Hello! I am a male born in 1970 (I don't update this page much, so instead of putting in my age, I'll use hard dates), married, and live in Ridgefield, CT, a distant suburb of New York City. I have a son who was born in Dec 2004 and a daughter born in January 2008. My politics are Conservative / libertarian (small "l").

I have a BS in Operations Research from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Rochester ("William E. Simon Graduate School"). I speak German fluently, and have lived, worked and studied in Germany: Koblenz was a city in which I studied at a business school, and hence my screen name. However, my outlook on life is definitely American.

I work for a private equity fund, and analyze company's financial statements. We specialize in the technology sector.

I have written some op-eds for papers such as The Dallas Morning News, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News.

Normally, I'd say don't vote libertarian, but instead vote for the more conservative candidate in the Republican primary. This is why I think the Club for Growth has the right idea. There's no point in voting LP and having a Democrat win... But we need to get the Republican party more in line with libertarian ideas, and the Club for Growth is making great strides in this regard.

I was born in Wisconsin, and I am a Packers fan. Other than watching the Packers, I watch some of the world series games, and sometimes go to a baseball game. But that's about it for sports. (I never even heard of Dale Earnhardt until he died.)

I like reading both fiction and non-fiction. I subscribe to most of the business magazines: Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Red Herring, and a few others. For political magazines, I like The American Spectator, as well as NR Online. I read various blogs: iSteve, Half Sigma, Fourth Checkraise and others.

A list of great books, in alphabetical order:

• Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Who is John Galt?
• Carnage and Culture, by Victor Davis Hansen. Tells why westerners have almost always kicked butt in war.
• Commanding Heights, by Daniel Yergin. A great economic history of the last 25 years. Says what happened and why in various countries, as the world has, for the most part, moved away from socialism. The PBS video series was also great.
• Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. A great novel by the greatest living novelist.
• Fist of God, by Frederick Forsyth. A great novel about the gulf war: absolutely fantastically written. Virtually all of his books are great, but the full length novels are better than the short story books.
• History of the American People by Paul Johnson. I actually listened to the unabridged version on tape in my car. Very interesting history of the United States.
• Holidays in Hell by PJ O'Rourke. Great short stories about PJ visiting some crazy places in the world. Also, Eat the Rich, Parliament of Whores and his other books are all good.
• Mirage, by James Follett. This British book is an entertaining story about how the Israelis stole the plans for the Dassault Mirage fighter after France stopped selling them to Israel. Israel stole the plans from the Swiss sub-contractor Sulzer.
• Ronald Reagan, by Dinesh D'Souza. Biography of the greatest president this country has had.
• Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell. Short biographies of about 50 individuals throughout history who have advanced the cause of liberty.
• The Way the World Works, by Jude Wanniski. Good perspectives, especially in politics.
• The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David Landes. Very good economic history.

When driving my car, I almost always listen to books on tape, and often Teaching Company courses (now I listen to almost everything on my iPod).