The Digest

The media landscape, Dollar General's meltdown, The written word, Damodaran on Instacart, The human condition, Herb Kelleher, Merger arbitrage, and more.

Buffett on Inflation, Dollar General, Due Diligence, Personal Libraries, The role of AI in drug discovery, Small-cap opportunities, and interviews of Peter Brown, Bill Gross, Chris Bloomstran.

Howard Marks on intelligent risks, Li Lu's amazing life story, Damodaran on streaming, Thompson on Charter vs. Disney, Taleb's favorite literary works, Buffett's Japanese investments, and more ...

Corporate taxes, Berkshire's clean energy investments, Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, ESPN's future, Nvidia, AI, Interpreting medical studies, Why Doomberg left Twitter, Jimmy Buffett, and more...

Volcker on inflation, Parametric insurance, The futility of guidance, Corporate governance reform, Keeping a notebook, Singleton and Teledyne, The pros and cons of cancer screening

Feynman on knowledge, TransDigm's controversial business model, Costco's history, The Ozempic/Wegovy band-aid; Plus insights from Todd Combs, Michael Burry, Joel Tillinghast, and Lee Ainslie.

Steve Jobs in his own words, Risk free rates, Saving for a home, Buffett's investments in Japan, Flawed memories, Podcast interviews with Rudy Havenstein, Doomberg, Paul Graham, and Guy Spier.

Montaigne on Lying, Berkshire's Q2 results, Equity risk premiums, Taking useful notes, Abandoning books, How Threads was built, BYD challenges Tesla, Katalin Karikó's inspiring life

Claude Shannon's mighty mouse, Ben Graham's father, Doomberg quits Twitter, FASB segment disclosure rules, Podcasts on old annual reports, Henry Ford's road trips, Jony Ive, Sal Kahn

Munger on windowless dorms, Damodaran on country risk, Disney's brand, Working without working, The comfort crisis, Fairfax, Markel, Vision Pro's breakthrough, iPhone hacks

Flawed clinical studies, AI and employment, Anonymous wealth, Age of the universe, 19th century anarchy, Buffett and Japan, Claude Hopkins, Benjamin Franklin

Early Retirement, Chris Davis on Berkshire's future, Howard Marks on market cycles, Threads vs. Twitter, Costco takes the high road, James Cameron, GEICO in the 1970s

Life is short, Value fund underperformance, Acquisitions, Psychological denial, Damodaran on NVIDIA, Grove's escape, GM in 1920

Apple in China, Forecasting, Financial Nihilism, Taking Notes in Longhand, Wright Brothers, Jacob McDonough on Berkshire Hathaway

Revisiting I Bonds, Reinsurance, Buffett in 1979, Private Equity, Why Inflation Matters, Justifying Optimism, Jim Simons, Jay Gould, Fred Martin

Limited Control, Down Rounds, The Hero's Journey, Unhappy Retirees, Lincoln on Idleness, The Future of Software

Southwest's Fragile Technology, Finding Time to Write, Synthetic Meat, Taiwan Semiconductor, Andrew Carnegie, Estée Lauder, Robert Caro

Investment Report Cards, Damodaran's Free Courses, Iger's Reluctant Retirement, National Indemnity's Unique History, Isadore Sharp

Fortune Cookies, FTC vs. Microsoft, AI and Education, A Meaningful Life, Flow States, Howard Marks, Tom Gayner, Warren Buffett

Ben Franklin on Free Speech, Berkshire Hathaway, Brookfield Asset Management, ChatGPT, Auto Insurance, Floor & Decor

The Buffalo News, Powell's High Stakes Mission, Longevity, Unsolicited Advice, Disneyland, Paul Graham on Reading, Keith Creel, Howard Marks

Buffett Donates $759 Million to Foundations, The Fall of Nikita Khrushchev, Jack Welch, Howard Marks, The FTX Saga, Chanos on Fraud

Self-Discipline, Exemplars, Damodaran on Meta, Chancellor on CBDCs, Four Layers of Happiness, Chobani's founder, Ancient Entrepreneurs

Gell-Mann Amnesia, GEICO, Todd Combs, Onboarding Directors, Damodaran on Meta, Paul Graham's Essays, Home Depot, Nick Sleep

Unpopular Large Companies, Meta Platforms, Activision, Peter Lynch, Taleb on Writing, Substack's Social Network, In-N-Out Burger

Old Books, Damodaran on FCF, Bonus Clawbacks, Meta's Plunging Stock, Bogleheads, Alfred Sloan, David Einhorn, FDR

It's Never Too Late, Executive Compensation, Traveling like a Local, Alien Truths, Pursuing Happiness, Silence, Vannevar Bush

Volcker and Buffett on Inflation, Is Meta cheap?, Bernanke's Nobel, Painful times for housing, Revolutionary technologies, The right heroes

The Twitter Saga, The Next Buffett, Corporate Governance, Genetics of Ancient Humans, Long COVID, Vannevar Bush, Intuit, See's Candies

Lies and Deception, Damodaran on Inflation, David Gottesman, Apple Hedges on China, Excessive Optimization, Trader Joe's

Thought Experiments, TIPS, Adler on Reading, Time is Running Short, Ellington's Gift to the Queen, Thomas Jefferson's Travel Guide

The Futility of Forecasting, Occidental Petroleum, Patagonia, Europe's Energy Catastrophe, GE's Rise and Fall, Taleb on Fed and Interest Rates

Growth vs. Value, Apple's New Products, Precision Railroading, Julian Robertson

Rational Inattention Theory, Carbon Capture Technology, Disney's Amazing Moat, Envy, Austin, Stoicism, George Zimmer Interview

The Fragile Internet, AMC, Serialized Books, Jim Grant on Fed and China, Carvana, Black Holes

Berkshire Wins FERC approval to Buy 50% of $OXY, Hoenig on CBDCs, Safety of Nuclear Power, Sloan on Automobile Distribution

Reading News, Repurchase Tax, Margin of safety in Retirement, Risk of e-bikes, $426 for a room at Motel 6?!?, Geothermal Energy, Cyber War

Fall of the Vanderbilts, Authenticity, Feynman on Evaluating Information, Jerry Seinfeld, Taking the Difficult Path, Howard Marks, Will Thorndike

Truth and Lies, Recession or Hovering?, Forward Guidance, Howard Marks, TransDigm, Tumi & Roam Luggage, Jeremy Grantham

Gayner on Markel's Value, Life in Weeks, Multi-Disciplinary Thinking, Addictive Personalities, Duolingo, TransDigm, Charles Schwab

Tom Murphy Interview From 2000, Apple's Ad Opportunity, Ruined by Crypto, Interviews of Nick Howley and Nassim Taleb

The First iPhone, Orange Julius, From L.A. to Boise, The Scientific Method, Lies About the World, Ian Cassel on Microcaps

Title Insurance, Damodaran on Risk, Leverage at Pension Funds, Money and Status, Nostalgia

Buffett's Estate Plans, Freight Rail Disruptions, Austin's Evolution, Chick-fil-A, Interviews of Vitaliy Katsenelson, Guy Spier, and William Green

Buffett vs. Saylor, Medical Debt, Capital Gains Tax cut?, Jim Chanos, Howard Marks, Andrew Marks, Mohnish Pabrai, Jim Simons

Social Security Reform, ESG, Corporate Cultures, BYD's Batteries, Iatrogenesis, Bored Elon Musk

Coca-Cola in 1923, Hyperinflation, Stoicism, CBDCs, Daily Journal Transcript, Mimetic Desire

Thomas S. Murphy (1925 - 2022)

Inflation Hedges, Startups, Madoff's Playbook, Beginner's Mind, ESG Pushback, Central Banking in the 1790s

Berkshire Buys 3.1% of Markel, The Legend of Li Lu, Crypto in 401k Plans, Buffett's Legacy, Musk and Twitter, Writer's Block

Cathie Wood on Passive Investing, Brian Chesky on Remote Work, Damodaran on Inflation, Ted Weschler Interview, Tom Gayner in Omaha

Dorsey on Twitter's Future, Musk on Passive Investing, How Buffett Could Deploy $6 Billion

Peter Cundill, Greg Abel, Passive Investing, Higher Yields, Mohnish Pabrai, Raising Cane's, Berkshire Questions

Board Pay, Should Berkshire acquire Markel?, ElonTwitterDrama, Ikea, Nutella, Afterpay, Buffett's latest interview

Buffett's a Tough Negotiator, Munger Halves Alibaba Stake, Mini-Berkshires, Heresy, Automats, Shrinkflation, Railroads, Ethereum

Starbucks Halts Repurchases, Grant on Interest Rates, Costly Signaling, Yield Curve Inversion

Charlie Munger Steps Down as Chairman of Daily Journal, ESG and Russia, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Jack Bogle, Joel Greenblatt, Carl Icahn

Trouble Ahead for Housing?

