05.27.08

Ageism, Mistakes, and Corporate Governance

Posted in Blog at 4:33 pm

Law is the wisdom of the old, The impotent grandfathers feebly scold; The grandchildren put out a treble tongue, 
 Law is the senses of the young. —W. H. Auden “Law Like Love” One of my favorite moments from investment meetings occurred when an analyst in his mid-30s was struggling to explain why his favorite investment idea had gone awry. This was a major consumer products company whose stock had tanked and new CEO and management team had been sacked, having Read more [...]

05.08.08

Some Kind Words for Glass-Steagall

Posted in Blog at 8:32 am

—April 23rd, 2008 The boom-and-bust, euphoria-followed-by-despair cycle seems a permanent feature whenever future gain is contemplated by a mass of human beings. As Warren Buffett so aptly put it, investing in the stock market is like being in partnership with a very wealthy manic-depressive. Periodically, in his manic phases, your partner will offer you too much for your share in the business, and you should sell it to him; when he is overly depressed, he will offer you his stake in Read more [...]

05.04.08

Universal Banks, Customer Service, and the Subprime Crisis

Posted in Blog at 11:35 pm

—April 7th 2008 I have long felt that the marriage of investment bankers with stockbrokers was an unholy alliance, and that whatever its commercial justifications, it served the investment community very poorly. Now we discover that the promiscuous fusion of commercial banks, investment banks, and investment managers serves the general public and the broader economy even more poorly. I wish I could take more satisfaction from the fact I am able to say that I have told other investors Read more [...]