John Osbon's Posts

Important Dates Ahead The Fed has said its actions will be data-dependent. We will all be watching closely when the next two (CPI) Consumer Price Index readings come out as well as the next (PCE) Personal Consumption Expenditure Index results. The PCE is a Fed favorite because they feel it is a more accurate representation of inflation. The next Fed…

A typical suburban family is more sensitive to gas prices than a city resident. A contractor is more sensitive to lumber prices than a software programmer. What you consume changes your inflationary experience. If you are looking to buy a home or send kids to college you might complain about inflation more than a retiree whose house has been paid…

Employment rates, financial support by the US government, debt levels and savings rates are crucial markers of economic health. Sometimes it’s better to skip the front pages of Axios, WSJ, or Financial Times, and go directly to the source to let the numbers speak for themselves. Going directly to the primary sources is a great habit that can help filter…

The global pandemic greatly accelerated the adoption of virtual healthcare. Innovative technology in the healthcare sector offers an opportunity to reduce costs while reaching more people in need. Spending on healthcare goods and services is almost four trillion dollars annually, currently 18% of GDP. Let’s take a look at the near-term trends and contributing factors. Exponential evolution There are a handful…

Warren Buffett published his annual Berkshire Hathaway letter this past weekend and as usual, it was full of insights on investment strategy, company culture and robust optimism about the future. Since his very first partnership 1956, his main focus has been on providing compounded returns over time above the S&P 500 for individual investors. What can we learn from Buffett’s…

The term “too big to fail” was coined following the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank in the heat of the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed chose this term to describe a company with so much complexity and interconnectedness that if they failed they would create an unacceptable amount of financial damage for the rest of the economy. This switch to…

There is a lot of talk about the stock market of 2000 and concerns of a bubble. Yet out of that dot com bubble came Amazon, Apple and many other invaluable innovative technology companies. Twenty years later that internet-crazed market is much more valuable than it was in 2000 and many more investment choices are available. In a similar way…

In elementary terms, value investing means investing when you feel the price is below what it should be. This value philosophy has created many successful billionaire investors like Seth Klarman, Warren Buffett and others. It’s an intuitive philosophy. One should always seek to invest at levels consistent with the value concept. The challenge today is many traditional metrics of value…