What do you think is true, that most everyone believe the opposite?

[rkbabang]

Furniture isn't worth the added hassle

 

Scott that is a great quote for this topic.  I'm sure the number of people in the developed world who would agree with that is quite small.

 

I enjoy owning a couch, a good reading chair, a computer desk&chair, and a bed.  I really can't imagine living without any/all of those things.

 

[bizaro86]

Furniture isn't worth the added hassle

 

Scott that is a great quote for this topic.  I'm sure the number of people in the developed world who would agree with that is quite small.

 

I enjoy owning a couch, a good reading chair, a computer desk&chair, and a bed.  I really can't imagine living without any/all of those things.

 

A good reading chair is one of life's great pleasures, imo. So you can count me in the "most everyone" who would disagree with the 'no furniture' statement.

 

 

 

[LC]

I find that the subject matter determines the comfort of the chair.

[rkbabang]

I find that the subject matter determines the comfort of the chair.

 

:)  True, but it would have to be a damn good book to make it comfortable if I was reading on the hard wood floor.

[DTEJD1997]

Hey all:

 

If several, or most, or all of the higher end skools are NOT giving out "F's" or "D's" to those who so richly deserve them...then their gig is getting close to being up.

 

It is also further proof that they are selling a bill of goods to students.  How are they going to collect more money from the customer if they flunk them out? 

 

Maybe they don't want to upset the customer so much that they take their business elsewhere?

 

When I was in school this certainly wasn't the case.  Profs would frequently try to work with students who were struggling, but if it did not work, D's & F's were used.  I knew several people who flunked out...

 

 

[rukawa]

1) Most scientific results are garbage. The scientific establishment itself is hugely corrupt. Scientists can't be trusted. And most scientists don't really know much about how to do science properly. They often don't understand basic concepts in their own field.

 

2) Health care is mostly useless or even very harmful with a very few but extremely important exceptions. The biggest advances in health care have to do with doctors killing you less often. We do not live longer because of health care!

 

3) Nuclear energy is the future and is incredibly safe.

 

4) Radiation and radioactivity aren't that dangerous

 

5) GMOs are safer for you than organic food

 

6) Democracy is a horrible idea. And America is not a democracy.

 

7) The FDA is way too permissive

 

8) Mental illness is not an illness or a health problem and should not be thought of as such. Also psychiatric medications don't work. And depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.

 

9) The root cause of terrorism is not American foreign policy. And a change in foreign policy to better agree with popular will in the Middle East will produce more terrorism not less.

 

10) Warren Buffet and most investors like him are parasites on society. Donating your wealth to "good causes" (hospitals, education) is mostly stupid and counterproductive but less stupid than Paris Hilton.

 

11) Modern education teaches people to value authority, avoid thinking for themselves and worst of all heavily devalues knowledge and intellect. Education is anti-educational.

 

12) Socialism at its best is a slave system. But people are much much happier as slaves!

 

13) Patriarchy is inevitable

 

14) AI on Earth will never be a threat to us

 

15) Business cycles and debt may be necessary for innovation to occur. A more stable economy might be a bad thing.

 

16) Saudi Arabia is a reasonably well-managed country and we ought to support them

 

17) Large centralized federal government go hand in hand with capitalism. And both are good things.

 

18) Elite opinion should have more sway than the so-called common people. Its very good that rich people can corrupt democracy with their campaign contributions.

[meiroy]

 

 

That everything I say is false.

[boilermaker75]

Furniture isn't worth the added hassle

 

Scott that is a great quote for this topic.  I'm sure the number of people in the developed world who would agree with that is quite small.

 

I enjoy owning a couch, a good reading chair, a computer desk&chair, and a bed.  I really can't imagine living without any/all of those things.

 

 

A good reading chair is one of life's great pleasures, imo. So you can count me in the "most everyone" who would disagree with the 'no furniture' statement.

 

I would add to that bookcases!

[Cevian]

There are much higher returns in purchasing, owning, operating private businesses than investing in the stock market. The main surprise to me when attending Berkshire and Fairfax meetings is how many people just want to talk about stock market investing as opposed to owning and operating actual businesses outright.

