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mpauls

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Posts posted by mpauls

  1. I hated the acquisition.  Terrible deal for what were the current investors.  I disposed of a lot of shares.  I started buying around $0.28 with an average purchase price of about $0.40, so yes I did quite well. 

     

    I will probably advocate for a spinoff of the core business down the road, but lenders would have to agree-which will be tough. 

  2. No one is a Keynesian now—at least not among money managers. And that is a shame.

     

    Great lead paragraph by Jason Zweig and the best birthday present I've had in a long time. I was preparing a series of articles on Keynes as an investor and was stuck in trying to find more quantitive information.

     

    Has anybody seen other sources? Please? There is a volume of his collected writings on his investment related letters, I think 12 or 13, but is out of print. Has anyone seen it?

     

    Zweig article and video: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577313810084976558.html

    Keynes study: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2023011

     

    He did about 12% annually through the great depression largely investing in US rails.

  3.  

    I hear he sold out of that position at a 35% profit in early 2011, right around the time of the second letter, b/c the risk of Greece leaving seemed too high. lol  Did however start buying again in July 2012 after price fell through the floor.

  4. For one thing, Coke is not even close to losing it's moat.  If they don't sell sugar, they will sell water or some other form of drink.

     

    If you can't ID a moat, you certainly can't ID when a moat is eroding.  By definition only a small (~1.5%) will truly be able to consistently ID moats and know enough to buy or sell when appropriate. 

     

    Cheers,

    MP

  5. Biaggio, I don't mind one bit that you posted those scans, that's why they are there after all. 

     

    I read (briefly) some of the comments here on Ben Graham's interview.  What he is saying is partly true.  In B.G.'s early years, finding FCC filings that show a company holds $xx in treasuries wouldn't have been disclosed nor would these assets have showed up in the price.  In the interview, he was implying that most people would not be able to do as will as he did by just digging through the basic numbers within financial statements.  He wasn't saying that the playing field is level.  Also, as suggested by someone already, Graham was bored by investing and wasn't interested in it late in life. 

     

    General comments are almost always taken out of context and I am certain that this is the case with this particular question.  If they would have continued in greater detail we would not be having this conversation.  Moreover, does anyone need proof that systematically high returns are impossible to come by or otherwise the consequence of pure luck?   

     

     

  6. Many ways to handle it. 

     

    Goodwill ultimately enters into the value equation in much the same way as the value of good management.  You don't add an additional component of value to your appraisal to account for good management.  Goodwill, like good management, is directly reflected in the value of a business (properly calculated.)  Oh, and I'm talking about economic goodwill not accounting goodwill.

  7. I remember looking into this company a few years ago.  One would think that they would earn a lot.  They do ok, but certainly do not earn "monopoly returns".  The reason is largely because they don't own the underlying brands and therefore have to pay fat sums to those companies to license the name for use on their glasses.  Also, these licensing agreements are renewed every few years and the cost can be increased. 

     

  8. My knowledge about Bridgewater is admittedly limited, but my opinion is that although Dalio is not the devil, his "genius" is greatly overstated.  There are a few big red-flags and inconsistencies about him that just don't exist with the really brilliant investors.

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