Weekend reading

A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Charlie Munger about Ethics (25iq)

I was reading this write up on Fastenal (Base Hit Investing) and was reminded of this article (Inc.) from back in the days about their management ethos

Annual review from Platinum Investment Management (Australian value fund) (Platinum)

Claire Barnes' Apollo Asia Fund Q3 Letter (Apollo)

Greenlight Capital Q3 Letter (Value Walk)

William Thorndike: "The Outsiders" (Talks at Google)

How to Not Get Invited Back to Parties (BeyondProxy)

For a high level overview of the asylum seeker situation in Europe watch this 60 Minutes video (CBS)

This documentary (from the founder of 5-Hour Energy) has been making rounds on YouTube lately - Billions in Change (YouTube)

Weekend reading

Warren Buffett at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Conference (Fortune)

Boosting Our Berkshire Valuation (Morningstar)

Berkshire versus KKR: Intermediary Influence and Competition (SSRN)

Fall 2015 Issue of Graham & Doddsvile (G&D)

Mario Gabelli, Chairman & CEO - GAMCO Investor (One Wire)

Capital Allocation at Asian Wide-Moat Innovators (Beyond Proxy)

Vice documentary on the Japanese diamond business - Taking Down Tokyo's Corrupt Diamond Syndicate (Vice)

For something a bit different - Decadence and Madness at the Top: Inside Britain's Secretive Bullingdon Club (Spiegel)

Weekend reading

Thank you to all of you who read, shared and commented on the Rockwood Holdings/Outsiders case study. The response has been overwhelming and I'm glad that this great story of capital allocation and sensible management is out in the public domain.

Quotes From The Symposium Of Warren Buffett And Charlie Munger (Value Walk)

“The nature of acquisitions is that they get to the board at a point where if you turn them down you are rejecting the chief executive, you are embarrassing him in front of his troops, you’re doing all kinds of things. So, it just doesn’t happen.”

Reminds me of a quote from the 2014 Berkshire AGM on how companies select compensation committee members: "Board delegates decision to a compensation committee and they don’t look for Dobermans, they want cocker spaniels with their tails wagging. I voted for compensation plans in various places that were far from perfect"

This is fascinating and shows that forecasting is not an easy subject: What people in 1900 thought the year 2000 would look like (WaPo)

I’m game for (what appears to be) an underwater croquet match if anyone is interested (second to last picture). 

Related: Can You See the Future? Probably Better Than Professional Forecasters from Jason Zweig (WSJ)

Great podcast from the London School of Economics on advertising: One plus One Equals Three: a masterclass in creative thinking (LSE)

"Every year in the UK, GBP18.3bn is spent on all forms of advertising and marketing of which 4% is remembered positively, 7% is remembered negatively and 89% isn't noticed or remembered. [...] 17 billion quid is pissed away by so called experts every year." Reminds me of the investment business.

Adam Grant's (author of Give and Take) monthly newsletter (Granted)

Great interview with Joe Koster (of Boyles Asset Management and Value Investing World) on Value Walk (Part 1 and Part 2)

Tom Russo: Global Value Investing (Talks at Google)

Weekend reading

A fascinating hour long talk from John Burbank at UC Berkeley - Invest in things that have never happened before (Value Walk)

Third Avenue's Q3 2015 letters (Third Ave.)
On a related note, I highly recommend to read the Q2 2015 letter of the credit fund (link here, from page 32). A very succinct description of a Chapter 11 restructuring process

Sohn Canada Investment Conference Notes 2015: Capitalize For Kids (Market Folly)

A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Charlie Munger about Capital Allocation (25iq)

From Ferraris to Cement, Europe's Rich Families Turn Dealmakers (Bloomberg)

Love story from the FT - Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin: the odd couple (FT)
Related: Putin interview by Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes (CBS)

Buffett on giving - In the first of the FT's Ambitious Wealth interviews, Warren Buffett says philanthropy is getting younger and going global (FT)

Confirmation Bias: Your Brain is So Judgmental (Big Think)

FT correspondent on how to survive — and thrive — in Hong Kong (FT)

First part of an interesting Vice documentary - How Pablo Escobar's Legacy of Violence Drives Today's Cartel Wars (Vice)