Do we have the capability to eliminate booms and busts in economic activity? The answer in my judgment is no, because there is no tool to change human nature. Too often people are prone to recurring bouts of optimism and pessimism.
March 09, 2011
Imagine building a house knowing that if you wanted electricity, you would also have to build your own electrical power plant! The amount of additional knowledge you would need is … unfathomable. The additional expense would be … incomprehensible. But that is what corporations have been doing for decades in their migration to new technology...
February 15, 2011
It was extremely difficult, but I had played seven holes without asking my partner the question I was “dying” to know; how many shares of Equity Funding did he own in his mutual fund? He seemed very relaxed ... even cheerful. Yet, I felt his mutual fund had to own a ton of the stock. For me, in not asking, it was like driving by a car crash...
January 18, 2011
It was late 1997 and a roaring bull market; close to the very apex of the Internet bubble. Strangely, most portfolio managers were not beating the S&P 500 benchmark. Lost in thought about this, I reached for my ringing telephone. It was Roland Grimm asking if I were free for lunch. That’s like Peter Lynch calling for...
December 10, 2010
In the process of learning screenplay writing, I came upon this old Jewish proverb: “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” In effect, one’s particular viewpoint becomes a prism through which we judge everything ... the opposite of an open mind. Unfortunately, we often make this worse by surrounding ourselves with...
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