Robert Cusack

Family Office Head, Former Portfolio Manager, Muni Banker, Fund Manager and Elected Official

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

@cusack_colin Colin, I thought you were a baseball expert, not football.

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

@brithume Have you read Paul Tudor Jones’s op Ed in WSJ yesterday?

[Paul Tudor Jones @ptj_official]

I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to people at the forefront of AI, and what I’ve learned has been both fascinating and deeply concerning.

President Trump and President Xi will meet later this month at a moment when the technology is advancing faster than our ability to understand or control it. AI could soon become a third superpower, with implications that neither country can address alone.

Here’s my @WSJLive op-ed on the topic: https://t.co/v4Br0e91HR

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

By their incentives shall you know them.

[InvestmentNews @investmentnews]

Dianna Carr-Coletta of PGIM says rising private credit defaults don't necessarily mean investor losses, noting that restructurings and recoveries can create value after a default.

https://t.co/Bv7aa9AddY

[Brian Feroldi @BrianFeroldi]

Investing:

Theory vs reality

Image by @dividendology

[Keith Hoffmann @keithhoffmann]

Great day out on the campaign trail with @PFNeronha!

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

A Hero That Trusted His Intuition.

The problem wasn’t that Morgan Stanley didn’t believe him.

Rick Rescorla had already been right once. After the 1993 basement bombing of the World Trade Center, the firm’s security chief walked the towers, studied the site, and reached a conclusion most people preferred not to hear: the World Trade Center was still a target. Next time, he said, it would not be a truck. It would be an airplane.

An airplane. In a 1993 report.

Executives listened. Then they looked at the lease.

Morgan Stanley was the largest tenant in the complex—twenty-two floors of the South Tower, thousands of brokers, and a trading infrastructure that could not be packed into boxes and wheeled across the Hudson.

They literally made it a trading center.

The contract with the Port Authority ran until 2006. Walking away from premium Manhattan space of that scale would have meant penalties measured in the hundreds of millions, plus the operational chaos of relocating an entire downtown machine. So the company stayed.

Rescorla adjusted. If they could not leave the building, they would learn to escape it.

He built a protocol and treated it like doctrine. Unannounced drills. No exemptions. Brokers who billed by the minute were pulled off their desks and sent into the stairwells two by two, starting from the top floors, leaving a lane for firefighters coming the other way.

People complained. He did not care. Practice, he believed, was the only thing that would beat panic.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower. From the 44th floor of the South Tower, Rescorla could see the fire. Then the Port Authority came over the speakers: the South Tower was secure. Stay at your desks.

Rescorla grabbed a bullhorn and ignored them.

He started the drill his people already knew by heart. Floor by floor, two by two, down the stairs. He sang as he moved—Cornish songs from childhood, then “God Bless America”—keeping the line moving, refusing to let the stairwell become a stampede. Seventeen minutes later, the second plane struck the South Tower.

By then, most of Morgan Stanley was already on the way out.

Of the 2,687 employees in the building that morning, all but 13 survived.

It was stunning.

Rescorla could have been outside with them. He went back up instead. Colleagues told him to leave. He said he would, as soon as he was sure no one was left behind.

He was last seen around the 10th floor, heading higher.

The South Tower fell at 9:59 a.m. They never found him.

He was one of the 13.

He was a hero in every sense of the word.

Remember Rick Rescorla, he remembered for us.

[Xay Khamsyvoravong @XayForRI]

The contrast in this race is clear. While Matos has spent nearly six years holding office and seeking her next political opportunity, I have built a record of taking on powerful interests and producing measurable results for Rhode Islanders.

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

Who benefited?

[katherine gregg @kathyprojo]

HT @StephMachado How RI's messy cannabis legalization rollout is affecting the race for AG: No new stores have been licensed since RI legalized recreational marijuana in '22. Is the former Cannabis Commission chair, one of 2 front-runners for AG, to blame?
https://t.co/tA79o3SxWW

[Providence Journal @projo]

How RI turned $1M into $16M in forgiven medical debt https://t.co/hxGAc6BZet

[Ian Donnis @IanDonnis]

Really good read from Mark Patinkin

[Peter Atwater @Peter_Atwater]

"The macroeconomy sees resilience while the household experiences depletion."

Great thoughts, as usual, from @profplum99 as he weaves together @kylascan's Vibecession with the K-Shaped Economy.

https://t.co/TzBYWCshzB

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

My Starlink in Zimbabwe allowed me to WFH there for 2 months this year with flawless WiFi.

[Tren Griffin @trengriffin]

Treaty rules enabling broadband satellite systems like Starlink wouldn't exist without support of African nations at the ITU in 1995. Europe's regulators hated the idea. We organized a big party in Geneva with Ladysmith Black Mambazo as entertainment in 1997 as a thank you. https://t.co/ujJaKRVp2g
Ladysmith Black Mambazo had already collaborated with Dolly Parton twice:
1995: rendition of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". 
1996: cover of Cat Stevens' "Peace Train".

[Keith Hoffmann @keithhoffmann]

The momentum is with Keith Hoffmann!

A new independent poll has Keith leading the Democratic primary for Attorney General.

Early voting is underway and we have less than two weeks to go. Now is the time to keep pushing, keep talking to voters, and finish strong.

Let’s go win this.

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

And it’s about time he did.

[katherine gregg @kathyprojo]

Keith Hoffman v. Kim Ahern: As primary day nears and polls show Ahern with a narrow lead - and big bloc of undecided voters (35%) - Hoffman has sent out this mailer:

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

Road infrastructure in Zimbabwe is of critical importance and these funds will produce an enormous impact.

[The Financial Gazette @FingazLive]

CBZ Holdings is set to list a US$500 million infrastructure bond on the Victoria Falls Stock Ex­change and on offshore capital markets to raise funds towards the rehabilitation of the country’s ageing road network. >https://t.co/xrTMZyijcS

[Ted Nesi @TedNesi]

NEW: UNH has just released what may be RI's last public primary poll before Sep 9 - Gov campaign is blasting the data as "absolutely bogus"

Gov
Foulkes: 56%
McKee: 18%
DK: 23%

AG
Hoffmann 20%
Ahern 16%
[…]
DK: 46%

LG
Xay K.: 22%
Matos: 20%
[…]
DK: 42% https://t.co/ju4hM2YfXX

[Robert Cusack @RECusack]

Finally!

[katherine gregg @kathyprojo]

Keith Hoffman v. Kim Ahern: As primary day nears and polls show Ahern with a narrow lead - and big bloc of undecided voters (35%) - Hoffman has sent out this mailer: