Richard Feynman on Teaching Math to Kids and the Lessons of Knowledge (LINK)
Latticework of Mental Models: Wisdom of Crowds (LINK)
Buffetts’ Berkshire Hathaway Wants More Wells Fargo (LINK)
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has petitioned the Federal Reserve to add to its position in Wells Fargo (WFC).
China: The Next Crisis - Kyle Bass (video) [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK)Wells Fargo’s stock price jumped to a session high ($47.28) after headlines about the application hit newswires, though it finished Friday down 0.6% at $47.04. Berkshire owns almost exactly 10% of shares outstanding and, according to Bloomberg, the Fed must authorize transactions that put any investor over the 10% mark.
Mutual Fund Observer, July 2016 (LINK)
The Absolute Return Letter, July 2016 (LINK)
FT Alphachat podcast: Fact-checking Brexit claims with Tim Harford (LINK)
Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Head of the Snake - The Poisonous Gap Between Paper Wealth and Real Wealth (LINK)
Following the British referendum to exit the European Union, the paper value of global assets briefly fell by about $3 trillion. This decline in the market capitalization immediately garnered headlines, suggesting that some destruction of “value” had occurred. No. The value of a security is embodied in the future stream of cash flows that will actually be delivered into the hands of investors over time. What occurred here was a paper loss. While the recent one was both shallow and temporary, get used to such headlines. In the U.S. alone I fully expect that $10 trillion of paper wealth will be erased from U.S. equity market capitalization over the completion of the current market cycle.
While any given holder can sell their securities here, somebody else has to buy those same securities. The fact that valuations are obscene doesn't mean that the economy has created more wealth. It just means that existing holders of stocks and long-term bonds have a temporary opportunity to obtain a wealth transfer from some unfortunate buyer. Whoever ends up holding that bag will likely earn total returns close to zero on their investment over the coming 10-12 year horizon, with profound interim losses on the way to zero returns.
A book I'm excited to read is now available for pre-order: Intelligent Fanatics Project: How Great Leaders Build Sustainable Businesses
Book of the day [H/T CIO]: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - by Carlo Rovelli