Before he died last year at the age of 99, a friend asked Charlie Munger if he planned to leave his considerable wealth to his children. Wouldn’t it impact their work ethic, his friend asked. “Of course it will,” Munger replied. “But you still have to do it.” “Why?” his friend [...]
Chesterton’s Fence
In his 1929 book The Thing, British philosopher G.K. Chesterton introduced an idea that is now known as “Chesterton’s fence.” Here’s how he explained it. Imagine two people walking along a road when they discover a fence blocking the way for no apparent reason. As Chesterton tells it, the first [...]
Missing Billionaires
In their new book, The Missing Billionaires, Victor Haghani and James White make an interesting argument. Looking at the number of millionaires in the United States in 1900 and doing some math, they estimate that there should be many more billionaires today—thousands more, in fact—than there are. [...]
Investors’ biggest obstacle
My first day in the investment industry was—unfortunately—not so great. On the morning of September 15, 2008, the investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, sending the market into freefall. The rest of 2008 was equally ugly, with the S&P 500 losing 37% for the year. But that [...]
Is the market too high?
The S&P 500 Index just hit a new all-time high, topping 5,000 for the first time. Is it now too high? For investors concerned about market risk, this is an important question. But it isn’t an easy one to answer. For starters, there’s no single definition of “too high.” Consider the [...]
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