The Pleasure/Pain Principle

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 was painful, not to mention the Flash Crash of 2010; the Debt Ceiling / Credit Downgrade of 2011; and the never-ending European saga. Needless to say, these and other events have caused pain akin to burning one’s hand on the stove. This unpleasant effect has rubbed off on investors. Admitting one has a problem is half the battle of conquering a challenge.  A key challenge for many...

Read More

Buffett & Munger on Gold

This morning on CNBC, Warren Buffett offered his views on gold.According to him, productive assets (and maybe even caves) have an advantage over the yellow metal.As he has said on earlier occasions, Buffett believes since gold is not a productive asset that, over the long haul, it will not do as well as productive assets like farmland and stocks.*Buffett added that gold buyers have it right to be concerned about the future value of paper money, but he thinks the strategy of buying gold to protect against that decline is the wrong one. From this...

Read More