The Daily Feather — The March King
Imagine being at sea on Christmas Day and feeling that you had been away from your beloved country for too long while remembering with nostalgia and pride your time as a Marine. That setting gifted a young country its most beloved march. A patriot who was skilled at playing the violin, piano, flute, and several brass instruments, John Philip Sousa enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at the tender age of 13. As an apprentice musician in 1868, his rank was “boy.” Within five years of being discharged in 1875, he’d returned to serve, leading the Marine Band to its current greatness. He remained its conductor until June 30, 1892, after which time he turned his talents into a lucrative career as a band leader. In the interim, on that fateful Christmas in 1896, returning from a long European sojourn, he wrote his masterpiece, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Then came the War to End All Wars. On May 31, 1917, Sousa was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, a tour that ended when the war did, in November 1918. Can you believe Sousa wrote 130 marches in all? According to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Organization, aside from “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the other four not-to-be-missed every Fourth of July include “Semper Fidelis,” “The Washington Post,” “The Liberty Bell,” and “El Capitan.”
If you didn’t get your fill of The March King, relish in his celebratory tunes again today to celebrate a two-year-old’s birthday. On July 5, 2022, the yield of the 10-year Treasury first dipped underneath that of its 2-year counterpart. We know…we know… inversions are irrelevant. A year has passed since the inversion hit its deepest, at -108 basis points (bps).