The Last Straw

There are few inventions in human history that can match the transformative impact of the internet. Fire, the wheel, language, the printing press, the Magna Carta—each fundamentally reshaped society. The internet belongs in this pantheon. It has revolutionized not just communication but commerce, finance, culture, and governance. It is difficult to overstate its significance. At its core, the internet is […]

We recently caught up with Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure (ASX:DBI) CEO Michael Riches. The conversation reminded me of a neat little rule of thumb for valuing dividend stocks. If you’re someone who likes your dividends, it’s a handy addition to your investing tool kit. It’s called the Gordon Growth Model, and the simple version tells us that a stock’s total expected return is […]

During the week, Strawman member tomsmithidg kicked off a great discussion on “red flags”—those factors that can sometimes (but not always) urge caution for investors. A bunch of other members jumped in, fleshing out the conversation with an absolute goldmine of insights. This is exactly the kind of no-nonsense, experience-driven discussion that makes our community so valuable. These aren’t just […]

I was in a spirited debate with a mate recently — the kind where neither side expects to win, but both enjoy the verbal sparring. It kicked off when he casually declared that, sure, investing might be lucrative, but investors themselves add no real value to society. In fact, they just skim off the hard work of others, leeching wealth […]

This week, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates by 0.25%. A quarter of a percent. One part in four hundred. And judging by the media’s reaction, you’d think we’d just discovered cold fusion. The headlines were breathless. The analysis was feverish. Pundits on TV, eyes bulging, declared that relief had arrived! Struggling homeowners could breathe again. Businesses would now, […]

As investors, we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about value. Or, at least, we should. The simple reality is that even if we buy shares in the world’s greatest business, we can still lose our shirt if we pay a stupidly high price. But what makes a price stupid? How can we possibly know what is reasonable […]

“We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.” — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes A great irony of economics is that the simplest, most fundamental of principles are often the hardest to accept. Probably because they can rub against our intuitions or, more often, our ideologies. Such impediments are common in many domains, but at least in […]

Extraordinary returns come from extraordinary mis-pricings. And those only happen when most people hold a deeply flawed vision of the future. The trouble is, the dominant view never feels unreasonable at the time. It usually seems obvious — self-evident, even. That’s precisely why so many people, including the seasoned pros, buy into it. And let’s be honest: it takes a […]

I’ve had a tough time of late with my home broadband provider, Optus. The details are too painful (and boring) to recount, but let’s just say that after 10 days without internet, I’ve learned the true meaning of “on hold.” Rather than scream into the void, I decided to channel my rage productively: digging into Optus’s financials. If it sucks […]