Russia's Heavy Losses, Economic Warfare, Networked Learning, Daylight Savings Time, Roger Lowenstein, Microcap Investing

Munger's Alibaba Investment, The Battle of Actium, Cyberattack Insurance, Stanley Druckenmiller, Howard Marks

Berkshire's Directors, Book Reviews, Tax Irrationality, Rethinking Globalization, Technology and War

Churchill on War, Stanislav Petrov, Economic Warfare, The Paradox of Trust, Market Meltdowns

Berkshire's Voting Control, Car Dealerships, Intellectual Junk Food, Due Diligence, Supply chains, Invasions, Hagstrom on Investing

Semper Augustus and Markel Letters

Washington's Farewell, Commitment Bias, Default Habits, Derivatives, Amazon, Executive Compensation, Better Sleep

Charlie Munger, Carl Icahn, Venture Capital, Valuable Razors, The "Hawkish" Fed, Guaranteed Misery, Washington's Farewell Address

Berkshire, Activision, Tom Murphy, Empty offices, Short sellers, Stolen Bitcoin

Trading Bans, Used Car Insanity, Focused Attention, Digital Advertising, UPS, Peloton

Nixon's Final Days, David Tepper, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Luxury Beliefs, Erosion of Trust, Twitter's Future, Taylor on Inflation

Microsoft's Future, Ackman's Triumph, Benjamin Graham, Jon Stewart Interviews Thomas Hoenig

Digital Cash, Berkshire's Annual Meeting, Productivity Traps, Taleb on Vaccines, Peloton

Executive Compensation, Howard Marks, Innovation Hubs, The Eternal Present

Apple's iMessage Moat, Living to 150, Lords of Easy Money, Buffett's Reading

Lou Simpson's Life and Legacy

Charlie Munger, Alibaba, Theranos, IKEA, Ray Dalio, Jeff Bezos

Happy New Year!

Inflation, I Bonds, Trading in Congress, The Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway

Meme Stocks, Fed Policy, Twitter's Business Model, Nuclear Fusion, Calpers

A Case of Mistaken Identity

The Four Americas, Ted Weschler's Amazing IRA, Ancient Humans, UFOs

The Fed's Epistemic Arrogance, A World Without Yield, 10-K Diver on Dividends

The Downfall of GE, Inflation Protests, Franklin's 200 Year Experiment, Paris in 1900

Inner Scorecards, SPACs, Availability Bias, America's Drinking Problem

Highway Removal, Food Delivery, Inflation, Home Prices, Reinforced Concrete, I Bonds

Kahneman on AI, PPP Fraud, Druckenmiller on the Fed, Greenblatt on Investing

Tax Policy, SPACs, David Swensen, Bruce Flatt on Offices, Masks

Berkshire Succession, Excess Efficiency, Crazy Ideas, Taleb's Mini-Lessons, VISA

Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Meeting, Tim Cook's Fortress, Elon Musk's War on Regulators, Podcast Highlights

Corporate Taxes, Greenlight Capital, Feedback Loops, Probability, Kahneman, Grant

J&J's Vaccine, The Newly Rich, Via Negativa, Costco, GEICO, Alibaba, Li Lu

Envy, Sugar, Astrophysics, Chipotle, Paradoxes, The Man in the Arena

Playing with FIRE, Larry Culp, Berkshire's legal team, Pabrai Q&A, Case Against Sugar

Dalio on Bitcoin, NFTs, Capital Allocation, Sovereign Writers, FDR Bans Gold

Vaccine Supply, ACA Changes, Screen Addiction, SPACs, Happiness, Seneca's Death

Adler on Great Books, Real Fake Meat, One Year Later, Journaling, Muir's Essays

Henry Singleton, Tracking Performance, Bogleheads, Berkshire Repurchases, The Use of Letters

Grantham, Berkowitz, Marks, Isaacson, and Tulips

Daily Journal Annual Meeting, Semper Augustus on Berkshire, Civilized Bitcoin Debate

Katlin Smith, Mark Leonard, Paul Graham, Carlos Brito

Marks and Greenblatt, The Future of NYC, Mental Models, Best Story Wins

Medical costs, Burry on Tesla and Bitcoin, Financial Literacy, Ancient Pollution

Tesla's Bitcoin Announcement, Cultivating Habits, Earned Income Tax Credit, A Collection of Short Stories

Bezos Steps Down, Podcast Roundup, Keto Diets, Liberal Arts

Short Sellers: Heroes or Villains?

