Career risk
Noah Smith asks if we should trust economists:
No matter how much we might wish they were, economists are not go-to experts who know just how the world works or how to fine tune it. They are not car mechanics. And if they act like they are car mechanics, you should instantly be suspicious. But they do have a lot of interesting things to say. They might help you clarify or reevaluate your own beliefs about how the economy functions. They can also help you spot the flaws in each other’s arguments.
Investment attention deficit disorder
Carl Richards writes about the logic of checking your portfolio all day:
Since many of us use the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index as a proxy for the market, let’s take a look at the period from 1950 to 2012 to see how often we’re likely to feel positive, based on how often we check our investments:If you checked daily, it would be positive 52.8 percent of the time.If you checked monthly, it would be positive 63.1 percent of the time.If you checked quarterly, it would be positive 68.7 percent of the time.If you checked annually, it would be positive 77.8 percent of the time.
Risk and reward
Right now something that is very cheap would be Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). I always ask my students, what do you do of a company where the technology is always changing and it is not clear what the competition will look like in a few years. The answer to that would be: always skip that one and try to find out the ones that you can figure out. I don’t know what is going to happen with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), but if I own a bucket of Apples then, on average, that is a really good bet. You are buying good businesses with a great franchise at six times cashflow, have great market share and good management, strong balance sheets and so forth. So, if I own a bucket of Apples rather than just Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), I am pretty sure it is going to work out very well.
The new king
Indeed, the best comparison for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) seems to me not Microsoft in the 1980s but General Electric in the late 19th century — the age of electrification. Like GE, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a multifaceted industrial enterprise riding a wave of technology with an uncanny ability not only to invent far-reaching products but also to produce them commercially.
Don’t act like you’re not jealous
The Wall Street Journal profiles what has to be the best job of all time: Warren Buffett’s financial assistant at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B):
When Tracy Britt arrived in Omaha, Neb., in 2009 to meet with Warren Buffett, she brought a Harvard M.B.A., a glittering resume and a boatload of ambition. But she also brought the famed investor a gift to highlight their shared Midwestern roots: a bushel of corn and a batch of tomatoes.The seed Ms. Britt planted that day yielded quick results: a job for Ms. Britt as Mr. Buffett’s financial assistant at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Enjoy your weekend.
The article 8 Fascinating Reads originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Morgan Housel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and Google.
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