On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Some proposals from Barron’s on changes Warren Buffett should make at BRK. The latest letter from Howard Marks. Why the ‘mother of all credit bubbles’ isn’t as bad as you might think. Why it makes no sense to compare government debt to household debt….
Too Big To Be Simple?
A reader asks: An acquaintance of mine has just sold his company for a huge sum, in the hundreds of millions, in cash. He tells me he is setting up a whole management office, with all kinds of investment professionals, for the task of investing, tracking and managing that portfolio. I have been wondering –…
Why The Next Bear Market May Feel More Painful
Bear markets are always painful. Even if they bring us all cheaper stock prices, it’s never fun to see your savings drop in value. The enormous crash we saw during the Great Financial Crisis could possibly be the worst one we see in a generation. But how that bear market felt to you personally has…
When the Unexpected Leads to the Unexpected
Norm Macdonald gave one of my all-time favorite stand-up bits a few years ago during the David Letterman farewell tour. Norm lays out the idea that he’s not really scared of Iran or North Korea when it comes to geopolitics. The only country that worries him is Germany: I don’t know if you guys are history…
Animal Spirits Episode 33: The Oracle of Brooklyn
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: The story in the WSJ that brought tears of joy to Michael. How retirement investors are getting more intelligent. The growing importance of target-date funds. Gen Z’s retirement plans need some work. Why college might not cost as much as you think. Most people…
Why Do Stocks Generally Go Up Over Time?
A podcast listener asked Michael and I the following: Wanted to get your thoughts on the concept of stocks for the long run and why the investing world all generally agrees that over long time periods stocks will be up big. Why do stocks generally go up over time and why can we expect them…
Blair’s Story
We’re thrilled this month to add Blair duQuesnay as an advisor at RWM. Blair has a wide range of experience in the financial services industry from starting her own firm to working with clients and families on their financial plans to writing long-form investment research pieces. Blair is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and has the…
Is the U.S. Due For a Recession?
CNBC’s Art Cashin recently stated on that every decade since 1850 in the U.S. has had a recession. Since the Great Recession ended in 2009, that obviously means we haven’t had one this decade. Someone who thinks correlation implies causation in these things would assume that means we’re due for a recession in the next…
Useless Hacks
Morgan Housel wrote a great post this week about Useful Hacks. Here’s an example I liked: Writing hack: Write every day for years. I’m often asked by people on how they can improve their writing or blogs or client communications. This is pretty much it. Write more. I’m all for efficiency but at a certain…
6 Things I Learned From Big Mistakes
Michael Batnick’s new book, Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments came out this week. There are far too many investing books that dissect the past successes of history’s greatest investors. These books make it easy for investors to assume emulating these greats should be effortless. I know that’s what I thought when I…
