Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Yep

"The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version."  John Kenneth Galbraith, A Short History of Financial Euphoria, 1994.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Seth Klarman

Ever eager to pass along fast-breaking, up-to-the-minute news about the investment world to the readers of this blog, I recommend this profile, from 2010, of Seth Klarman. Klarman is a very disciplined and successful value investor in Boston.

Klarman wrote a book, Margin of Safety, that came out in 1991It now sells for, literally, $1,000 per copy, used, on Amazon. (I can't help but notice that this violates the Graham-and-Dodd style of valuation that Klarman favors.)

I am glad I got my copy for the regular retail price of $20 or so, back when.

Postscript:  I.M. Young, a reader, mentioned that you can find PDF copies for free online. I found one by Googling "Margin of Safety PDF." (I feel a little guilty passing this along.)

Monday, March 4, 2013

Sex Advice from Warren Buffett

"It's very important to live your life by an internal yardstick.... Would you rather be considered the best lover in the world and know privately that you're the worst -- or would you prefer to know privately that you're the best lover in the world but be considered the worst?"

Worth pondering.

This is from a write-up by Guy Spier of a lunch he had with Buffett in 2008.

Warren Buffett on CNBC

Buffett is just about always worth watching. There are clips embedded in this CNBC story, from his interview with them this morning.

Perhaps most interesting are his comments on the challenges the Federal Reserve will face in unwinding its balance sheet, which has more than tripled in size since 2008. These are in the video so labeled at the top of page two.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Dilbert on Greatness

Perhaps my favorite Dilbert yet. The link is here. (Sent to me by Brad Reed, Nashville's answer to Charlie Munger.)