A government secret meeting on a full-proof method to prevent recessions. Brilliant! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owI7DOeO_yg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN1ZBvH8VUk
http://mises.org/daily/5963/The-Vampire-Economy-and-the-Market
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/03/the-spanx-woman-is-worth-a-billion-my-key-takeaways/
China’ Run on the Treasury http://lewrockwell.com/north/north1109.html
Posted in Economics & Politics, Humor & Entertainment
Tagged Billionaire Secrets, Kill the poor, Know thyself
You make money on wall street by being very selective and being patient, waiting for those opportunities that are irresistible, where the percentages are very heavily in your favor.- Seth Glickenhaus
Have we lost our sense of humor? A surgeon may lose his license over a commercial.
Rock Video: I will love you forever if you just got your nose done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkzTcUVTP0Q
Is Inflation about General Price Increases? http://mises.org/daily/5953/Is-Inflation-about-General-Increases-in-Prices
The Theory of Central Banking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HAEPSt_12U. A good lecture by Robert Murphy on how central banking works.
Banking, Central Banking and the Economic Crisis by De Soto (excellent): http://www.goldmoney.com/video/huerta-de-soto-presentation.html. De Soto’s accent is heavy but he gives you a good historical perspective on fractional reserve banking.
Prison Nation going broke:http://bastiat.mises.org/2012/03/prison-nation-going-broke
How To Start Keeping A Journal
http://www.kirkreport.com/2012/01/27/wisdom-from-jason-zweig/
The blog above is focused on trading, but the lessons apply as much to value investors. Substitute investing for the word, trading. In fact, what excuse do you have for not keeping a journal?
http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/the-internet-makes-things-happen-if-you-use-it/
Dollar Shave Club: http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/select-blade
This short documentary by a Cuban musician captures what life is like for the typical Cuban. Life in a centrally controlled tyranny. The sentence for selling meat is five years imprisonment.
Cubanos, a completely independent production, liberates itself from television convention to draw an impressionist portrait of the Cuban community. Sincere interviews and sequence shots reveal an identity fragmented by more than 50 years of dictatorship, a people struggling to leave the 20th century behind. While music may barely camouflage the misery and corruption in Cuba, the sounds of engines and commercial radio can’t mask the cultural gap between the island and the very active community in Miami.
The main character, Catuey, a Cuban musician who has been living in Québec for a number of years, brings to his journey and his songs the image of an ideal Cuba hurt by the division in its people and the group-think that prevails in Miami. Confronted with the contradictions among his countrymen and his own demons, Catuey ends his odyssey drained and disappointed not to have found a simple path to reconciliation. The film steers clear of the pitfalls of sensationalist news, taking a more holistic approach to the identity issues the Cuban community will face upon the death of Fidel Castro.
“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ― E.B. White
http://moreintelligentlife.com/past-issues
http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/charles-nevin/60-year-job-freeman-dyson
I e-mailed to ask him: (1) why he remained hard at work; (2) what were his strengths and weaknesses now compared with earlier in his career; and (3) what advice would he give to those who have been working for (a) one year, and (b) 30 years? This was his reply, received the next day:
Here are brief answers to your questions.
1. I continue working because I agree with Sigmund Freud’s definition of mental health. To be healthy means to love and to work. Both activities are good for the soul, and one of them also helps to pay for the groceries.
2. In my younger days my work as a scientist was deep and narrow. Now, as I grow old, my work grows broader and shallower. As a young man, I solved technical problems of interest only to a few specialists. As an old man, I write books about human affairs of interest to a broad public. In both halves of my life, I tried to make the best use of my limited abilities.
3. (a). Advice to people at the beginning of their careers: do not imagine that you have to know everything before you can do anything. My own best work was done when I was most ignorant. Grab every opportunity to take responsibility and do things for which you are unqualified.
(b). Advice to people at the middle of their careers: do not be afraid to switch careers and try something new. As my friend the physicist Leo Szilard said (number nine in his list of ten commandments): “Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.”
Advice about girls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QTm7mtxnX0&feature=related
Robin Williams on football: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inbhtK80LBc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL83AB2BF79F282FDF
Good movie on US History, The Conspirator (2010), Directed by Robert Redford: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0968264/. The movie is about Mary Surratt, the first woman civilian tried and executed by a U.S. Military Court in July 1865.
Why The Conspirators is relevant for today: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/23/western_justice_and_transparency/
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
Take a break:http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=13h__3of8fI
Posted in Economics & Politics, Humor & Entertainment
Tagged Advice on Life, Civil War, Girls, Mary Surratt, Robin Williams, The Conspirator
Through chances various, through all vicissitudes, we make our way. –Aeneid
Proverbs 3: 13-19—
Happy he who has found wisdom,
and the man who has acquired understanding;
for wisdom is more profitable than silver,
and the gain she bring is better than gold.
She is more precious than red coral,
and all your jewels are no match for her.
Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honour.
Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths lead to prosperity.
She is a staff of life to all who grasp her,
and those who hold her fast are safe.
