"That’s the beauty about investments. You only have to look at the ones that you feel capable of evaluating and you skip all rest." --Warren Buffett (2004)
Sanjay Bakshi talk: Fragility & Optionality in Business Models [free registration required] (LINK)
Death, Taxes, and a Few Other Things - by Morgan Housel (LINK)
The Big Short’s Steve Eisman raises bets against Canadian banks (LINK)
A fund manager made famous by the book The Big Short has turned his sights on Canada, betting that a tottering housing market and a sluggish economy will bring trouble for the country’s biggest banks.
Steve Eisman, a portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, is among a growing number of short-sellers taking positions in the likes of TD Bank and Royal Bank of Canada, in anticipation that the shares will fall. The moves come after property prices raced ahead of incomes for several years, boosted by loose lending, low interest rates and lax controls on foreign money. But new house prices in Canada slipped year on year in January for the first time since 2009, squeezed by tighter rules on mortgages and new taxes on foreign buyers, while the broader economy has begun to falter.
“I’m calling for a simple normalisation of credit that hasn’t happened in 20 years,” Mr Eisman told the FT, while declining to name the banks he is shorting, or the full extent of his positions. He said the effects would hurt banks and the real estate sector, but would not be as intense as the financial crisis a decade ago in the US, when he and others saw huge profits from the implosion of the subprime mortgage market.
“This is not ‘The Big Short: Canada’ — I’m not calling for a housing collapse,” he said.
Jamie Dimon: CEOs optimistic about business outlook (video) (LINK)
James Grant on CNBC (LINK)
Ten Lessons I Learned While Teaching Myself To Code (LINK)
Related book: Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World
Long Now: Seminars About Long-term Thinking: Chip Conley: The Modern Elder and the Intergenerational Workplace (LINK)
The Joe Rogan Experience (podcast) - Gary Taubes & Stephan Guyenet (LINK)
It’s Not Enough to Be Right. You Also Have to Be Kind. - by Ryan Holiday (LINK)
Holy spitting space rocks: Asteroid Bennu is active! - by Phil Plait (LINK)
Beware the Medusavirus - by Sarah Zhang (LINK)
After Two Decades, a Fishy Genetic Mystery Has Been Solved - by Ed Yong (LINK)
A scientist faced down the ultimate cold case: How did two groups of fish separately evolve genes for making antifreeze?