Insights on markets, emergent trends, history, innovation, risk management, global economics, strategy, policy, and other topics that catch our attention. Inspired by ongoing research, conversations and events. Written and edited by Osbon Capital Management and published every Thursday morning.
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Never in America
Max Osbon is back in the US after a six month adventure that started in New Zealand and ended in Zambia. His final blog post features ill-intentioned baboons, bribery of border agents, and a safe return to the US. Experience his fascinating journey at neverinamerica.com.
Have you ever seen a 100 trillion dollar bill?
Have you ever seen a 100 trillion dollar bill? You will in a few moments, because no discussion of inflation is complete without it, and that’s this week’s topic. Prices go up. In the US, the things you bought in 1971 for $100 now cost $600. Well, some things – the legendary basket of goods that comprise the Consumer Price…
Decathlon approaches; training continues
Max and I are halfway to our July 28th decathlon benefitting Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. With so many events to prepare for, my training program involves anything I can do to make progress, at any time, anywhere. And Max has been training all over the world.
What does “Best” really mean?
If you had to predict which players would top the money list in golf or tennis next year, you’d probably give strong consideration to this year’s top money winners. Same goes for top home run hitters and pitchers in baseball. Ditto for top-selling car brands and most-watched TV shows. It’s natural to expect that last year’s winners will continue to…
Cyberfraud: It’s not just Nigerian lotteries
It might be easier to take cyberfraud seriously if the emails were not so pitifully absurd and full of grammar gaffes. You know the ones, promising fantastic windfalls (“you are the sole hair”), ridiculous sums (“…of $650 million USAmerica dollars”) and laughable requests (“if please you just must send us your…”).
Max Osbon Joins Osbon Capital Management
With enthusiasm and pride I am announcing that Max Osbon is joining Osbon Capital Management, effective immediately. Actually, Max has been active in projects for our company since he was a 19 year-old math and finance double major at Santa Clara University. That’s when his work first got my attention – it was very fast and very right. Now he’s…
It’s always something, but rarely everything
Gold’s down this year, fairly dramatically so. This has some investors proclaiming the shiny stuff’s irreversible demise, or maybe wondering why they ever bought into it in the first place. My view is less dramatic: there’s always something that’s down, but rarely are all asset classes down at the same time. Right now stocks are strong and gold is weak. …
The history of modern investing on a single sheet
If you invested one dollar in small stocks in 1926 and then took an 87 year nap, you’d be waking up today with $18,000+. That’s the power of compounding – one of the many interesting concepts portrayed in the annual Andex chart produced by Morningstar. With its exceptional representation of long-term market trends, I consider the Andex chart one of…
Four flavors of risk
We’ve been discussing risk often on this blog this year, trying to come at it from a number of different angles. It’s one of those core topics in investing that deserves all the attention it gets. No doubt about it, risk is a big word in investing. Too big, in my view, to have much meaning unless one looks deeper…
