D28 made headline news last week. No, we’re not referring to a new Stars War character. And it’s not a winning move in German Bingo. D28 is an iceberg. In what glaciologists said was not a global warming-related event, D28 “calved” off from the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, making quite a splash. Depending…
News reached us last week of the passing of Anthony Mancinelli. According to Guinness World Records, Mr. Mancinelli at 108 was the oldest working barber. Cutting hair since Warren Harding occupied the White House, the barber from Naples emigrated to the US in 1919 and opened his first shop in Newburgh, NY. He kept snipping…
Bastille Day is a French national holiday in July with fireworks and parades. This year it was also celebrated in Paris by a “dazzling” test of the Flyboard Air – a jet-powered hoverboard. Its inventor, Franky Zapata, hoped to become the first to cross the English Channel on such a vehicle. So hopes were riding…
Two years ago we featured on these pages Oumuamua, a comet masquerading as an alien space ship [link]. Last we heard it was heading out of the solar system. Now the Crimean Astrophysics Observatory has detected another interstellar visitor – Borisov, named after its discoverer. About six miles in diameter, this comet has a hyperbolic…
News reached us last week of a two-headed snake found in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. The young timber rattlesnake(s?), nicknamed Double Dave, was discovered by two environmentalists, Dave Schneider and Dave Burkett. Co-headedness, known as polycephaly, happens rarely in nature, and occasionally in finance. Double Dave’s brains operate independently. But two heads…
Despite our known deficiencies on the links, we were invited last week to a superb round of golf with other direct lending professionals at a course in Summit, NJ. ‘Superb’ because we walked away with ‘closest-to-the-pin’ honors. Though in fairness, 48 feet, eight inches is hardly close to anything. And we didn’t even make the…
We mentioned last week Apollo’s $1.8 billion financing for New Media Investment Group’s acquisition of Gannett & Co. It seemed like one of the largest non-bank buy-out deals ever. A banker friend of The Lead Left agreed: “You remember Ares’ Qlik deal in 2016.” she said. “That was a shock to the market when it…
We instinctively knew making “Smooth Sailing” our commentary title last week invited retribution from the market gods. No sooner had we hit the “Send” button to our 50,000 subscribers when the latest round of tariffs on China was launched. Having lived through countless market bumps, our editorial staff decided to press on regardless with our…
“How do you come up with all the ideas for your columns?” That’s a question we frequently hear from readers. Our answer is that we don’t have to come up with them. They present themselves all week, every week. We just watch and listen. Take this week. End of July often involves water-related activities. For…
“There is no passive option in direct lending.” So begins “Selecting Direct Lending Managers,” Chapter 13 in Steve Nesbitt’s Private Debt: Opportunities in Corporate Direct Lending. This asset class is indeed available only through active management. As we’ve discussed in this series, the Cliffwater Direct Lending Index (CDLI) is an excellent proxy for middle market…