So, What's Up With GameStop?

Munger's Letter, BYD, Trust and Mistrust, The Value of Failure

Monday Morning Quarterbacks

Jim Simons, Tom Gayner, Jeremy Grantham, Mohnish Pabrai

The 59th Inaugural, Top Secret Trading Strategies, January Reading List

Value vs. Growth, Take the Money, Inflation, Lazy Thinking

Vaccine Technology, Free Speech, Mr. Overton

Happy Teachers

The Middle Innings

The Moon Is Down, Diminishing Privacy, First Principles, I Bonds

The Evolution of Mass Media From the 1950s to the 2020s

COVID-19 Vaccines, Disney, Trader Joe's, Mental Junk Food

Bruce Greenwald, Twitter, Bitcoin, High Quality Sleep

The Future of Value Investing

Advice for a Newborn, NYC in crisis, Amazon's Past and Future

The Limits of Our Power

Question the Default Choice

The Scientific Consensus

Time is the Currency of Life

Dissenting Voices, Cybersecurity, Portfolio Turnover, Making Software Fun

Kennedy-Nixon Debates, Zoom Fatigue, Lifestyle Creep

Insurers and Private Equity, The Other Dr. Feynman, Negative Emotions

Medical Billing, Wall Street Bombing of 1920, September Reading

Decision Journals, Costco and Jim Sinegal

Stock Splits, The Illusion of Control, Buffett at 90

The Podcast Road Trip

Buffett Reshuffles Bank Holdings, The Power of Morning Pages

Did Buffett Sell Wells Fargo?, Going the Distance

Berkshire Hathaway Second Quarter 2020 Earnings

Gayner Sells CarMax, Deprival-Superreaction Tendency

Berkshire’s Great Transformation, An Unsung Hero

Microsoft is Cool Again, Women in Finance

Possible Berkshire Repurchases, Munger at Redlands

Buffett Invests in Pipelines, Irrational Tax Traps

The Changing Landscape of News, Jim Simons Interview

Summer Book Recommendations, Psychology of Money

The Evolution of Robert Moses, Interesting Links, Street Art

What’s Your Magic Number?, Risks Too Painful to Contemplate, D-Day + 20

Joys of Compounding, Prediction Addiction, Quality Shareholders

75th Anniversary of WWII, Bundling Business Strategy, Three Sides of Risk

Pandemic Insurance, Where Are the Customers’ Yachts, Fragile Investments

Mental Models, Gyms and COVID-19, Peter Buffett, Architecture of Music

Buffett Seems Worried, Psychology of Masks, New York City in 1911

Berkshire Meeting, Gates on COVID-19, Small Business Impacts, Ackman Interview

Thoughts on Berkshire Hathaway’s Deployable Cash

Earnings Guidance, Pandemic of 1918, Knowledge of the Future

Jamie Dimon’s Annual Letter, The World Has No Pause Button, Auto Insurers

Coronavirus and Business Interruption Insurance, Jony Ive, Thomas Jefferson

A Wild Week, Coronavirus is Not a Black Swan, Small Businesses in Crisis

Coronavirus: The Perilous Road Ahead

Market Meltdowns, Berkshire’s Occidental Investment, Markel Annual Letter

Coronavirus Correction, Daily Journal Transcripts, Treasury Bonds

Berkshire Report Links, Market Crashes, Dollar Cost Averaging

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report Coverage

20 Years In Berkshire, Charlie Munger, Stretch IRA Update

Alchemy, Predicting the Future, The Power of Money, Chick-fil-A

Tesla, The Panic of 1901, Staying Informed, Taming Your Cell Phone

My Apple Mistake, Jim Lehrer, Coronavirus, Goodwill Accounting

Mental Models, Housel Interviews Beshore, Getting in on the 50th Floor

Berkshire’s Culture, Narrative Fallacy, Howard Marks, Reading

Bob Iger, Berkshire, Distractions of Travel, Popular Articles

The Inaugural Issue