't broken. Some even say that despite (because of?) wholesale changes to voting rules and access, it may have been the safest election "ever." We will leave that to the lawyers and to the historians. If that weren't enough, the day has finally arrived when

As simple a post as we can write on a beautiful winter's day in Princeton, New Jersey: "If you choose to sail upon the seas of banking, build your bank as you would your boat, with the strength to sail safely through any storm." (Joseph Safra, 1 September 1938- 10 December 2020) When we interact with company managements and institutional investors, without fail, the conversation turns to capital allocation. For capital intensive companies like banks, this means a strong per

They say a good picture can be worth a thousand words. Well, it's just as true that a bad stock chart always tells a sad tale. As we prepare to gratefully leave 2020 behind, while always remembering the unfathomable suffering that marked a year of global pandemic alongside continued social and geopolitical disruption, we look ahead to 2021. It brings the promise of vaccines, and the enduring hope for global peace, economic progress, social justice, and environmental healin