Author: Smead Capital Management

In 1720, the South Sea Bubble arose from what seemed to be good intentions. The South Sea Company was given an exclusive monopoly on the Spanish Americas in exchange for assuming a large part of England’s debt. The debt holders received preferred shares in the South Sea Company that paid 6% interest. The business operators of the South Sea Company seized on their de-facto government backing to continue offering shares to pay off all the country’s debt.

We have written profusely about the investment myopia of today which has focused on “growth at any price companies” without regard to profits or free cash-flow. We do this because we know success in investing requires a healthy degree of discomfort for it to be profitable, and we know how much comfort today’s investor has found by owning what has worked.

The U.S. government must determine how to deal with the negative consequences of some of the last decade’s most successful internet-based businesses. Google, Facebook and Amazon grew up as strangers and have developed monopolies in search, social media and in e-commerce. The stock market has been very excited about the control over people they have attained and the “big data” they use in advertising and e-commerce. In many ways, these tech behemoths are “three identical strangers.”