The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting was a mixture of caution, wisdom and honesty. This was very refreshing after last year’s historical pep talk, which was void of any pep and was light on wisdom. […]

Now that the leaders of the most popular tech companies are going into outer space, we thought it appropriate to consider the return implications of this urge to “explore strange new worlds.” We believe the investor’s enemy is stock market failure. Stock market failure is a function of financial euphoria. Financial euphoria can be tracked historically. […]

As we have been holding calls with prospective and current investors of our firm, we have been arguing that the stock market is underwhelming the success of the economy. The lift off in economic activity could be far more troubling to stock market investors than their giddiness merits. The song that continues to come to my mind is David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” as we believe that today, unlike the past 10 years, is an economic oddity.

[…] Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger emphasize that the key to investment success is weak competition. Recently, two sets of investors, newbie investors through Reddit (and other chatrooms) and hedge fund managers running non-transparent portfolios of immense size, were both blessed and cursed by unusual success at the same time. One of the worst things a market can do to you is reward you for bad behavior and that has happened way more than normal. A quick review is necessary. […]

[…] A classical education and the texts that form its base have lasted because there is truth that has been tested time and time again. The reason value has lasted is because it has truth that has been tested time and time again. We may not quote stocks in eighths or quarters like John Maynard Keynes or Benjamin Graham did, but we think in congruent terms. Our work is “done to last forever.” Our clients benefit from the permanence of this. The public will be a victim In Sententia Tempore. We applaud our investors for having the gumption to stick to dead, but timeless thinking. They fear stock market failure and the opinion of the times.