Help improve your thinking (Thanks to a reader!)
http://www.modelthinker-class.org/#
From Santangel’s Review:
Greenlight 4th Qtr. Letter: http://www.scribd.com/doc/78654907/Greenlight-Q4
Howard Mark’s Oak Tree Letter: http://www.scribd.com/doc/78886373/Oak-Tree
Video of Scoggin Capital: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/84562522/ Beware underfunded pensions.
Pessimistic Forecasts: http://www.bloomberg.com/money-gallery/2012-01-14/apocalypse-how-dire-2012-forecasts.html#slide1
China Boom/Bust: http://www.scribd.com/doc/75058489/PGVF-2011-China-Investment-Boom-on-the-Edge
Value Investing Conference: https://www.skagenfunds.com/Ask-us/New-Years-Conference-2012-Copenhagen/ (Posted previously)
Events
January 24, 2012 (Chicago)
Commercial Real Estate Conference
Sam Zell
February 10, 2012 (NYC)
CSIMA Conference
David Einhorn, Bruce Berkowitz, David Winters
April 19, 2012 (London)
London Value Investor Conference
James Montier and others
May 6-7, 2012 (Omaha)
All work and no play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9D3sMWdkUk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wu8Bv3RLJ4&feature=related
Get started early like these kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_sb-GbmEr0 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggG8fsuGnhY&feature=related
Keep working on your readings; don’t let the emotional stress get to you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poS3b2P71w0
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up. –Steven Wright
“For any particular thing, ask, “What is it in itself? What is its nature?” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. 175); — Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33ieCWRWlI&feature=related
While studying strategy don’t forget to always invest with a margin of safety. Don’t do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s5KFbyBmrQ
Posted in Humor & Entertainment
Tagged climbing, Hannibal Lecter, Marcus Aurelius, mission impossible, Strategy, tom cruise
Richard Feynman was one of my heroes. Start your 2012 on an inspiring note by watching the video (link) below.
Throughout history, the Ayn Rand pointed out, the greatest heroes of mankind have been original thinkers who rejected the core beliefs of their societies, formed new ideas, and struggled for years against social norms to have the new theories accepted. Socrates, Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, and Pasteur are all examples of this phenomenon.
An individual—a thinking individual—is not a helpless pawn of his society, its educational system, and its core beliefs. He is able to look at the realities of the world, at nature, at facts, and think independently. This is how many individuals come to reject the beliefs of their families, their clergy, their teachers, their professors, their governments, and their societies in general. This is how independent freethinkers have arisen, battled against the entrenched conservative beliefs of their societies, and ultimately established the truth of their new theories. –Andrew Bernstein
Richard Feynman is no ordinary genius. He was one of the world’s greatest physicists who loved Go-Go Girls (yeah!) and bongo drums–an inspiring 90 minute video on a creative, free-thinker. Lessons for the investor?
Wal-Mart Case Study on its Stores’ Discount Operations (9-387-018). Please read the first 112 pages of Competition Demystified in the Value Vault[1]. You will find the above case there. Please describe why you think Wal-Mart has been so successful? Please support your assumptions with data and figures from the case. Will WMT continue to be successful? How would you determine if WMT will maintain its success. What about competition? Hint: Sam Walton was a superb entrepreneur and CEO but leave him out of your analysis. For those who wish to learn more about Wal-Mart and Sam Walton then go here: http://www.amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325609378&sr=8-1
You have until Monday of next week to complete this case. To get yourself in the mood to complete a case study: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4j25Pj4JyQ and part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ7aVrtTbg0
Yes, it is lonely and hard work, but you can save $80,000 per year (yes, you don’t receive the MBA credential).
This case will take you a few hours but the effort will be rewarded because you must know the sources of competitive advantage for one of the greatest companies of all-time.
We will begin to review your 112 pages of reading this week plus include other case studies to reinforce concepts.
A blog on investing and competitive analysis from a student of mine and fine investor: http://thefallibleinvestor.com/
Quiz on Economic Thinking
We may have to read Capitalism by Reisman (in VALUE VAULT plus the Study Guide on Capitalism) to deepen our understanding of costs, prices, economies of scale and diminishing marginal utility.
Can someone reply to these questions?
Take no more than three minutes.
May 2012 exceed your expectations.
[1] To enter the VALUE VAULT please email me at aldridge56@aol.com with VALUE VAULT in the subject heading.
Posted in Competitive Analysis, Humor & Entertainment
Tagged Competition Demystified, Genius, Richard Feynman, WMT
A good conscience is a continual Christmas. Benjamin Franklin
We will focus on competitive analysis starting with economies of scale. In our study we want to identify the general principles behind why firms behave as they do, not in trying to develop lists of characteristics that lead to automatic success. There is no such list. Perhaps you can tell I am not a fan of Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great or his other works. His books may be a commercial success because people want cookie-cutter, paint-by-numbers solutions to complex business problems. Good luck.
So get ready to work hard.
Meanwhile, I hope you don’t come across a Bad Santa:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx0B61X-aFE&feature=fvsr
Merry Christmas to all!
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Steve Jobs
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. BuddhaI can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Michael Jordan
http://wenzel.podbean.com/2011/12/10/the-robert-wenzel-show-week-7/
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/ A favorite blog.
My favorite poem. This poem places our times of toil and tribulation into perspective.
| If
If you can keep your head when all about you If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, |