When you are Black, even normal interactions with law enforcement can be a source of trauma — A few weeks ago, I was pulled over by a police officer. I haven’t received a ticket for a moving violation in decades, so I couldn’t imagine why this was happening. The policeman, a young Asian fellow, explained that I was being ticketed, not for speeding or reckless driving, but…

Most Americans don’t like right-wing extremism. The Republican Party couldn’t care less. — The witticism, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” is often misattributed to Albert Einstein, even though the physicist never actually made the statement. …

Public education today is as segregated as any time since the Civil Rights Movement — When I first entered “the bond business” in 1983. My job was selling securities backed by single-family mortgages. In the beginning, I spent hours trying to understand what was considered a complex financial product. Luckily, most of my prospective clients knew even less about these new securities than I did. …

I’m just asking questions — Last summer, my wife and I attended her boss’s birthday party. I’d never met her coworkers, but my former line of work involved lots of networking, so this was right up my alley. To say the soirée’s location was off the beaten path would be an understatement. Getting to the…

The Court’s right-wing judges are so unethical they’re starting to make investment banks look respectable — By now, you’ve heard about the ethical shitshow inside the U.S. Supreme Court. We’ve repeatedly seen evidence that the highest billionaire bidder can buy off the Court’s justices. To be clear, only the Court’s conservative judges are on the take; if Kagan, KBJ, or Sotomayor were in on the gravy…

Who knew running for president could be so good for business? — One of the first things I learned as a trader was that you never tell a client, “ I told you so.” Regardless of how accurate my advice may have been, rubbing my unheeded but correct call in a client’s face was just bad form. Hopefully, newsletters aren’t subject to…

A much-needed departure from the depressing grind of analyzing current events — My style of writing requires combing through reams of media. Even opinions in opposition to mine are helpful as I attempt to separate fact from fiction. The “process” I have, for lack of a better term, includes pouring over economic data, political opinion pieces, research on governmental policy, and, lately…

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority wants to return us to a past that never actually existed. — Not long ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held the belief that centuries of enslavement of Black Americans followed by decades of Jim Crow laws were fundamental wrongs in need of remedies. Regardless of political persuasion, the Court’s justices held the opinion that segregated lunch counters and “separate but equal” laws…

LIV Golf’s deal with the PGA Tour is about a lot more than sportswashing — How about this for irony: LIV Golf, the upstart league that sued the PGA Tour, accusing America’s premier golf league of operating a monopoly, just agreed to help create an even bigger monopoly. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan would have us believe the deal is more of a partnership agreement…