Harlan Crow told Justice Thomas that he doesn’t want to be poor; expect Supreme Court to rule debt ceiling is unconstitutional.
We will be fine…
Harlan Crow told Justice Thomas that he doesn’t want to be poor; expect Supreme Court to rule debt ceiling is unconstitutional.
We will be fine…
“Often, we get what we tolerate.” – Seth Godin
Lots of reading this month! Some of that was cleaning out a bunch of older articles – that either needed to read or passed over. Generally, I have around 200 or so saved articles in my queue. See a bit more on my reading system here.
Also, got through a few books, which is nice. Again, my eyes here tend to be larger than my pace of reading. Check out my latest note: The Go-Go Years
This month was a bit more interesting as well event-wise. The Fed has done exactly what they said they would. Take that for listening to them! And, Congress has embarked on a course of stupidity and political suicide by holding the debt ceiling / default gun to their own heads. Again, no surprise.
Here are my most influential reads for the month – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.
Top clicks across the site last month:
Updated stats:
Read Articles | Books | |
January | 80 | 0 |
February | 62 | 2 |
March | 67 | 2 |
April | 140 | 4 |
May | ||
June | ||
July | ||
August | ||
September | ||
October | ||
November | ||
December | ||
Total | 349 | 8 |
Influential Reads – March 2023
“If you’re going to panic, panic first.” – Old adage
Well, March was exciting. Inflation and bank failures…a recipe for…the stock market to crush it?
In my first full month of semi (?) retirement, we had a bunch of house guests and made a short trek up to Ketchum, Idaho for some skiing at Sun Valley and skating at Galena Lodge .
Here are my most influential reads for the month – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.
Top clicks across the site last month:
Updated stats:
Read Articles | Books | |
January | 80 | 0 |
February | 62 | 2 |
March | 67 | 2 |
April | ||
May | ||
June | ||
July | ||
August | ||
September | ||
October | ||
November | ||
December | ||
Total | 209 | 4 |
Influential Reads – February 2023
“Standards apply not just to the quality of work you produce but the opportunities you work on. If you accept substandard work from yourself, you’ll only get average work from others. If you say yes to average projects, you’ll have no time for exceptional ones.” – Brain Food, Farnam Street
Big news in my world: I resigned my CFO role at a private equity backed software maker after selling the business to a new private equity group. I will be taking some time off to “to evaluate, to collect, to dream, to wonder and to wander.”
Reading and writing more is definitely a goal.
Here are my most influential reads for the month – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.
Top clicks across the site last month:
Updated stats:
Read Articles | Books | |
January | 80 | 0 |
February | 62 | 2 |
March | ||
April | ||
May | ||
June | ||
July | ||
August | ||
September | ||
October | ||
November | ||
December | ||
Total | 142 | 2 |
A sign new home builders in Park City probably are not thrilled about.
Let me assure that the business model of new home builders is not optimized to be a rental management company.
On Reading More “The solution I devised for myself is a simple one: 25 pages a day. That’s it. Just commit to that, and then do it.” – Farnam Street
Well, that is one way to start the new year. Set a few goals. Miss them all.
Certainly behind on the book reading front. Also, want to maintain an average of writing one article a week. And behind on that one.
So there is no where to go but up!
Big news is in the works on the career front. That one is actually going according to plan here in February. More to come once the fat lady sings.
Here are my most influential reads for the month – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.
Top clicks across the site last month:
Updated stats:
Read Articles | Books | |
January | 80 | 0 |
February | ||
March | ||
April | ||
May | ||
June | ||
July | ||
August | ||
September | ||
October | ||
November | ||
December | ||
Total | 80 | 0 |
Attempting to avoid some of the politics here, I would like to pose a question:
Where haven’t they found classified documents?
Another question, again, attempting to avoid the politics of the situation:
Who the hell is in charge of securing classified documents in this country?
“We tend to assume that the worst that has happened is the worst that can happen, and then prepare for that. We forget that “the worst” smashed a previous understanding of what was the worst..” – Brain Food: Figuring it Out (https://fs.blog/brain-food/december-11-2022/)
Happy New Year!
First post of 2023. I’ve set a goal for posting more. Competing priorities last year, especially the fourth quarter, hampered my ability to read, write, and post.
However, we successfully sold the business to a new set of investors, delivering a great outcome for our prior shareholders. So with that behind me, I hope to be spending more time here.
Note on the book reading front – I did knock out the entire Travis McGee series.
Here are my most influential reads for the month – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.
Updated stats:
Read Articles | Books | |
January | 89 | 1 |
February | 110 | 0 |
March | 102 | 3 |
April | 103 | 2 |
May | 134 | 3 |
June | 74 | 0 |
July | 82 | 2 |
August | 112 | 7 |
September | 72 | 4 |
October | 61 | 4 |
November | 81 | 5 |
December | 76 | 5 |
Total | 1,096 | 36 |
“Nothing gets people to look the other way like easy money.” – Does Not Compute, Collaborative Fund
I am very tired of seeing articles about FTX and SBF.
Here are my most influential reads for the month – in no particular order:
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.
Top clicks across the site last month:
Updated stats:
Read Articles | Books | |
January | 89 | 1 |
February | 110 | 0 |
March | 102 | 3 |
April | 103 | 2 |
May | 134 | 3 |
June | 74 | 0 |
July | 82 | 2 |
August | 112 | 7 |
September | 72 | 4 |
October | 61 | 4 |
November | 81 | 5 |
December | ||
Total | 1,020 | 31 |
This draft has been sitting in my folder for a couple months now. And is possibly some bandwagon jumping. Although at least I have been on the bandwagon a bit (Bears Watching: Observations In Real Estate). However, the transition to lower prices requires a psychological shift in the market, especially on the part of sellers, and that is going to happen reluctantly (and slowly).
I realize the residential real estate market is large and diverse. And, most homeowners are not transacting frequently making price moves somewhat less relevant for many.
However, I might be nervous if:
I am not really a practitioner of technical chart analysis. But that is starting to look a lot like a head and shoulders pattern.
The question is – is how much of runups like the one above are due to inflation vs. speculation / an asset bubble driven by low interest rates. The inflation component is unlikely to subside. Or said differently, slowing inflation will not cause prices to retrace their prior ascent. Only deflation will cause that.
However, the component fueled by historically low rates stemming from monetary and fiscal policies that appear to be in the rear view mirror are at risk of reversing. In fact, they are reversing – you just have to squint a bit and adjust for the rapidly declining transaction volumes. Also realizing that asking prices on Zillow are not indicative of transaction prices.
But sellers will be slow to acknowledge that their houses have not doubled in price in the last two years and will be until forced to do so.