Berkshire is bouncing this morning. Earnings are up. But a negative number of $3.8 billion for “Net change in unrealized appreciation of investments” hurt the bottom line. You can see the results here.
On CNBC this morning, Warren Buffett said the stock market would be viewed as “cheap” now if interest rates continued to remain low. “If these interest rates were to continue for 10 years, stocks would be extremely cheap now.” If rates normalize, stocks would be on the high side on a valuation basis, he said.
In recent years, everyone has consistently underestimated how long interest rates would stay low.
I don’t personally believe in ten more years of ultra-low interest rates. But I can easily see another three years.
What happens when a Kickstarter startup goes awry? The story is called:
ZPM Espresso and the Rage of the Jilted Crowdfunder
According to the story in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine,
Since Kickstarter’s debut in 2009, campaigns on the platform have raised $1.4 billion for the creators of more than 80,000 projects. In the process, the company and its crowdfunding competitors have invented a new sort of economic relationship, and a corresponding frontier of Internet acrimony. Disgruntled crowdfunders are not your typical Internet-commenting degenerates: In ZPM’s case, they are affluent, well-educated professionals, working in New York and Los Angeles as systems analysts, TV directors, research physicians specializing in adrenal pathology – the sorts of people you would expect to write off their $250 donation as a gamble gone sour. Yet they found, for reasons that weren’t always clear to them, that they couldn’t. A professor in Columbia’s graduate school of architecture wrote, on the private Slack forum, that he considered Polyakov to have “neither humility nor shame.” He continued, “I also think it entirely appropriate that he never work in technology, finance, consulting or the coffee fields (sorry, that kills the barista career) again.”
The story is beautifully written and contains such wonderful words,
Without even once interrupting or talking over each other, they spent a few hours alternating their way through the story of how they (the company’s two founders) ended up broke and vilified. …
“Buckman (a potential buyer of the failed company) was drawn to ZPM because he “hadn’t yet seen someone marrying computers and espresso powerfully.” He uses a state-of-the-art VacMaster VP215 Chamber Vacuum Sealer to cache his meals; his fridge, packed with rows of baggied tuber, legume and flesh, resembles an evidence locker in an organ-theft investigation. In the garage, beside his matching Segways, he has a freezer that goes to minus 6 degrees – regular freezers don’t keep his fish sufficiently gelid – and a steel sous-vide basin that heats his VacMastered bags to temperatures accurate to one-tenth of a degree. His pantry countertop has a line of 13 power outlets. Polyakov set up his machine, and, once he got the calibration right, we sampled a series of amphetaminic shots.
Also this wonderful chart. (Please click on the chart to see it completely.)
Read the entire article here. (It’s really good.)
Entrepreneurial. The suits mostly cost 99.95. For that you get three pieces — the jacket, the pants and the tie. They come in all sizes, except long. The jackets are 31″. I asked. I wanted to buy one.
They have a zillion other “designs,” including
My favorite is Mr Pink:
The web site is Opposuits.com. Buy yourself one. You’ll look cool.
Bad stuff:
+ Carly Fiorina is running for president. Few support her, but she has the attention of Republican conservatives in because of her increasingly pointed attacks on Mrs. Clinton and her impassioned anti-abortion position. “Liberals believe that flies are worth protecting but that the life of an unborn child is not,” she said in January. (I didn’t make that quote up. She actually said it.)
I remember when, as CEO of HP, she bought Compaq. It was one of the worst corporate acquisitions in American business history. When HP’s board finally announced they had booted her out, HP’s stock jumped 7%. She walked from HP with $21 million. She should have paid them $21 million. I am not a Carly Fiorina fan. Remember she came out of telecom. And I’m very familiar with her miserable career there.
Favorite Apple iPhone apps:
+ Waze. Go by car, you need Waze. Police alerts. Suggested routes around blockages. Great directions. Fantastic software. Blows away every other navigation system — including those in high-end cars, like Mercedes. Waze is free.
+ Dragon Dictation. The absolute best way of taking notes. Talk to it. Dragon takes your spoken words and turns them into text. Its accuracy is staggering, even with Australian accents.
+ Uber. For painless limos.
+ SeatGuru. It tells the truth about airline seats. I prefer the PC version. It’s bigger.
This is one of her better ones.
Totally wonderful. Totally tasteless.
While sipping his tequila, a cowboy noticed a sizzling, scrumptious-looking platter being served at the next table. Not only did it look good, the aroma was wonderful.
“What is that you just served?” he asked the waiter.
“Ah Señor, you have excellent taste!” the waiter replied. “Those are called Cojones de Toro, bull’s testicles from the bull fight this morning . . . a delicacy!”
“What the heck, bring me an order.”
“I am so sorry Señor,” the waiter replied. “There is only one serving per day because there is only one bull fight each morning. If you come early and place your order, we will be sure to save you this delicacy.”
The next morning, the cowboy returned, placed his order, and that evening was served the one and only special delicacy of the day. After a few bites, and inspecting his platter, he called to the waiter. “These are delicious, but they are much, much smaller than the ones I saw you serve yesterday.”
The waiter shrugged his shoulders. “Si, Señor . . . sometimes the bull wins!”
Harry Newton, who reveled in New York’s 75 degree weather yesterday. This is Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.
The turtles were also out sunning themselves.
This is Central Park’s Swedish Cottage yesterday. The cherry blossom was out.
Closeup:
This couple spent their entire time in the park kissing. I asked them if they had children? He answered, “hopefully, soon.” It was sweet.
Who was the last democrat who ran for president who was not a career politician?
Ans: John Edwards, who Harry would have been delighted to see as our VP, but after him 100% of democrats running have zero business experience. Harry do you count White Water and cattle futures as business experience.
And Harry has a problem with Carly Fiorina but being a community organizer now that’s a real accomplishment.
Time Warner and AOL that was one hell of a merger.
Well said and sadly true.