 

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

[Jurgis]

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

 

Running a business is very different from investing into stocks. Buffett might be correct that doing one makes you better at doing the other, but it doesn't mean that people have aptitude for both. A lot of stock investors are numbers/reports/etc. types and have no wish, interest or capability to run actual businesses. Power to the ones who want to do it, but let's not diss the ones who don't.

[rpadebet]

There are much higher returns in purchasing, owning, operating private businesses than investing in the stock market. The main surprise to me when attending Berkshire and Fairfax meetings is how many people just want to talk about stock market investing as opposed to owning and operating actual businesses outright.

 

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

 

Easier to sit in front of a computer and buy/sell stocks and let others do the work for you...

 

Can I personally run a business like Malone can? Most definitely not...so I invest with him through a couple of clicks and then spend my time learning from what he does.

 

[AzCactus]

That Mohnish Pabrai has poor risk management

[ni-co]

That macro does matter a great deal if you're a value investor.

 

That there is such a thing like value in global macro.

 

That "the economy works like a machine".

 

That the next 70 years in the stock market won't resemble the last 70 years and that, therefore, even long term modeling over decades is very dangerous (applies to WEB wisdoms, too).

 

That inflation won't return for many years.

 

That people may lose faith into money itself.

 

That owning bitcoin makes sense.

 

[Mephistopheles]

There are much higher returns in purchasing, owning, operating private businesses than investing in the stock market. The main surprise to me when attending Berkshire and Fairfax meetings is how many people just want to talk about stock market investing as opposed to owning and operating actual businesses outright.

 

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

 

Do you mean owning AND operating a private business, or only owning? If you're operating it, then you must deduct a manager's salary for yourself in order to make an apples to apples comparison with stocks.

 

I think each has its advantages and disadvantages. Although I've never owned a private business, I try to keep my eyes and ears open for any potential opportunities that may emerge.

[RhubarbXIV]

I'm not convinced saturated fats are all that bad.

[LC]

I'm not convinced saturated fats are all that bad.

They're not, in fact they help regulate proper androgen levels. I'd suggest examine.com for supplement/diet information:

 

https://examine.com/faq/is-saturated-fat-bad-for-me/

[AtlCDore]

There are much higher returns in purchasing, owning, operating private businesses than investing in the stock market. The main surprise to me when attending Berkshire and Fairfax meetings is how many people just want to talk about stock market investing as opposed to owning and operating actual businesses outright.

 

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

 

Cevian,

 

Do you speak from experience?  Can you elaborate?

 

The only "experience" I have pertaining to this is a friend of mine has looked at private businesses and has not come across anything even remotely interesting.  As he digs into the businesses he has found numerous issues regarding mismanagement, accounting issues, employee issues. 

 

Thanks,

 

AtlCDore

[DTEJD1997]

There are much higher returns in purchasing, owning, operating private businesses than investing in the stock market. The main surprise to me when attending Berkshire and Fairfax meetings is how many people just want to talk about stock market investing as opposed to owning and operating actual businesses outright.

 

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

 

Cevian,

 

Do you speak from experience?  Can you elaborate?

 

The only "experience" I have pertaining to this is a friend of mine has looked at private businesses and has not come across anything even remotely interesting.  As he digs into the businesses he has found numerous issues regarding mismanagement, accounting issues, employee issues. 

 

Thanks,

 

AtlCDore

 

Could it be that most private businesses that are truly exceptionally profitable are NOT up for sale...passed down through the family OR owned by the managers?  Maybe if for some reason they are up for sale, they are "private" sales?  Somebody is already lined up to buy it? 

 

I've seen a lot of stuff for sale through business brokers.  Most of the time the businesses are JUNK.  Some of the better ones have you wind up buying a job.  The ones that are pretty good are priced so high as to not make sense...

[Gardener]

There are much higher returns in purchasing, owning, operating private businesses than investing in the stock market. The main surprise to me when attending Berkshire and Fairfax meetings is how many people just want to talk about stock market investing as opposed to owning and operating actual businesses outright.

