Author: John E. Charalambakis

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: March 12, 2024 |

The Irreversibility of the Unknown Reality: The Markets, Karl Barth, and Nuclear Statecraft, Part I

In this series, we will seek to discuss Reality as the trajectory of three parallel lines that eventually intersect: Market dynamics, geopolitics, and Karl Barth’s writings on creation. In his […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: February 27, 2024 |

When Statues Come to Dinner Parties: Don Giovanni’s Reflections on Japan and China

In the final act of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, the statue of Commendatore – whom Don Giovanni had killed – appears at the dinner. After all, Don Giovanni in his […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: February 13, 2024 |

Jean Bodin, Valuations, and the Invisible Foundations of the Market

As the old saying goes, good days tend to reward cheap assets, especially when things start on a wave of mysticism and end up as politics. Furthermore, when we look […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: January 30, 2024 |

The Debt, the Fed, and that Sycophant Iago

Self-deception and evil are the two main characteristics of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. Like Otello (in Verdi’s opera) who defended Cyprus against the Ottomans (a pre-incarnation to Lawrence of Arabia) Othello […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: January 23, 2024 |

Market Paradoxes, Risks, and the Ming Dynasty: Technophilic Trends Meet Unpredictability and the Fear of Shocks

Last Friday, the S&P 500 reached an all-time high. However, the equal-weighted index of the S&P 500 is still below the old record (as shown in the graph to the […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: January 3, 2024 |

Looking Forward to 2024: Optimistically Cautious While Assessing Possible Choking Points of Disruption

The actual data for 2023 turned out to be better than the projections. If those trends continue in 2024, then optimism should underline the New Year. Despite fighting a pandemic […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: December 28, 2023 |

Exceptionalism and The Pillars of Society

The invitation for the end-of-the-year flight was a bit unusual. It had an image that looked familiar, as I have a copy of the painting in my office. Obviously, I […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: December 12, 2023 |

Assessing the Outlook for 2024

John E. Charalambakis & Mohamed Ramzi Roshdi We all remember, not with the fondest memories, the market performance in 2022. The S&P 500 lost 19.4%, and even long-term government bonds […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: November 28, 2023 |

Oh My: Wild Market Moves and Geopolitical Hubris from Aeschylus to Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Part II

Market bifurcation, as discussed in the previous commentary, is not an exclusive right of markets and geopolitical philosophy/practices. Ten days ago, OpenAI (the parent company of ChatGPT) demanded that right […]

By: John E. Charalambakis | On: November 14, 2023 |

Oh My: From Euripides and the Tragedy of the Commons to the Nietzschean Tragedy of a Bifurcated Market and Geopolitical Reality, Part I

It was April 16, 1917, when Vladimir Lenin stepped down from the train at the Finland train station in a triumphant return – after 17 years in Swiss exile – […]