Have money for opportunity

The is a far greater reason why Buffett never times the market. He always has plenty of money for when opportunity arises high market or low market. In other words he has a wiser approach than to guess about the market’s direction.

Plus the legal incentive to never guess in public matters a great deal in Buffett’s position.

WEB could rephrase things as, “I have my thoughts but can not and will not express them”. Then the press would need to pry him open and fillet him.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buffett-on-market-timing-1651…

Link to Buffett saying he has no clue where the market is going. Not quite a lie? A cozy thought on WEB’s part? He is on our level? Nice.

Link to Buffett saying he has no clue where the market is going. Not quite a lie? A cozy thought on WEB’s part? He is on our level? Nice.

Perhaps a slight oversimplification. Maybe more like he hasn’t thought about it very much because he doesn’t care. He doesn’t invest in “the market.” He invests in individual companies. He focuses deeply on a company and is value, then compares that to the current price for that company. When the company is available at a good price, he buys. When it’s not, he doesn’t.

That calculus doesn’t depend on where the market is going, just where the company is going.

—Peter

25 Likes

He doesn’t invest in “the market.”

We all invest in the market.

More like he wants no liability. He does couch things in a folksy way.

That calculus doesn’t depend on where the market is going, just where the company is going.

All of Buffett’s calculus depends on the market. It is three days up for every day down. He would not play this game otherwise.

WEB has money on the sidelines for opportunities. He depends on the down days more.

Although that was WEB. Meaning he has turned BRK more institutional these days for after his passing. He is not as intent on stock picking for only a decade’s return in his calculations.

I don’t believe WEB is only investing for 10 years. Like all the great elders, his plans extend willfully beyond his physical duration. Whether those are maintained depends on how much culture he has instilled.

His horizons are as long as they ever have been, margin of safety included.

1 Like

WEB’s acumen with regard to economics and investing philosophy might end up getting him ranked in the ranks of other recognized bright minds.

They are very few and some very far to mention.

Of the likes of:

  1. Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006)
  2. Adam Smith (June 16, 1723 – July 17, 1790)

Karl Marx needs an honorable mention, as in how an utterly dystopian plan can be described in such glowing terms as to attract so many of the illiterati, glowing with hope. That, in spite of being ‘educated’ is some of the ‘finest’ universities in the world, but have absolutely no skills in critical thinking about how the real world works.

1 Like

Karl Marx needs an honorable mention, as in how an utterly dystopian plan can be described in such glowing terms as to attract so many of the illiterati, glowing with hope.

When Will They Cancel Karl Marx?
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/when-will-they-cancel-…
Karl Marx, one of the most repellent anti-Semites and racists of the 19th century. Murray’s treatment is devastating. Let’s cite some of the greatest hits…

[be sure to read some examples at the link]

Marx’s work deserves study today because of a handful of insights and Marxism’s uniquely murderous role in human history…Marx, in fact, is the most assigned economist in college. Among the top schools, The Communist Manifesto is the third-most taught book in history, and first in sociology.

DB2

2 Likes

Among the top schools, The Communist Manifesto is the third-most taught book in history, and first in sociology.

Please provide a citation for this statement that you present as fact.

6 Likes

Among the top schools, The Communist Manifesto is the third-most taught book in history, and first in sociology.

Great to hear! Understanding modern economics or history of the 20th century would be impossible without at least some understanding in Marx’s role in all of that. In fact, we’re still seeing the reverberations of Soviet communism today.

That said, calling “The Communist Manifesto” a book is stretch. It is maybe a couple dozen pages long. You can easily read in a couple hours if you can stay awake that long.

3 Likes

Please provide a citation for this statement that you present as fact.

Links are provided in the linked article.

DB2

1 Like

That said, calling “The Communist Manifesto” a book is stretch. It is maybe a couple dozen pages long. You can easily read in a couple hours if you can stay awake that long.

I tried reading Das Kapital and had a hard time staying awake. No such problem with An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

The Captain

2 Likes

Marx’s work deserves study today because of a handful of insights and Marxism’s uniquely murderous role in human history…Marx, in fact, is the most assigned economist in college.

Another wonderful case of lying with the truth. It turns out that Marx is the most assigned economist … except it’s not in economics classes. It’s mostly in philosophy and social construct classes.

And about that “count”: the project doing it says the count has reached about 1 million of 80 million syllabi, and that it is unable to count single word sources without an author attribution. So it misses such little known books as “the Bible”, and other unattributed sources such as “the US Constitution”, “the Declaration of Independence”, “the Magna Carta”, and so on.

But I can see why Andrew Sullivan is upset, like Tucker Carlson he no longer cares about nuanced truth, he cares about stoking an audience which is more interested in tribalism and which doesn’t bother verifying such misleading “facts”.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/communist-manifesto-among-…

24 Likes

I tried reading Das Kapital and had a hard time staying awake. No such problem with An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

And the latter could easily be mistaken, based on its size, for a door-stop or a Robert Jordan novel. (Not sure about the former.)

1 Like

Thanks for pointing me to it.

I went to Sullivan’s article and the article that Sullivan quoted and finally got to the study both were based on. It looks like there is no distinction made as to whether a book is required in a 100 level general education class or a 400 level class for majors in a discipline. I suspect that as many students are reading The Communist Manifesto as are reading Plato’s Republic, and vastly more are probably working their way through James Stewart’s Calculus than all of Marx’s add Plato’s works combined.

2 Likes

No such problem with An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. the Captain

You are all aware the fifth book by Smith ends with demand side econ to pick up the pieces of the first British great depression? Close to socialism but no where near communism.

Marx is important because all economic systems get very perverted. Or inverted if you see the prior as sexual.

Students need to either know there is an inversion of reality so they can stand a chance of an ethical system. By this I am making no claims of Marxism as reality.

1 Like