Mark and Kara are a 50-50 combination of Top Gun and The Right Stuff. Mark was chosen by the Airforce to fly the U-2 Spy Plane -- at 72,000 feet, in a space suit to keep from compressing to a raison. Kara was picked to fly the Airforce's enormous C-5 cargo plane -- large enough to hold five trailways buses. Mark was Kara's flight instructor years before they accidentally reconnected and ended up getting married. After leaving the Airforce, the two started flying for United. Mark still does, while Kara trains Airforce pilots to fly large military drones.

Mark and Kara are avid users of my company's MaxiFi Planner software, which is how we connected. Nicer people you won't meet. And they make "Thank you for your Service" as large an understatement as it gets. They also remind us why we feel safe entrusting pilots. They are that rarest of breed -- people on whom we can really count.

Please listen/watch this video to get simply fascinating, insider information on aviation, both military and commercial. Kara and Mark are starting to work with my company -- providing office hours to newbie users of MaxiFi, doing demos for financial advisers, and, shortly, offering concierge financial planning for clients who want real pilots in the cockpit.

The markets are going nuts for a good reason. The Administration is taking, at random, three steps backwards and 1 step forward on a wide range of issues. These include effectively eliminating trade with China, threatening the independence of the Fed, attacking our nation's comparative advantages in education, scientific achievement, training foreign students, and providing tourists a warm welcome to our country.

Now our chosen one is in the process of turning back the best and the brightest, attempting to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants, denying habeas corpus, knifing Ukraine and NATO in the back, abrogating the rule of law, and fill in the blanks. This is my take.

Torsten Slok, whose wiki page is here, is not party one way or the other to my views. He's sticking strictly to the facts in appraising the markets and our national and global economy. In so doing, he provides a stark warning about our economy's near-term economic and financial futures. Torsten is a brilliant economist. But he's also as informed as it gets on what's going on in all corners of our and the rest of the world's markets. Hence, this is a podcast you don't want to miss!

David Barboza, a Brilliant, Informed, and Thoughtful China Expert, Discusses U.S.-China Relations. The Relationship has gone from Distant to Close and Now to Dangerous as the U.S. Faces Economic Irrelevance