The Rational Walk publishes articles on a wide range of topics including investing, personal finance, and worldly wisdom encompassing multiple disciplines. Many book reviews on a wide range of subjects have been published over the years. There is a Berkshire Hathaway resource page available for readers with a specific interest in the company. The Rational Walk was created in 2009 and contains hundreds of articles, all of which are available in the full archive.
Rational Reflections is a newsletter covering current events, investing, personal finance, philosophy, book reviews, and other topics of interest.
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Recent Articles
Financial independence enabling early retirement is a worthy goal, but there are important considerations that are often ignored by the FIRE movement.
We can learn a great deal about business and capital allocation by studying Tom Murphy’s long and successful career in broadcasting.
This post is a list of books that I read in the first quarter of 2022, most notably two classic titles by Leo Tolstoy: War & Peace and Anna Karenina.
Optimization is a good thing, up to certain limits, but it can be taken too far. When the cost of redundancy is low and the cost of falling short is high, accepting redundancy can make sense.
The underlying science that made COVID-19 vaccines possible is the product of decades of painstaking research, well described in "A Shot to Save the World".
Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to acquire Alleghany for $11.6 billion. The offer values Alleghany at 1.26x book value. This article examines the specifics of the deal.
Most corporate directors have minimal skin in the game. Berkshire Hathaway is a notable exception. This article looks at the ownership interest of each Berkshire director.
Berkshire Hathaway's dual class share structure concentrates voting power with Class A shareholders. This advantage will become much more important in the future.
This article explores selected items from Warren Buffett's 2021 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and also includes a detailed analysis of recent share repurchases.
In 1796, George Washington left his countrymen with insights on factionalism, respect for the constitution, separation of powers, debt, taxes, and foreign policy.
Joe Coulombe founded Trader Joe's in 1967. Over the next quarter century, Coulombe grew Trader Joe's into a much loved and trusted brand. His memoir shares the secrets of his achievements.
Trading bans for members of Congress and other government officials risk sending the wrong message about the capitalist system. Sunlight is a far better disinfectant.
Christopher Leonard's book examines the history, controversies, and internal dissent surrounding the Federal Reserve's increasingly unconventional monetary policy during the 2010s.
Anchoring is a common mental heuristic, or short cut, that can be useful in many contexts but often proves very damaging when it comes to financial decisions.
Blind rage manifested as hatred is one of the least productive emotions and is almost guaranteed to impair your decision making capabilities and cause serious errors.
Spence Jakab's book tells the story of Robinhood, GameStop, AMC, and other meme stocks that became a mania, driven by a profit motive and a desire to punish short-sellers.
Jay Cost's biography of James Madison gives proper credit to one of America's most important founding fathers who played a crucial role in the creation of the Constitution.
Personal reflections on September 11, 2001 written two decades after the horrendous terrorist attacks on the United States changed the course of the new century.
The Federal Reserve's recent decisions have demonstrated epistemic arrogance and magnified risk by failing to properly acknowledge the inherent limits of their power.
Having an "inner scorecard" can be liberating and foster independent thinking, but ultimately human beings must also subject themselves to the judgment of key people in their lives.
Greg Abel is likely to be named as the next CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. How should shareholders think about the alignment of incentives at the company once CEO succession occurs?
Reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic written in April 2021, a time when the widespread availability of vaccines gave society renewed hope for a return to relative normalcy.
Thoughts on the counterproductive initiation ritual of working crazy hours and the tendency many people have to conflate face time with commitment and productivity.
Accepting misery early in your career in exchange for a higher salary is almost always a huge mistake, yet many people make this tradeoff.