Anne is writing about long term returns on page 4. I will deal with the shorter term here. It seems like every week there is a problem of overwhelming magnitude on Wall Street. If we don’t act on it, surely something dire is going to happen. But you know these overwhelming problems often are not […]
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What It Takes To Be A Great Investor…
Investing is complicated. If you are a fundamental investor who looks at companies, you need to understand the company’s financials, grasp the underlying business, delve into how the company spends money to make money, and assess how it differs from its competitors. That work alone is substantial and hard. But it is not enough for […]
Taking the Long (and not so long) View…
The latest copy of the SBBI Yearbook just hit our desks. This annual publication, something of a bible for investment professionals, provides detail on more than eight decades of capital market returns. Much of what we have come to expect from stock, bonds and real estate – both their risk and return characteristics – is […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Like it today? Wait till tomorrow
We are unreliable inconsistent decision makers, according to an article from this month’s Harvard Business Review by Daniel Kahneman, Andrew M. Rosenfield, Linnea Gandhi, and Tom Blaser. We contradict the principles we believe in, we contradict our own prior judgments, and we often do so without realizing it. The authors note that when software developers […]
The 2-Minute Thought: How do we know if a new idea is ingenious or crazy?
When someone presents us with an idea that’s totally new and different, we may think, hey, that’s incredibly brilliant and game-changing. Or we may think, that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard . . . it will never work. But how do we really know? After all, the telephone and Star Wars were initially rejected. […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Are Investors Scientists or Poets?
“Are you an artist or a scientist? An engineer or a poet?” So asks NYU finance professor and valuation specialist Aswath Damodaran in a recent blog. He goes on to lament that we live in a time when we must pick sides, even though it would be far more productive to bring both sides together. […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Trust Matters
Do you feel most people can be trusted? What informs how trusting you are? Are trust levels associated with education levels or religious beliefs? How do levels of interpersonal trust vary across countries and over time? And how do trust levels relate to GDP growth and income equality? These are some of the questions addressed […]
The 2-Minute Thought: The Paradox of Stocks Reaching All-Time Highs
The story of the week is that U.S. stock markets are at all-time highs even though no one is particularly in love with stocks. Since all three major U.S. markets reached record highs last week for the first time since 1999, there have been plenty of “partying like it’s 1999” stories (and more than one […]
Infrastructure On The Cheap(er)…
There are not too many cities that can build expensive subways or other mass transit systems today. China may be the exception but the rest of the urban world is stuck with impossible parking and bumper to bumper rush hour commutes. But there are rays of hope. Curitiba the capital of the Southern Brazilian state […]
The Road Less Travelled…
Colombia and Ecuador are not the most popular South American tourist pick. They don’t have the same allure as Carnival in Rio, or Patagonia in Argentina and Chile. But they still have a lot to offer. With diverse climatic regions (ranging from the Amazon to 19,000 foot volcanos to Pacific coast beaches) they are “biodiversity […]
What Good Is a Monarchy Today?…
A few days ago, Emperor Akihito of Japan suggested that he would like to step down from the throne and allow his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, to take over. Japan’s “Chrysanthemum Throne” is the world’s longest running monarchy with a history stretching over 2700 years, and it remains an important source of Japanese identity. But […]
Globalization in the Crosshairs, Again…
Globalization is once again under fire. In the past, developing nations often complained that the benefits of increased global trade flowed disproportionately to the developed world. Today the shoe is on the other foot. Wide swaths of the American public are reacting favorably to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders’s proposals to reign in free trade […]
