Oct42010
Reading and Taking Notes on Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Sort of Took Over My Life Today …

Book Recommendations, My Life3 Comments

Given the historical importance of the book, and my decision to finally read it, my brief introduction to a few pages of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand turned into an all day affair. I have some very significant reservations about the author’s stated philosophical belief system, Objectivism, but that deserves its own future essay. Suffice it to say, though she gets 70% of the equation correct by supporting free market decision making and individual liberty, I think her model of human behavior is incomplete and therefore not entirely rational and realistic when carried to its logical extreme.

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Oct22010
Walmart Annual Report Produce

Walton Enterprises LLC – The Family Holding Company of Sam Walton and the Walton Family

Case Studies & Profiles13 Comments

Sam Walton’s heirs have an estimated net worth of more than $90 billion.  To put that into perspective, the Walton family is as rich as Bill Gates and Warren buffet combined. Virtually all of this wealth came from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the publicly traded company that operates as the world’s largest retailer, bringing in a…

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Sep282010
Borders Group Stock Certificate

Borders Group: The Single Dumbest Investment We Ever Made

Case Studies & Profiles, My Businesses, Stocks4 Comments

Due to our disciplined value investing philosophy, coupled with our insistence upon diversification of income and assets, we haven’t experienced a lot of big losses.  When we do, we try and study what went wrong so we can understand if there was a structural problem or a blind spot in our mental cognition that should be avoided in the future.  We never want to have to “return to Go” in Monopoly terms.  That is just intelligent portfolio management.

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Sep242010
We Are Living in the Midst of One of the Biggest Bond Bubbles in History

We Are Living in the Midst of One of the Biggest Bond Bubbles in History

Corporate Bonds11 Comments

Today, I was sitting at the dining room table, drinking a cup of coffee wearing the Brooks Brothers pajamas I picked up on my birthday a few days ago, and watching the stock market skyrocket when it occurred to me that, given the secret project and some other things going on at the business, I want to build some cash and bond reserves at one of the individual operating companies; maybe put aside money a little at a time, let it build and do something fun with it three or four years from now, like design and build a row of townhouses or whatever.

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