Misleading, Sensationalized Headlines Just days ago, Barry Ritholtz called out The Wall Street Journal for its (increasingly) misleading, out-of-context headlines. I just ran into another example yesterday on the otherwise credible RealClearMarkets.com, which aggregates the top 30 or so business-related print and blog pieces daily (mine have appeared more than a dozen times in the...Read More
Not Following the Herd Be fearful when others are confident and confident when others are fearful. –Warren Buffett Of all Buffett’s quotes, the one above might be the most popular; it’s certainly the most cited the last 2-3 years (and was quoted frequently by Ben Stein at Edina’s annual meeting Wednesday). So, is now a...Read More
“Botttom’s Up” Real Estate Recovery You don’t know who’s swimming naked until the tides goes out.–Warren Buffett 3,500 FSF is the new 5,000 FSF.–Ross Kaplan The housing recovery is happening from the bottom up. As any active Realtor can readily report, the lower the price bracket, the stronger the housing market; the higher, the weaker....Read More
“Redesigning the Financial System” — Or Not In a world with few wise men — financial or otherwise — Jeremy Grantham certainly makes the cut (Paul Volcker, Warren Buffett, and John Bogle also come to mind). It’s hard to improve upon Grantham’s own words, from his 3rd quarter letter to shareholders (his fund manages a...Read More
Comparing Guns, Credit Derivatives Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. –NRA bumper sticker Credit derivatives don’t blow up financial systems, people do. –Wall Street mantra du jour Despite the incalculable harm wrought by credit derivatives on the U.S. — and global — financial system the past two years, Wall Street is clearly resistant to...Read More
Swimsuits and Tides Today’s recession-slash-financial crisis may not have a name yet, but it clearly has a signature parable: Warren Buffett’s now-infamous observation that “you don’t know who’s swimming naked until the tide goes out.” If you’re looking for a bookend, it would be Buffet’s equally famous pronouncement that credit derivatives are “financial weapons of...Read More
