LongHaul

Charlie Munger was a bottomless well of wisdom. What a great man in thought, words and action. I was reading Charlie's Almanack again ~10 years after I first read it and it was so deep and relevant and I was able to make more connections with more life experience. I will be eternally grateful for the wisdom he shared as I think it made many of us better human beings. “Always take the high road, it's far less crowded.” ― Charlie Munger

I have also heard a lot of positive things about Ray Dalio from someone who worked there. I respect him and enjoy learning from him. I think he is genuinely trying to teach people. He doesn't exactly come across as a super slick salesman. Anyone can criticize anyone else. Easiest thing in the world. Sometimes articles tell you more about the critic than anything he has written. I wonder how much envy and liberal bias affect some of the reporting.

Thanks Ulti. I really admire you for giveing your practice to a younger honest dentist vs selling out. (I have had a lot of problems with dentists over the years and appreciate an honest one). Maybe you can tell the younger dentist to step on the marketing pedal and take a lot of market share.

The opportunity is competing against the PE firms. They are easy marks with high prices, bad service, gutted operations, burning employees out and pissing off customers. Can anyone think of a public company that is long term oriented that has its primary competition as PE firms? One of the secrets to business - weak competition.

Ulti - care to share more details? I am very interested.

Private Equity operators are very short term oriented. Their funds usually expire in 7-10 years and they are required to sell all their businesses in that time frame. How would you run a business you were going to sell in 7 - 10 years? The obvious answer is that they are incentived to maximize short term profits and even cut muscle in the short run. If you are buying an IPO of a private equity controlled company, buyer beware. They want to sell for as much as they can in the short run and want to leave the public holding the bag. They have likely already cut all the fat and much muscle out of the business, raised prices too high, underinvested in capex, and all types of necessary long term initiatives, etc. Then a schmuck comes along and belives their bullshit and buys it. Then watch as competitors take share and eventually profits erode and the business falls apart. (OK that doesn't always happen but I often see it) Great to compete against the P/E buttheads though. I was recently trying to have a tooth removed by an Oral Surgeon and The P/E backed office would not give me a price until I really pushed them (it was like pulling teeth) It rubbed me the wrong way and I found a competitor who would do it for half the price without the BS runaround. I have frequently found these BS games when dealing the the PE guys who don't know business.

Anyone know which is the "very recent podcast" with Charlie Munger that Buffett's mentioned in his annual letter?

I did not read the paper but Totally agree with the premise. The Chinese government has likely been lying about China's GDP growth for 10+ years. Apparently GDP doesn't even add up from the regional to national level. Compound out 10+ years of inflated GDP and it is probably a very big number. I think I read that China is lying about the size of their population also. That would make the real estate problem much, much worse in China. There was an analysis of lights and GDP and dictators generally claim their GDP is higher than reality for various reasons.

I have a friend who is an experienced Hedge Fund CFO and Controller. He has spent 7 years at funds and 15 years finance/accounting experience overall. He is seeking a finance/accounting position at a Hedge Fund/PE/Venture/Family Office. Preference for Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area or remote roles. High character individual and very capable. PM me and I can put you in touch. Thank You, Longhaul *Sorry for the general post as the jobs area seems to be gone and wasn't sure where to post.

Hi Dealraker, I would really love to read your writeup of "The 12 Ways GE Misleads Investors." That is awesome that you could see that very early. I have a big fascination with frauds.

I would echo the information about health and exercise. I started becoming a bit of a health nut around 17 years ago and our brains and bodies are extremely interconnected with what we eat and exercise and even stress. There are at least 20+ parts of our body that benefit from healthy eating including the heart, minimizing cancer, kidneys, immune system, inflamation, skin, liver and probably the brain. I have been surprised how many of our body systems are connected to healthy eating. And health is a form of wealth. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/foods-linked-to-better-brainpower

I have heard that the NYC public library has old OID issues. Would be a great learning experience to read those.

The New UI looks worse in my opinion. I am not sure why - maybe it is the lines that I like.

I like this one a lot too. Thanks BG.

You have ~102% of cash (daily) in place of the shares as collateral . If there is a loss beyond that Schwab should be the counterparty. Generally safe.