This line from a cab driver in Hangzhou, China. The implication is that China is organized and safe and even though the people are still poor, the country is on the march. America on the other hand is wealthy but unorganized and it will suffer because it cannot move as quickly or as efficiently as […]
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Piecing it Together, Understanding the New China …
A month in China gave me plenty of time to see the sights but also time to see some of the unique and yes, quirky aspects of Chinese culture. Here are a few. 1. A great place to go both early morning and at dusk is a public square or park. Older Chinese congregate in […]
Technologies That Will Change the World in 2019…
By all accounts we are living in a period of robust technological improvement. Innovations from smart phones to artificial intelligence are fundamentally changing lives and altering the way business is done across a wide range of industries. Historically, technological innovation has been the “secret sauce” that has fueled economic growth and the rising living standards […]
The Times They Are A Changin’…
This past summer, Vermont became the ninth state to legalize marijuana and the first to do so via state legislature. Once a taboo topic, cannabis is going mainstream. A 2018 Pew Research Poll found that 62% of Americans believe that cannabis should be legalized; this is the highest number in the last 50 years. There […]
Why Selling Seems Harder Than Buying…
Why is it that selling a stock can seem so much harder than buying? We admit that we feel that way, and we suspect many other investors do too. Rationally, it doesn’t make any sense because the process behind buying and selling are the same – two sides of the same coin, so to speak. […]
Rising Debt Levels Here and Abroad…
While the economic recovery has been slower than many would have liked, it has been fairly broad based and persistent. Investors can thank the expansive fiscal and monetary polices of central banks around the globe for much of the rebound. But unfortunately, the last decade of ever lower interest rates also has fueled a buildup […]
The Passing of the Torch…
I will admit to being a Baby Boomer. It has been a good run. We have always thought of ourselves as very important. Our music is, of course, the best, and our opinions have mattered the most. So it comes as a shock to realize the baton is passing. Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers. It […]
“Every Picture Tells a Story”… (Rod Stewart & Ron Wood, 1971)
Albert Einstein once said “everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.” Pictures often tell a very simple and very clear story. We are worried today about the stock market. The economy has been up for almost a decade and the market has marched right along in line. Shouldn’t we be […]
Quality Matters…
Between 1976 and 2017, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway delivered an average annual return of 18.6% over Treasury bill rates — easily beating the stock market’s excess return of 7.5%. That is not just a good run for a few years or a decade. It’s an extraordinary record spanning four decades. On a risk-adjusted basis, Berkshire […]
What to Watch…
Watching TV used to be a relatively straightforward affair. The U.S. had three dominant broadcast networks that offered up a set list of programs. True, your viewing choices were limited and there was a lot of advertising but ah…life was simple! Cable TV, first introduced in the 1970s, disrupted this lucrative business model. By the […]
Are My Glasses Too Rose Colored?…
It’s January and time for the traditional start-of-the-year predictions. Well, not this time. We have learned painfully over the years how confusing this world is and how predictions are often more about hope than reality. So this time we are going to look backwards and, surprisingly, learn some really important things. Nicholas Kristof in his […]
An Old School Financial Analyst Rant…
A company can basically do three things with its net after tax income. It can pay dividends. It can reinvest back in the business through plant and equipment spending, research and development expenditures, and the acquisition of other companies. Lastly, it can buy back its shares. Pretty simple. Spoiler alert, we are not big fans […]
