Confidence Game

I haven’t known a month’s financial confidence in my whole adult life.

The first president I was aware of was Richard Nixon. When I graduated from high school in 1980, gasoline had just spiked beyond a dollar a gallon, and inflation continued its double-digit riptide. Within a couple of years, the hottest movie around would be Wall Street, festooned with characters whose money and clothes I, even then, somehow knew I’d never have.