DooDiligence

My industry has gone bust & I'm still one of the survivors. I didn't know that Canada allowed margin deduction but not mortgage (is the Gov trying to encourage risk taking on equity investment as opposed to home ownership?) You're gonna force me to become rational about my home here in the US...

I know it's not rational for me to own my home outright (not claiming to be a great capital allocator at this time) and I'm actually contemplating buying another renovation project in a neighborhood I'd want to live in & then switching homes & selling my present habitat (a difficult thing as I enjoy access to the bay & Gulf directly from my back yard & can't find a replacement other than a better view with less utility.) I know, just get a mortgage on my existing home (can't because I'm being irrational right now...)

Aha; I was thinking When Genius Failed might have inspired you to do what they did, except do it sans failure. The Making of is one of the ones about WEB that I haven't read yet...

Nice! Thanks bang...

I'll take your word on it & buy this one because it's $1.99 & I'm thrifty...

I just read what Howard Marks said about cycles of loose credit & that very waste of capital. Are their any significant parrallels in history (US or foreign) which eventually came to an unavoidable end? I'd love to read more about this... Canada: 1990-1996: Government debt had exploded exactly like the US is now, perhaps with less assets. Interest rates were high. So, the consumer was squeezed at the same time as the government. To get it in order the government had to downsize at all levels aggravating the recession in the private sector. And oil was very low. It took a few years and alot of export assisted growth to get things back on track. It was during this period when I entered the workforce after school. I worked from 89 to late 1992, got laid off, went back to school in 1994 for a year and a half, graduated and didn't work full time until 1998. I read Lowensteins book and decided I never wanted to depend on having a job again. In 1992/93 I knew almost no young person who had a job. The difference for Canada versus the US is that we could export our way out. The US has no such option. This period also set the stage for 2008, when Canada, and Canadian banks were still in the careful stage, and as a result didn't suffer much. I am afraid it has degenerated since then. How quickly we forget. Roger? Was it When Genius Failed? Who r u?!?

You should add to your first sentence "people on this board" & then I'd somewhat agree that using cheap money makes sense & I did avail myself of a 2% truck loan recently & am contemplating a cheap mortgage for a renovation project for a property...) I'm reluctant simply because I get a big sense of comfort from being sumpremely solvent (I'm like WD-40 baby!) Please don't take my comments as being contentious (just adding to the convo...)

Has anyone read this or any other revisionist histories of the depression? Here's the Booklist review & it's a mixed bag (4 star avg) with Amazon readers: Its duration and depth made the Depression "Great," and Shlaes, a prominent conservative economics journalist, considers why a decade of government intervention ameliorated but never tamed it. With vitality uncommon for an economics history, Shlaes chronicles the projects of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt as well as these projects' effect on those who paid for them. Reminding readers that the reputedly do-nothing Hoover pulled hard on the fiscal levers (raising tariffs, increasing government spending), Shlaes nevertheless emphasizes that his enthusiasm for intervention paled against the ebullient FDR's glee in experimentation. She focuses closely on the influence of his fabled Brain Trust, her narrative shifting among Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and other prominent New Dealers. Businesses that litigated their resistance to New Deal regulations attract Shlaes' attention, as do individuals who coped with the despair of the 1930s through self-help, such as Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson. The book culminates in the rise of Wendell Willkie, and Shlaes' accent on personalities is an appealing avenue into her skeptical critique of the New Deal. Gilbert Taylor

I looked at them around 2012 when sentiment was extremely low but just didn't have enough knowledge to pull the trigger & chose AAPL as my one tech bet (even though I don't have enough knowledge to judge that one either) & came close to getting scared out of it with the new Mac upgrade but I'm still holding on (hoping the handset annuity doesn't dry up & that they can develope a significant number of adjacencies to keep that from happening...)

