This week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben is sponsored by YCharts: Mention Animal Spirits and receive 20% off your subscription price when you initially sign up for the service. We discuss: Is inflation dead? Does a more mature U.S. economy mean lower interest rates and inflation for the foreseeable future? What should we call our new podcast…
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Why Are IPOs Oversubscribed?
Levi Strauss created the first pair1 of blue jeans in 1873. He went to San Francisco to make his money in the gold rush but found more success using denim and rivets to make pants that would last longer. They were actually called waist overalls until 1960 when baby boomers began calling them jeans. In…
Are Super Bowl Ads Worth The Money?
The average cost of an ad for this year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and LA Rams1 is estimated to be more than $5 million. That’s an enormous cost for 30 seconds of ad space. It seems insane corporations would spend this kind of money but the data suggests these commercials are worth…
8 Questions As We Head Into Year End
Some random questions I’m pondering as 2018 comes to a close… 1. Is it becoming a contrarian position to be optimistic about the future? I’m getting a little sick of the “2016 2017 2018 is the worst year ever.” Our society is far from perfect and things could always be better but if you honestly think humanity has reached…
Animal Spirits Episode 58: The Sellers Are in Control
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Michael’s two appearances on CNBC. The couple who retired in their 30s with $1 million. Are the FIRE people offering unrealistic expectations? Can your savings really last 50+ years using the 4% rule? When FIRE goes wrong. How much money does the average retiree…
Animal Spirits Episode 49: Buy The Housing Dip
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: The new Howard Marks book. Do super-investors like Marks & Buffett actually do more harm than good? The humble beginnings of the first Vanguard index fund. How to call a market top without calling a market top. How SoftBank’s vision fund will impact the VC…
9 Underrated Investing Books
I was looking at the best-selling investing books on Amazon the other day and it always amazes me how old some of the books are on this list: Rich Dad, Poor Dad was published in the 1990s. The Intelligent Investor was originally published in 1949. The Millionaire Next Door was 1996. Dave Ramsey’s book came…
What If Stocks Don’t Crash…
…for a while? It’s not without precedent that the stock market can go long stretches in the absence of an enormous market crash. Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Ohio during the Great Depression. He kept a diary throughout this trying period which was eventually turned into a book called The Great Depression: A…
Market Timing is Hard
After reading one of my pieces someone recently commented that my whole schtick is simply pointing out how hard it is to invest successfully. This was meant to be a put-down but in some ways it’s true. I write a lot about how hard investing can be because it is hard. Anyone who tells you it’s…
Darwin’s Golden Rule
One of the oddities of the information age is that it hasn’t really led to an enlightenment of knowledge. In many ways, the firehose of information has made some people less informed. There are people who believe the earth is flat, the moon landing was a hoax, and Australia doesn’t exist. But beyond the conspiracy…
