Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Links

Berkshire AGM transcribed [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Berkshire's Munger: Ackman Off-Base on 'Sewer' Valeant, But Right on Herbalife (video) (LINK) [Munger: "Sewer was too light a word for the behavior of [Valeant]."]

Buffett, Gates talk tech at Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting (video) (LINK)

Warren Buffett: Rate hikes don't factor into 1% of decisions on buying businesses (video) (LINK)

Warren Buffett: Modern deficits don't matter (video) (LINK)

How Warren Buffett’s Son Would Feed the World [H/T @rationalwalk] (LINK)

Bill Gates: Remembering David MacKay (LINK)
Related link: David MacKay - final interview and tribute (video)  
Related book: Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air (Or via free download, HERE.)
Mark Leonard's letter to shareholders [H/T @chriswmayer] (LINK)

Kyle Bass talks betting against China (CNBC video) (LINK)

Jim Chanos betting against China (CNBC video) (LINK)

Notes from a Roundtable With Leon Cooperman, Joel Greenblatt, Richard Pzena (LINK)

Financial Engineering Shows Its Downside (LINK)
Valeant, SunEdison…the S&P 500? 
Financial engineering has built vast financial edifices, but all too often there is little of substance providing support. The latest Wall Street constructs to crumble are familiar names, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and SunEdison Inc. Both relied on financial engineering to satisfy shareholders desperate for two items scarce in today’s weak economy: growth, offered by Valeant, and income, supplied by SunEdison’s so-called yieldcos. 
Shareholders who avoided both will be congratulating themselves, or thanking their luck. But they should also be asking themselves a bigger question: Is the entire stock market engaged in unsustainable financial engineering in an effort to satisfy shareholders? Put another way: We know the market is engaged in large-scale financial engineering in the form of a huge ramp-up of leverage. Is it sustainable?
Research Affiliates: Where's the Beef? “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" (LINK)
The inflation rate has a direct bearing on our prosperity. Official government measurements show very low inflation, despite underlying inflation being higher than overall inflation. This raises the question—what is inflation measuring?
The success of Leicester City will be pored over for management lessons [H/T @williamgreen72] (LINK)

Fred Wilson's Coin Center Keynote (LINK)

How Tim Ferriss Became the ‘Oprah of Audio’—Behind the Podcast With 70M-Plus Downloads (LINK)

Edge #467: Is Big Data Taking Us Closer to the Deeper Questions in Artificial Intelligence? - A Conversation With Gary Marcus (LINK)

Three Earth-Size Planets Found Orbiting a Nearby Ultracool Star (LINK)