Crony Capitalism and the Oracle of Omaha

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Crony Capitalism and the Oracle of Omaha

08 MAY 2014 – VITALIY KATSENELSON

I am back from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, and my brain is still spinning from the dozens of meetings and stimulating conversations. In a series of articles over the next few weeks, I’ll try to download the thoughts that were triggered by this trip, a lot of them unrelated to the main event — the Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger show — but rather by-products of the conversations I had. Read more of this post

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Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting ‘Full Notes’

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting ‘Full Notes’

by VW StaffMay 10, 2014, 4:36 pm

Notes from Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B)’s annual meeting 2014. We have previously covered more from the annual meeting, Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting extensive notes can be found here. Read more of this post

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Cliff Asness New Whitepaper Fact, Fiction and Momentum Investing

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Cliff Asness New Whitepaper Fact, Fiction and Momentum Investing

by VW StaffMay 11, 2014, 2:58 pm

Cliff Asness new whitepaper Fact, Fiction and Momentum Investing H/T Climateer Investing

It’s been over 20 years since the academic discovery of momentum investing (Jegadeesh and Titman (1993), Asness (1994)), yet much confusion and debate remains regarding its efficacy and its use as a practical investment tool. In some cases “confusion and debate” is us attempting to be polite, as it is near impossible for informed practitioners and academics to still believe some of the myths uttered about momentum — but that impossibility is often belied by real world statements. In this article, we aim to clear up much of the confusion by documenting what we know about momentum and disproving many of the often-repeated myths. We highlight ten myths about momentum and refute them, using results from widely circulated academic papers and analysis from the simplest and best publicly available data. Read more of this post

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Shell Games: Are Chinese Reverse Merger Firms Inherently Toxic?

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Shell Games: Are Chinese Reverse Merger Firms Inherently Toxic?

Charles M.C. Lee 

Stanford University – Graduate School of Business

Kevin K. Li 

University of Toronto – Rotman School of Management

Ran Zhang 

Guanghua School of Management
March 25, 2014
Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Working Paper No. 183

Abstract:       Read more of this post

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Tilson Angry At NY Times For Calling Buffett ‘Ordinary’; Confirms ATHN Short

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Tilson Angry At NY Times For Calling Buffett ‘Ordinary’; Confirms ATHN Short

by Jacob WolinskyMay 12, 2014, 2:03 pm

The following is from an email which Whitney Tilson sent to ValueWalk. He attacks the NY Times for stating that Buffett was ordinary. He also confirms that he is short ATHN and briefly mentions his FNMA long, which we first reported. Read more of this post

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IBM facing ‘rocky time’, but poised for change, CEO says: NYT

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

IBM facing ‘rocky time’, but poised for change, CEO says: NYT

Sun, May 11 2014

(Reuters) – IBM Corp is facing a “rocky time,” Chief Executive Virginia Rometty told the New York Times, but said she and the company now have a clear vision on how to pursue another generation of growth. Read more of this post

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Mastering the Soft Skills: How to “bend” time, keep the boss happy, say “no” to budget requests (gently) – and more

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

May 12, 2014

Mastering the Soft Skills

How to “bend” time, keep the boss happy, say “no” to budget requests (gently) — and more.

CFO Staff

Some years ago, CFO published a story on the “essential skills” that a finance chief needs to be effective — in particular, the skills that go beyond core corporate finance and accounting training. Little has changed since 2007, when the article first appeared. The abilities the story describes are rarely taught in business school or in a corporate setting. In the eyes of veteran CFOs, though, they are just as critical as the ability to forecast earnings, value an acquisition or weigh an investment opportunity. Read more of this post

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The head of the stockbroking firm founded by Australia’s highest-profile insider trader – the late Rene Rivkin – has warned the current $7 million trading scandal is just the tip of the iceberg

May 21, 2014 1 Comment

Trading ‘tip of iceberg’

May 13, 2014

Patrick Durkin and Ben Butler

The head of the stockbroking firm founded by Australia’s highest-profile insider trader – the late Rene Rivkin – has warned the current $7 million trading scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. Read more of this post

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The head of the Italian eyewear maker Luxottica has a fresh and international perspective

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

THE MONDAY INTERVIEW

May 11, 2014 3:59 pm

An eye on the future of luxury  

By Rachel Sanderson

The head of the Italian eyewear maker has a fresh and international perspective

©Alessia Pierdomenico

image001-10 Read more of this post

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Say one thing to say something else: Frame a debate by implying some point is so obvious that it can be taken as given

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

THE ART OF PERSUASION

May 12, 2014 4:05 pm

Say one thing to say something else

By Sam Leith

Frame a debate by implying some point is so obvious that it can be taken as given

Lord Myners, a former financial services minister, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme last Wednesday morning. He was talking as his report into the – ahem – suboptimal governance of the Co-operative Group was about to be published, and setting out what he thought should happen. Read more of this post

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Brain science fires up the neurons of managers; Neuroscientists are in demand for their insights into business

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

May 12, 2014 3:42 pm

Brain science fires up the neurons of managers

By Alicia Clegg

Neuroscientists are in demand for their insights into business

Every day David Amodio comes face to face with prejudice − not in the form of insults and put-downs – but as hotspots and squiggles on PC screens depicting the brain behaviour of people shown pictures of strangers from other racial groups. Read more of this post

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Who Trades Against Mispricing?

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Who Trades Against Mispricing?

Mariassunta Giannetti 

Stockholm School of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Swedish House of Finance

Bige Kahraman 

Stockholm School of Economics – Department of Finance; Swedish House of Finance
April 1, 2014
Swedish House of Finance Research Paper No. 14-09

Abstract:       Read more of this post

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Top banking jobs are turning into hot seats; Top banking jobs are turning into hot seats

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

May 12, 2014 5:03 pm

Top banking jobs are turning into hot seats

By Martin Arnold

High levels of litigation risk is making it hard to fill top posts

Pity the poor headhunters. Finding people to lead some of the world’s biggest banks is harder than most people think. Read more of this post

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‘We do not need 80% of active management’

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

May 11, 2014 7:22 am

‘We do not need 80% of active management’

By Michael Johnson

Recently, robust, independent and damning evidence emerged that skewers any justification that active fund management of listed assets is worth the candle. For dispassionate observers, it has been long overdue, but the source was unexpected: the UK’s Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Read more of this post

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Tech Stocks Are Still ‘Too Silly’ for Some; Valuations of Young Tech Companies Remain Sky-High

May 21, 2014 Leave a comment

Tech Stocks Are Still ‘Too Silly’ for Some

Valuations of Young Tech Companies Remain Sky-High

STEVEN RUSSOLILLO and MATT JARZEMSKY

May 11, 2014 4:23 p.m. ET

Young technology-company stocks fell out of favor in the blink of an eye. But their valuations remain sky-high and many investors say they have a lot more room to decline before bouncing back. Steven Russolillo joins MoneyBeat. Photo: AP. Read more of this post

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