Succinct Summations for the Week Ending 7.21.17
Succinct Summations for the week ending July
21st, 2017:
Positives:
1. S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, and Russell 2000 each made new all-time highs this week.
2. Leading indicators rose 0.6% in June, above the 0.5% estimated increase.
3. Housing starts rose 8.3 percent in June to a 1.215 million annualized rate;
4. MBA mortgage composite rose 6% w/o/w. Refinances rose 13%.
5. Jobless claims fell to 233k, down from 247k previously.
Negatives:
1. The Empire State index came in at 9.8 in July, below the 15 expected and down from 19.8 previously.
2. Inflation continues to be absent with import and export prices both falling 0.2% m/o/m.
3. The Philly General Business Conditions Index fell from 27.6 to 19.5
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts: “I Wish You Bad Luck”
This is very insightful:
We were proud to welcome The Honorable John G.
Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, as our Commencement
speaker.
Thank you very much.
Rain, somebody said, is like confetti from
heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning, joining the rest of us
at this wonderful commencement ceremony. Before we go any further, graduates,
you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and
guardians. Two or three or four years ago, they drove into Cardigan, dropped you
off, helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates.
It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears
back to an emptier and lonelier house. They did that because the decision about
your education, they knew, was about you. It was not about them. That sacrifice
and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not
just about you. It is also about them, so I hope you will stand up and turn
around and give them a great round of applause. Please.
Now when somebody asks me how the remarks at
Cardigan went, I will be able to say they were interrupted by applause.
Congratulations, class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone. An
important stage of your life is behind you. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you
it is the easiest stage of your life, but it is in the books. While you’ve been
at Cardigan, you have all been a part of an important international community as
well. And I think that needs to be particularly recognized.
[Roberts gave brief remarks in other languages.]
Now around the country today at colleges, high
schools, middle schools, commencement speakers are standing before impatient
graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things. They will say that
today is a commencement exercise. ‘It is a beginning, not an end. You should
look forward.’ And I think that is true enough, however, I think if you’re going
to look forward to figure out where you’re going, it’s good to know where you’ve
been and to look back as well. And I think if you look back to your first
afternoon here at Cardigan, perhaps you will recall that you were lonely.
Perhaps you will recall that you were a little scared, a little anxious. And now
look at you. You are surrounded by friends that you call brothers, and you are
confident in facing the next step in your education.
It is worth trying to think why that is so.
And when you do, I think you may appreciate that it was because of the support
of your classmates in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the dorms. And
as far as the confidence goes, I think you will appreciate that it is not
because you succeeded at everything you did, but because with the help of your
friends, you were not afraid to fail. And if you did fail, you got up and tried
again. And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you failed
again, it might be time to think about doing something else. But it was not just
success, but not being afraid to fail that brought you to this point.
Now the commencement speakers will typically
also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and
I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be
treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope
that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of
loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that
you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to
time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand
that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is
not completely deserved either.
And when you lose, as you will from time to
time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It
is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be
ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will
have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not,
they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend
upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.
Now commencement speakers are also expected to
give some advice. They give grand advice, and they give some useful tips. The
most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. It is an odd piece
of advice to give people dressed identically, but you should — you should be
yourself. But you should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect, it
does not mean don’t make any changes. In a certain sense, you should not be
yourself. You should try to become something better. People say ‘be yourself’
because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you
to be. But you can’t be yourself if you don’t learn who are, and you can’t learn
who you are unless you think about it.
The Greek philosopher Socrates said, ‘The
unexamined life is not worth living.’ And while ‘just do it’ might be a good
motto for some things, it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how
to live your life that is before you. And one important clue to living a good
life is to not to try to live the good life. The best way to lose the values
that are central to who you are is frankly not to think about them at all.
So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as
you get ready to go to your new school. Other the last couple of years, I have
gotten to know many of you young men pretty well, and I know you are good guys.
But you are also privileged young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you
came here, you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is:
Don’t act like it.
When you get to your new
school, walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves,
shoveling the snow or emptying the trash. Learn their name and call them by
their name during your time at the school. Another piece of advice: When you
pass by people you don’t recognize on the walks, smile, look them in the eye and
say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the
young man who smiles and says hello, and that is not a bad thing to start
with.
You’ve been at a school with just boys. Most
of you will be going to a school with girls. I have no advice for you.
The last bit of advice I’ll give you is very
simple, but I think it could make a big difference in your life. Once a week,
you should write a note to someone. Not an email. A note on a piece of paper. It
will take you exactly 10 minutes. Talk to an adult, let them tell you what a
stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope. Again, 10 minutes, once a week.
I will help you, right now. I will dictate to you the first note you should
write. It will say, ‘Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain
School].’ Say: ‘I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in
English. Football or soccer practice is hard, but I’m enjoying it. Thank you for
teaching me.’ Put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean
a great deal to people who — for reasons most of us cannot contemplate — have
dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said, that will take
you exactly 10 minutes a week. By the end of the school year, you will have sent
notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because you
did, and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one
else is going to carry that dividend during your time at school.
Enough advice. I would like to end by reading
some important lyrics. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These
lyrics are from the great American philosopher, Bob Dylan. They’re almost 50
years old. He wrote them for his son, Jesse, who he was missing while he was on
tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter.
They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful,
they’re timeless. They’re universal. They’re good and true, except for one: It
is the wish that gives the song its title and its refrain. That wish is a
parent’s lament. It’s not a good wish. So these are the lyrics from Forever
Young by Bob Dylan:
May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young
Thank you.
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