The myth of western decadence
For over a decade now, Janan Ganesh has been producing tightly written columns for the FT with provocative themes. Here he takes on those who believe that the West is a decadent society in structural decline (a theme that those of who grew up in India have been hearing about since we were in kindergarten). […]
The Fed Will Overdo It: Chen Zhao
The recent bout of interest hikes by central banks across the globe has thrown the markets into turmoil yet again. Whilst nobody ever knows where the markets are headed in the short run, here’s someone who can help us get our heads around what will it take to tame inflation and hence where are interest […]
Review of ‘From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life’ by Arthur Brooks
Of the 125 people in Marcellus, half a dozen or so people are over 40. After we read Arthur Brooks’ book ‘From Strength to Strength’ (thanks to a gift from a client who has also become a friend), we understood why those of us over 40 contribute the majority of the pieces to Three Longs […]
How the Worst Market Timer in History Built a Fortune
It is rare for us to meet a client who, regardless of his/her age and experience, does not ask us ‘Is this the right time to invest?’. Courtesy decades of exposure via broadcast and print media to investment gurus who pontificate on such matters, most people have an innate belief that timing matters when it […]
How Niche B2B Franchises Drive Compounding
Given Little Champs’ philosophy of investing in smallcaps which are market leading franchises, the portfolio has a preponderance of niche B2B names. Conventional arguments against B2B companies centre around their weak bargaining power vs much larger customers & suppliers and lack of entry barriers around brands & distribution. However, unlike a typical B2B company, the […]
Does company culture drive stock performance?
Value investing is about buying a stock at a price significantly below your estimate of the intrinsic value of the business, which in turn is the present value of cashflows to perpetuity or atleast a long enough period. Hence, this requires making a judgement on the longevity of moats that can sustain a healthy cashflow […]
Your career is Just One-Eight of your life
A few weeks ago we published a century old essay by John Maynard Keynes about the future of work, in which he prophesied that human beings on an average will end up working 15 hours a week i.e, balancing work and leisure in a way that solves the most fundamental economic problem. The pandemic seems to have […]
Britain and the US are poor societies with some very rich people
We all knew it was happening but even then, looking at the data on how rapidly the Anglo-Saxon countries are becoming unpleasant and unfair societies is discomfiting. As this piece in the FT explains, if you are in the top 3 percentile of British or American earners, you are living the life of the global […]
A rocker’s guide to management
We are in the age of start-ups, often a bunch of friends getting together to dream up an idea and build a venture out of it. But once the idea gets commercialised, the dynamics among friends turned co-founders play an important role in scaling the business up and critically determine the longevity of the venture. […]
Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size
This is a very interesting piece on the mind bending maths required to answer a simple question ‘Why is A4 paper 210mm x 297mm?”. Ben Sparks, a musician and a mathematician from the picturesque English city of Bath, answers the question and in so doing helps us understand the beauty of the A4’s dimensions. He […]
Whether Russians Like, Comment or Subscribe – Big Brother Is Watching
It is commonplace to bump into people who have a casual attitude to online surveillance and censorship. Hopefully, such people will read this piece by Ms Evdokimova, a New York based Russian journalist and human rights campaigner who writes for the Slate [with the Wire reprinting the Slate’s content]. Ms Evdokimova writes about how Putin […]
From Aadhaar to ONDC: India’s Methodical Build of Digital Assets Creates Competitive Advantages
Over the past decade the Indian economy – fragmented into several regional economies a decade ago – has gradually been integrated by the doubling of highway networks, tripling of local airline traffic, the introduction of GST and – most importantly – rapid digitization of the economy. From Aadhaar (in 2010) to UPI (in 2016) and […]
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