A few days ago, life changed for 24-year-old Manuel Franco of West Allis, Wisconsin. The winner of a recent Powerball lottery, Franco took home $326 million after taxes. With this large a sum, it shouldn't be hard for Franco to make his winnings last a lifetime. But that's an extreme case. More [...]
An empty room
On December 7, 2005, a curious thing happened in a Harvard classroom. Professor Michael D. Smith stood in front of a group of computer science students to introduce a guest speaker: entrepreneur and former Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. What was curious was that the room was nearly empty. The [...]
Not just easy, but very easy
Recently, I came across an academic paper with an attention-grabbing title: “It has been very easy to beat the S&P 500.” Not just easy, but very easy. That got my attention because, in recent years, beating the S&P 500 has been anything but easy. In fact, it's been maddeningly difficult. [...]
Measure for measure
As the old saying goes, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. And then there is investment performance, which may deserve a category of its own. This topic came to mind recently when I saw a press release heralding the accomplishments of a retired non-profit executive. Among the claims: [...]
The Oracle of Boston
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion that included a prominent investment manager named Seth Klarman. I'd like to share some of what he had to say. First, some background if you're not familiar with Klarman. The simplistic version of his biography would be to say that he [...]