I'm in the same camp as UCCMAL & Kapitalust with the patience thingy (I delude myself that I have an occasional insight that runs contrary to market sentiment when I'm actually just a "lucky idiot")

I have pretty much lived without debt my entire life. no college debt (never went) paid cash for each of my cars (most expensive of which was 8K) Paid cash for my first home at age 26 (simple 3/1 ranch for 125K) have moved 4 times since then (bought all of them from HUD foreclosures) and each house I made a nice profit on because of making them much nicer then when I bought them. Only times i have been in debt is a 12K balance on a 0% CC for an investment into my business, (paid off before interest started) and a 50K LOC on my house to buy a rental (paid off in 4 years from the rental So yeah I think it's very doable, but it takes some shifts in thinking and practice. And if your thinking that I had help from family, Nope, My dad died when I was 12 and had no insurance, I and my two brothers supported our family working through our teen years to support the family. Age 7-10 I had a paper route Age 8-12 I had a snow shoveling route Age 9 I started helping my older brother with his lawn mowing business on the side I would get my own jobs of leaf raking, wood stacking, cleanup and whatever else was needed. in my teens i started working full time and by 17 was doing 60-80 hours a week. I spent very very little of it beside helping the family out but even then I was able to save. by age 12 when my dad died I had saved up 4-5K and it was earning nice interest, at age 14 I became interested in investing and learned about mutual funds and started investing everything I could in them. At age 20 I skipped mutual funds and started investing in stocks. I have never bought a new house, car, bike, appliance and never really felt like I was missing out on anything. So yeah it's doable but it takes some shifts in thinking Congratulations on a life well lived! Success is having what you want & happiness is wanting what you have...

I just read what Howard Marks said about cycles of loose credit & that very waste of capital. Are their any significant parrallels in history (US or foreign) which eventually came to an unavoidable end? I'd love to read more about this...

Will we ever get back to living within our means or am I being naive? I deleveraged & spent the last year & a half debt free (bought a new Chevy Colorado & now I owe a massive $22,400...) I know most people are unable to live without debt (or so we're told) but would a decade of being satisfied without constantly buying stuff while watching our savings pile up really be all that bad? Disclaimer: not trying to start any arguments here (looking for some Dalio like individuals to ponder the ramifications of more judicious credit...)

Good read! Reinforced my belief in patience & being confidently contrary (requires drawing unpopular conclusions which turn out to be correct or at least eventually perceived as correct by later market participants.) Got me to thinking about adding probability distributions (my untutored & probably simplistic version) to try & transorm the unexpected into the "oh crap; I thought about that but didn't believe it'd actually happen..."

Got it (did you read the review by that guy from Boca?) Should be an interesting read...

Speaking of orange faced clowns...

Having a knowledge edge (coupled with the ability to question your own ideas) should give you a wider probability distribution. The best offense is a good defense (corollaries - speaking of which, I still haven't decided on one for pharma...)

Totally agree! I tend to be attracted to these larger companies anyway (there's a profusion of info & opinion about them & if you're patient then mispricings do occur (Apple & Novo Nordisk IMHYAMO) (YAM = yet arguably misguided)

I've always liked her outspokenness (maybe because she's outspoken on things I agree with) but this is definitely an example of how a quick mouth (or rather keyboard) can make you look bad. My admiration of her will continue (especially if she gives an unqualified apology which would reinforce my opinion of her character...)

Looks like we want to help China secure an alternate source that doesn't rely on ocean transport. Is this a stick we'll use to threaten the Saudis which we'll eventually try to hide behind our backs (maybe I'm trying too hard & it's just a naked grab at cash...) Or maybe it's really an altruistic attempt to build good relations with Russia & China & at the same time keep the ME down (can that be considered altruistic?) Someone needs to sort out my insanitideas...

If a larger portion of the population of developed countries thought this way, we'd all be a lot better off (I'd probably get some disenting views if we had a thread dedicated to the idea of leverage in life...)

I agree that the thoughtful discourse & restraint shown on here is mos def conducive to better returns on investment & in life! Beats the hell out of rattling around that howler monkey cage at Yahoo Finance...

I may have skewed the bush results a bit...

The author may need to add another chapter on unilateral leaders in 2020... What's the name of your foundation?

Mnuchin doesn't threaten his manhood. Warren would be an advocate for common sense. Not much chance of that in the Donalds world...