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tooskinneejs

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  1. I agree with most of these points too. With regard to income taxes, I believe people in lower income brackets should pay some tax, even if it is a small percentage. This makes them have some skin in the game and de-motivates them from voting for politicians promising 'free stuff' because they think it will cost them nothing.
  2. This Charlie quote is pretty important these days... "Another thing I think should be avoided is extremely intense ideology because it cabbages up one’s mind. ... When you’re young it’s easy to drift into loyalties and when you announce that you’re a loyal member and you start shouting the orthodox ideology out, what you’re doing is pounding it in, pounding it in, and you’re gradually ruining your mind." – Charlie Munger, USC Law Commencement Speech, May 2007
  3. "Cryptocurrency-trading giant Binance said the accounting firm it used to verify its reserves has paused all work for crypto clients, hampering efforts to reassure customers that their money is safe." "Binance also said outflows from its platform swelled to $6 billion, a reflection of turmoil among crypto traders shocked by the implosion last month of rival exchange FTX." "Mazars on Friday withdrew from its website a report on reserves at Binance and other cryptocurrency-trading companies. The report for Binance, which wasn’t an audit, was published last week. A spokesman for the accounting firm said it had made the move “due to concerns regarding the way these reports are understood by the public.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-says-accounting-firm-pauses-work-for-its-crypto-clients-11671200654?st=v9qz5aolgzaljov&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink So much for virtual currencies being a "store of value."
  4. Weird case "against Trump." As I understand it, the ex-CFO received compensation and didn't declare it on his taxes. The ex-CFO gets a slap on the wrist and the company is found guilty. Seems to me like the CFO should be the one being punished.
  5. We just finished this limited series and it was great. It has to be great writing when you are hoping for someone to get killed.
  6. I think there are tons of very informed individuals who rightly think cryptocurrencies will be looked back as a "how could anyone have believed in that" moment in financial history. I'm still waiting to hear why cryptocurrencies shouldn't be viewed as anything other than tulip bulb mania without actual tangible tulip bulbs.
  7. I just watched a documentary on Netflix titled "Trust No One - The Hunt for the Crypto King." It was a well done story on Gerry Cotten, the fraudster behind crypto exchange Quadriga. Did he really die in India? Will we ever know?
  8. The company has earned 70% of its market capitalization in the last five years. Sales were down 26% quarter over quarter due primarily to a decline in sales in their Hawthorne segment (cannabis) due to oversupply. We'll have to wait and see if that is a temporary factor or not. The consumer segment, which is by far the largest, saw sales decline 13% in the quarter. Many businesses saw spikes in sales during the pandemic as people focused on home. This could be just a cooling off. I still think people will take care of their yards. As to the balance sheet. They have a strong current ratio of about 2.5. Debt to equity is high, but that is because the company has paid dividends of $1.3 billion and retired shares (net of issuances) of $892 million over the last 10 years (a total of $2.2 billion, which approximates today's market cap).
  9. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. It's at a price not seen since 2013. VF Corp is also looking cheap.
  10. There was a big shout out to Warren on the series finale of Better Call Saul last night.
  11. I just went to South Africa. Spent several days in Cape Town and then several days on safari in Kruger Park. In Cape Town we hiked to the top of Table Mountain, kids did paragliding, we did a sunset cruise, saw penguins, and learned about Apartheid and visited Robben Island (where Mandela was imprisoned). The city is really nice and modern overall, but there are townships outside of the city where thousands of people live in small metal shacks. Pretty crazy how much wealth disparity exists there. In Kruger, we drove through the park to see many wild animals and stayed in small cabins in fenced-in areas of the park. We then spent a couple of days in a private game reserve where we could go off-road and see even more animals. The people in South Africa were very friendly and happy to see tourism return to the country. An added benefit for value investors - the US dollar is very strong against the Rand. You can get a nice meal at a sit-down restaurant for the equivalent of $7 and a really nice meal for $20. I felt like a king!
  12. Wouldn't the most obvious example be a retailer or a restaurant? You know, something relatable? Target maybe?
  13. I enjoyed HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. (kept that short in the spirit of good writing)
  14. A decade ago I would have strongly recommended BusinessWeek. I liked it because it provided straight reporting on businesses, both in short and long form articles, and without an investment spin. That meant I could learn about what was happenig to businesses without an angle and decide for myself whether something looked interesting. Unfortunately, I found that politics started infecting their reporting to the point where a substantial portion of their magazine was no longer straight business reporting. After subscribing for 20 years I dropped it. Their current issue is the "Equity Issue" and has an article about fat people supposedly being fired for their weight. Not exactly helpful in providing me with meaningful business information. Fortune would be my recommendation right now, with the caveat that many articles approach a story from an investing angle.
  15. An article in today's WSJ supports Gregmal's point of view. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-housing-market-is-nearly-4-million-homes-short-of-buyer-demand-11618484400?mod=hp_featst_pos3 "The U.S. housing market is 3.8 million single-family homes short of what is needed to meet the country’s demand, according to a new analysis by mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac." "“We should have almost four million more housing units if we had kept up with demand the last few years,” Mr. Khater said. “This is what you get when you underbuild for 10 years.”
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