What We’ve Stolen From Our Kids
Plenty has been written on the long term impact that the Covid-19 induced lockdown is having on children’s education. In this piece, a doctor who in New York who is also a mother of four children, talks about the psychological impact of the lockdown on children. In the initial months of the lockdown: “my kids managed. […]
How Investors Are Trapped By The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Whilst there are dozens of books on how to invest like Warren Buffett, most investors spend their lives far away from the compounding heaven in which legends like Mr Buffett reside. So why do most investors never manage to invest in great companies and stay invested for the long run? The answer lies in the […]
The gloomy reality of Gulf returnees
There is a emerging school of thought that the pandemic has accelerated deglobalisation which was already underway thanks to rising nationalism and protectionism. Whilst much of the attention seems to be on trade policies, there is also a rising trend of reverse migration of human resources. Whilst the recent US policy to curb H1B visas predominantly […]
Exponential growth bias: The numerical error behind Covid-19
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it”, is a quote famously attributed to Albert Einstein. Indeed, many in the investing world including the legendary Warren Buffett swear by the concept of compounding. The mere mortals that we are at Marcellus don’t hide […]
BTC 3.0
Last week, we featured a piece on why everyone is buying gold? One of the reasons was the natural hedge that gold provides against impending inflation given the extraordinary amount of stimulus pumped in by central banks and governments globally. The same logic is extended to cast a shadow on the future of fiat currencies as […]
‘You always got the feeling MS Dhoni was one step ahead of everyone else’
In terms of impact on Indian cricket, MS Dhoni perhaps ranks right up there with Kapil Dev and Saurav Ganguly. So, we had to feature a piece upon his retirement. Of all the tributes, we found this interview with Michael Hussey who saw Dhoni from the perspective of an opponent, teammate and a coach, quite relevant. […]
Confidence tricks: The ignorant pundit is absolutely certain; the true expert understands their own limits and how to ask the right questions
The authors, academics at UC Berkeley and Columbia University, highlight that it has become increasingly hard to distinguish genuine experts from snake oil salesmen: “In every domain where decision-makers need the specialised knowledge of experts, those who don’t have the relevant knowledge – whether they realise it or not – will compete with actual experts for […]
The Unravelling of America
In this piece, anthropologist Wade Davis discusses how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era: “In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a […]
The Antifragility Test Applied to Consistent Compounders
Antifragility is a much talked about virtue these days. However, what are the sources of antifragility? Why are some companies antifragile whereas their competitors aren’t? Is antifragility an innate trait or can it be cultivated? We answer these questions in this note “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the […]
Why Is Everyone Buying Gold?
A couple of months ago, my colleagues published a blog that talked about gold as an asset class. Since then, gold has rallied a further 20% before a taking a breather of sorts last week (still up almost 50% since March). Here’s Ruchir Sharma, the head of emerging markets and chief strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, […]
Nicholas Christakis on fighting covid-19 by truly understanding the virus
As the world comes to grips with Covid, as countries begin to unlock and economies start to creep back to normalcy, here comes a warning from Nicholas Christakis to governments on why they should not let their guard down. Nicholas is a doctor and sociologist at Yale University, researching social networks and epidemiology. He is […]
How Tim Cook Made Apple His Own
India’s largest bank by value, HDFC Bank will see its only CEO till date and an iconic one at that, Mr Aditya Puri, retire in two months’ time after helping build the bank from scratch over 26 years. The retirement has triggered a lot of talk about how HDFC Bank will not be the same […]
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