Marcellus: Rising Equity Inflows from Small Town India
Published on: 13 September, 2019 Amidst the gloom & doom of the economic downturn, we continue to see weekly inflows from small town India into Marcellus’ funds. More generally, equity inflows into mutual funds are holding up as are insurance premiums written by even third rung insurers. Our trips to small towns suggest that such […]
Starbucks, monetary superpower
At Marcellus, our endeavour is to find unusual promoters/companies who look at the industry they operate in very differently from others and change the entire contours of the industry in their favour. Whether it is Asian Paints (who focused on supply chain optimisation when the rest focused on product) or HDFC Bank (who focused on […]
Burning Man diary: sticking it to the Man with Ray Dalio
A lively account of her first visit to the ‘Burning Man’ by Hannah Murphy this year, a year when Ray Dalio, the iconic hedge fund manager at Bridgewater Associates, proudly endorsed the event on social media as a place with great vibe and amazing creativity. Yet Hannah draws us to the ‘palpable tension that the […]
Thomas Middelhoff reflects on failure in German business
Thomas Middlehoff, the former boss of Bertelsmann, has written a book called “Guilty”. Mr Middlehoff who was jailed for three years for tax evasion and breach of trust feels that “he committed the seven deadly sins in a biblical sense, he says, which is why he feels he deserved time behind bars and the loss of […]
Superbugs Deadlier Than Cancer Put Chemotherapy Into Question
The emergence of super bugs or germs that are resistant to most known anti-biotics has created a quandary among medical professionals dealing with cancer patients. Chemotherapy, the most common cancer treatment has evolved over the years not just in terms of efficacy but also in improving post treatment quality of life through reduced side effects. […]
Lessons for Capitalism from the East India Company
In the wake of growing concerns from the rise of the ‘Big corporate’, two weeks ago, an American corporate lobby comprised of CEOs of some of the largest corporates pledged to look beyond just shareholder interests and instead become inclusive in terms of taking care of customers, employees, vendors and the society at large. Perhaps, an appropriate […]
The machine always wins: what drives our addiction to social media
Richard Seymour has written a superb essay on the destructive powers of social media networks. Such is the power of the “network effects” and such is attraction of the approbation of others that millions of us are spending hours each day writing on social media. In return what are we getting: “In a form of mass […]
Learning from Great Investigative Writers
Published on: 5 September, 2019 Like investors, investigative journalists are paid to uncover undiscovered facts and perspectives. The best investigative journalists have the mental agility to deal with complexity & detail alongside the courage to acknowledge unpleasant realities. We seek to learn from four outstanding investigative writers – Steve Coll, Robert Caro, Ram Guha and […]
Athletes on the outskirts of fame
Last Sunday was yet another super Sunday for sport. India got its latest world champion in PV Sindhu who finally came won the World Badminton Championships after agonisingly coming second best in the previous two editions. Then Ben Stokes single-handedly pulled off a miraculous victory to keep the English in contention for the Ashes. Finally, […]
UPS Has Been Delivering Cargo in Self-Driving Trucks for Months And No One Knew
Most of the press around autonomous vehicles focuses on cars and yet it is in trucking that the most commercially viable advances in autonomous driving are being made. Last week we learnt that: “The self-driving freight truck startup TuSimple has been carrying mail across the state of Arizona for several weeks. UPS announced on Thursday […]
Long Term Compounding Using Low Volatility & Other Fundamental Factors
My colleagues Saurabh Mukherjea and Rakshit Ranjan co-authored a book titled Coffee Can Investing with a subtitle – “The Low Risk Road to Stupendous Wealth”. In this blog, Justin Carbonneau of Validea brings out a similar essence from the book High Returns from Low Risk: A Remarkable Stock Market Paradox, authored by Robeco fund managers […]
Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
In his refreshingly positive book Factfulness, Dr Hans Rosling talked about how people across the world are living longer with average life expectancy globally now at 72yrs rising up form 60yrs in 1973. This trend was true for the United States as well until recently when it has started to decline. It turns out that […]
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