The Philosophical Investor's Blog

Mass Movements-What Charlie Hebdo Taught us About Being True Believers

Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

While I usually try to avoid controversial subjects because of the emotions that can be stirred, I do feel the need to address the horrific events that took place at in France this week with the slaughter of a dozen people at Charlie Hebdo,

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Honoring Roneet in Jerusalem

Jerusalem Pardes with Roneets Family

I spent last week in Israel and it was a fascinating time to be there. It’s always interesting, but it was particularly so this time due to the significant escalation of hostilities in the south of the country as well as that it was coinciding with Israel’s Memorial and Independence Days (no accident I’m sure).

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German Negativity

German Yield

Mohamed El-Erian, the former CEO of PIMCO, said recently on CNBC that if you want to know what’s going to happen to U.S. long-term interest rates, then all you have to do is look to Germany. And so that is what I did.

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Fire My Metaphor for Earnings News: Catalytic Regeneration

Canyon Fire earnings news

There’s a regional park near my house that I like to hike. It has beautiful scenery, a lot of hills, and a number of people on the trails that conveys a feeling of community and self-care. Its topography and large size allow for many different trail options in terms of length,

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Oil Dropped Below $60-Markets Do Not Ignore Oil

Oil

[Updated: April 13, 2016] I touched on the global markets having a whiff of deflation two weeks ago in this blog. It seems to have picked up speed. Today the Dow dropped by 300 points and 10-year Treasury yields dropped to much lower levels (2.08%) in the wake of a pretty spectacular drop in oil since August but really accelerating in October.

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Housing - Is It The Best Long-Term Investment?

housing long-term investment

In some ways, it is understandable why the subprime meltdown took place. Prior to 2006 home prices in the United States in the post World War II era rarely, if ever, declined materially on a sustainable basis. Based on this rearview mirror modeling investors in mortgages were led to believe that default rates would be manageable and if they did default then losses would be negligible because recovery rates would be strong because home prices kept rising.

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Lessons from Steve Schwarzman - Chairman and CEO of Blackstone

Steve Schwarzman

Steve Schwarzman is the co-founder and Chairman and CEO of Blackstone, which is the largest alternative asset management firm in the world. Schwarzman has built a financial colossus and extraordinarily successful asset management firm that is by far the global leader in alternative investments.

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Mastery in Charleston

Charleston Gary Carmell Bob Weir

I have a myriad of reasons for writing my blog week in and week out. One of them is that it can serve as a quasi-diary of my life so that I have something I can turn to remember what was happening in my life and when.

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What Is Your Story? Creating A Story Where You Are The Hero

Bob Weir Grateful Dead

Marc Andreessen said something in an interview that I have thought a lot about over the years. I have been a big fan of Joseph Campbell who was an expert on myths and deconstructing the hero’s journey into its most important components and structure.

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Stressless Stress for Commercial Real Estate Investors

Stress-Free-Investing

“When clouds appear, wise men put on their cloaks.” – Shakespeare

Hyman Minsky famously said that stability creates instability. Good times sow the seeds for bad times because people believe that stability will be the norm and growth will continue uninterrupted.

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