A Culture That Fetishizes Individual Preference
William Falk, Editor-in-chief of The Week, comments about the broader social trend of asserting individual expression as epitomized by the trend of taking “emotional support” animals on planes: As David Leonhardt put it in The New York Times this week [Link], the support animal is one more piece of proof we live in a culture […]
Indonesia’s Nostalgia for the Suharto Era
Quoting Endy Bayuni’s editorial in The Jakarta Post, The Week wrote, There’s a lot of nostalgia these days for the Suharto era, said Endy Bayuni. As Indonesia begins to search for candidates for the next presidential election, in 2019, posters and memes of the dictatorwho ruled from 1967 to 1998-have gone viral. The most common […]
Buying a Company v Buying a Stock: Warren Buffett’s “Test”
Following Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (later joined by Bill Gates) have a tradition of doing more than a few interviews. Here’s a snippet from their 07-May-2018 interview (video, transcript) with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box,” But that’s the test. Would you like to own 100% of a company? […]
Google, the Modern-day God
Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, comments about how much we depend on Google in an Esquire article on how Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon dominate our daily lives unline any other in human history: As Western nations become wealthier, organized religion plays a smaller role in our lives. But […]
Lessons from Warren Buffett: Temporary Bad News Means Buying Opportunities
Following Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (later joined by Bill Gates) have a tradition of doing more than a few interviews. Here’s a snippet from their 07-May-2018 interview (video, transcript) with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box,” Basically I like…bad news that isn’t going to last… But, I mean, bad […]
Being Single Versus Married
Nora Ephron writes about being single versus married in her autobiographical novel Heartburn: One thing I have never understood is how to work it so that when you’re married, things keep happening to you. Things happen to you when you’re single. You meet new men, you travel alone, you learn new tricks, you read Trollope, […]
When Berkshire Hathaway Missed Investing in Costco
Following Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (later joined by Bill Gates) have a tradition of doing more than a few interviews. Here’s a snippet from their 07-May-2018 interview (video, transcript) with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box,” [Charlie Munger] I wanted Berkshire to buy the French stake in Costco when […]
Strongmen Who Rule are Not Immortal
Zack Beauchamp writes on the potential fatal flaws in the Putin regime on Vox.com, The problem with strongman rule is that the strongmen are not immortal. While Vladimir Putin himself has a secure hold on power for the foreseeable future, he will eventually grow old and die. And the government he has created is so […]
Charlie Munger on Changing Berkshire Hathaway’s Mindset on Investing in Railroads and Airlines
At the Daily Journal Corporation Annual Shareholders’ Meeting 2018 (14-Feb-2018,) Charlie Munger opined about how Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger changed their minds about investing in railroads and airlines for Berkshire Hathaway: For a long time, Warren and I (painted over) the railroad because there were too many of them, and it was too competitive, […]
Love in the Workplace and the #MeToo Era
In an essay on The Wall Street Journal, Cathy Young wonders if the #MeToo movement will alter the nature of interaction between ordinary men and women in the modern workplace: Celebrity scandals involving gross abuse don’t offer obvious guidance for how ordinary men and women should interact at work. [But] any notion of simply banishing […]