My former boss and mentor, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, was extremely proud of his grove of black walnut trees on his 604-acre farm southwest of Indianapolis. You might say he was obsessed with them.
The first half of 2020 has been incredibly active for our members. The industry has been dealing with the volatility caused by the pandemic while having to do so from home.
12,403 days. That’s the estimate of the number of times that Bill Murray painfully relives the same day as TV weatherman Phil Connors in the movie Groundhog Day.
Greetings to FIA members from my home office on Capitol Hill where I split my days between my makeshift offices in my laundry room and basement. It’s certainly not glamorous but the good news is that I can simultaneously advocate for our markets while knocking off a couple of loads of laundry.
These markets were created to serve Main Street businesses, energy companies, pension funds, agricultural producers and lenders who need to manage risk and discover prices. And it's when our industry thinks of itself as an "industry" first and loses sight of our customers that we get into trouble.
I don't want to sound like a cranky old man on a porch, but flabbidy-flew, the world is changing fast. As the chart in this column shows, the pace of technological adoption is accelerating rapidly, and we now have access to inventions that previous generations could only dream about.