 

Not sure if it is laziness, ignorance, hubris or fear but never understood why more value investors don't practice the value investing and management principles in investing and operating private businesses.

 

Cevian,

 

Do you speak from experience?  Can you elaborate?

 

The only "experience" I have pertaining to this is a friend of mine has looked at private businesses and has not come across anything even remotely interesting.  As he digs into the businesses he has found numerous issues regarding mismanagement, accounting issues, employee issues. 

 

Thanks,

 

AtlCDore

 

Could it be that most private businesses that are truly exceptionally profitable are NOT up for sale...passed down through the family OR owned by the managers?  Maybe if for some reason they are up for sale, they are "private" sales?  Somebody is already lined up to buy it? 

 

I've seen a lot of stuff for sale through business brokers.  Most of the time the businesses are JUNK.  Some of the better ones have you wind up buying a job.  The ones that are pretty good are priced so high as to not make sense...

 

The other extreme that I have witnessed myself is that the former owners think they have a pot of gold in their hands... Impossible to negotiate in that case.

[LC]

browse bizbuysell and see what u can find in terms of the private marketplace.

 

i remember about a year ago seeing a concrete flooring company doing 1MM profits selling for 5MM. the owner was moving out of state and was willing to stay on a month to teach buyer.

 

maybe 5x earnings is not a great price but at the least it tells the entrepreneur who wants to hire a few flooring guys, rent some equipment, etc. where opportunity exists.

 

also if you know real estate but don't have the capital for a down payment, there are coffee shops/delis/etc for sale at decent prices. if you think the neighborhood is growing in population or income you can make a good deal, again with the work.

 

then again a lot of people want to just get rich sitting in their armchairs.

[marazul]

Everyone says the US economy is a mess and this will have a huge effect on earnings, we will enter a bear market bla bla bla... I believe the US economy is well insulated from the emerging market turmoil (that is a disaster, I agree). Until now, a big portion of the US economy growth was driven by fracking, etc and that will be a ST negative. I believe that the US economy is and will be OK... 2% growth in this environment is not terrible. US equities are attractive with earnings yield of 6% and 10yr treasuries at 2%. Doubt the spread has been this wide many times before. All in all, i think US is fine while everyone thinks the whole world is a mess and we are doomed.

[Sharad]

Everyone says the US economy is a mess and this will have a huge effect on earnings, we will enter a bear market bla bla bla... I believe the US economy is well insulated from the emerging market turmoil (that is a disaster, I agree). Until now, a big portion of the US economy growth was driven by fracking, etc and that will be a ST negative. I believe that the US economy is and will be OK... 2% growth in this environment is not terrible. US equities are attractive with earnings yield of 6% and 10yr treasuries at 2%. Doubt the spread has been this wide many times before. All in all, i think US is fine while everyone thinks the whole world is a mess and we are doomed.

 

Funny, I agree with much of what you say in that the US is better than the rest of the globe, but I believe that the Federal Reserve will have to proceed to negative interest rates to stem the flow of capital into the country, the rising USD and the importation of deflation from countries that are attempting to devalue their currencies (whether intentionally or recklessly).

[Nelson]

Most investors should spend less time on the theory of value investing and more time doing fundamental analysis on real companies.

[Jurgis]

Most investors should spend less time on the theory of value investing and more time doing fundamental analysis on real companies.

 

Amen.

 

Also most investors should spend less time on CoBF, articles, interviews, Google talks, etc. and more time doing fundamental analysis on real companies.

 

Guilty as charged on both counts.  ::)

[writser]

Most investors should spend less time on the theory of value investing and more time doing fundamental analysis on real companies.

 

Amen.

 

Also most investors should spend less time on CoBF, articles, interviews, Google talks, etc. and more time doing fundamental analysis on real companies.

 

Guilty as charged on both counts.  ::)

 

Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately digging through annual reports doesn't feel as satisfactory as posting a witty comment on a message board. I guess that is why value investing works.

 

I'll add another one: macro predictions on this board are pretty much a reflection of what happened the past 12 months.