Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things
We often find ourselves in seemingly intellectual debates especially around political and social issues with who we think are like minded rational people but to no end. Turns out we all carry our ideological biases despite claiming to be intelligent people. Indeed, the greater the intelligence the stronger the bias, according to Gurwinder Bhogal who […]
Why the Medallion Fund is the Greatest Money-Making Machine of All Time
Four years ago Greg Zuckerman of the Wall Street Journal published an excellent book called “The Man Who Solved the Market” on Jim Simons, the mathematician who has built Renaissance Technologies and turned it to a mega fund capable of generating mega returns over the course of several decades. Even though Renaissance is super successful, […]
Beyond the balloon: the US-China spy game
Across the world everybody wants to know why is China so openly so explicitly provoking America by flying these giant balloons across America (with equipment inside the balloon whose end use is not clear). This long read in the FT says these balloons are a sign of escalating tensions between US and China: “The appearance of […]
Global Compounders: Investing in the Most Powerful Global Franchises
Marcellus’ Global Compounders Portfolio (GCP) invests in 25-30 deeply moated global companies (listed on developed countries’ stock markets) based on rigorous bottom-up research around moats, capital allocation and sustainability of cash generation into the long term future. Consistency of free cashflow compounding of GCP companies is an outcome of: (a) the nature of products and […]
Short Term Excitement vs Long Term Wealth Creation
Every year there will be a couple of sectors and a handful of stocks that give outsized returns helped by short term earnings momentum and narratives around the same. However, such sectors and stocks are generally unable to replicate their short-term success over the medium to long-term. While chasing momentum can provide short term enrichment, […]
The Buffett Formula: Going to Bed Smarter Than When You Woke Up
Most of us aspire to become better at what we do through a process of continuous improvement. But we also recognise it is easier said than done. So, here’s a timely revisit of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of it from the folks at Farnam Street using the example of the best-known learning machines in the […]
Pakistani brides falling for Indian designers and ‘Sharia-compliant’ Sabyasachi lehengas
It seems that Indian movies are not the only Indian offering that is being lapped up in Pakistan. For the great and the good in that country, Indian fashion designers’ clothes are also items to be coveted and flaunted on major occasions: “Tarun Tahiliani, Anamika Khanna, Abhinav Mishra, and Gaurav Gupta are selling big in […]
Mariana Mazzucato: ‘The McKinseys and the Deloittes have no expertise in the areas that they’re advising in’
Mariana Mazzucato is superstar economist who teaches at the University College in London. She has written several bestsellers such as “The Entrepreneurial State” and “The Value of Everything”. Her latest book “The Big Con” takes aim at the big consultancy firms: “Her new book, The Big Con, written with Rosie Collington, argues that consultancies are […]
Can China Reverse Its Population Decline? Just Ask Sweden.
India became the world’s most populous country last year as China joined much of the rich world facing declining populations. Whilst overpopulation has its own issues in a resource constrained planet, declining populations have had adverse social and economic issues across countries. “…as a country’s population grows more top-heavy, a smaller, younger generation bears the increasing […]
ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web
The rapid rise of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool has been nothing short of spectacular, in more ways than one. First, in terms of the speed of its popularity – ChatGPT had 100m users within two months of its launch. In comparison, TikTok and Instagram took 9 months and 2.5yrs respectively to get to that […]
How English football became the real Super League
Although England does not produce the best footballers in Europe and although the English Premier League (EPL) clubs do not win the Champions League very often, the EPL’s financial dominance of European football is becoming more absolute with each passing year: “During a frantic January transfer window in Europe, English clubs spent €830mn, almost double the […]
Nandan Nilekani and the $10 Trillion Remaking of India
Nandan Nilekani believes that the Digital Public Goods (DPG) used in India today will form the basis for India’s economic development because the three cornerstones of the modern economy are no longer roti, kapda, aur makaan; they are identification, financial inclusion, and mobile + internet connectivity. The creation of the ‘India stack’ – Aadhaar (universal […]
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