Our Work
Investment Insights – Keith R. Schicker, CFA, Portfolio Manager
- On Diversification: It’s okay to keep at least some of your eggs in one basket. [READ MORE]
Primary Sources
- Minutes Of The Federal Open Market Committee: A joint meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System was held in the offices of the Board of Governors on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. and continued on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. [FRB]
- BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. NEWS RELEASE: Warren E. Buffett converted 1,600 A shares into 2,400,000 B shares in order to give these B shares to four family foundations: 1,500,000 shares to The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 300,000 shares to each of The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation. [Berkshire]
- Beige Book – November 29, 2023: This document summarizes comments received from contacts outside the Federal Reserve System and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials. [FRB]
- Remarks By FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg On The Third Quarter 2023 Quarterly Banking Profile: The banking industry continued to show resilience in the third quarter. [FDIC]
The above chart shows the number and assets of banks on the FDIC’s “problem bank list” from 2008-2023.
News
Financial Markets
- Wall Street’s ESG Craze Is Fading: Investors pulled more than $14 billion from sustainable funds this year. [WSJ]
- The Clearest Sign Yet That Commercial Real Estate Is In Trouble: Lenders are issuing a record number of foreclosure notices related to risky property loans. [WSJ]
- Just How Bad Is the US Cost-of-Living Squeeze? We Did The Math: It now requires $119.27 to buy the same goods and services a family could afford with $100 before the pandemic. Since early 2020, prices have risen about as much as they had in the full 10 years preceding the health emergency. [Bloomberg]
- Almost No One Pays A 6% Real-Estate Commission—Except Americans: How the rest of the world buys and sells homes explained, in three charts. [WSJ]
- The Biggest Delivery Business in the U.S. Is No Longer UPS or FedEx: Amazon is eclipsing both carriers, and the gap is growing. [WSJ]
- Rolex, Patek Prices Hit Fresh Two-Year Lows: Subdial Index: Luxury watch prices decline again in October as supply climbs. [Bloomberg]
This bar graphs shows the increase in shopping sales during cyber week from 2022 to 2023.
Financial Planning
- Monthly 50/30/20 Budget Calculator: Enter your monthly after-tax income into this free budget calculator to create a suggested budget. [NerdWallet]
- Budgeting 101: How To Budget Money: Divide your income among needs, wants, savings and debt repayment, using the 50/30/20 budget. [NerdWallet]
- Is It Cheaper To Rent Or Buy Property?: We crunch the house-price data across every American county—and make a surprising finding. [Economist]
- Your Thanksgiving Costs, Broken Down: Prices for travel and holiday feasts are more manageable than last year. [WSJ]
Business Strategy
- Permira Selects Banks For Golden Goose IPO: Listing of luxury trainer brand in Milan could come as soon as the first half of 2024. [Financial Times]
Life & Work
- The Airports Where Planes Run On Time And Fares Are Low: These facilities performed the best on categories related to reliability and value in WSJ’s 2023 rankings. [WSJ]
- What It Takes to Be in the 1%—of Taylor Swift Fans: Swifties listened to billions of the superstar’s songs for countless hours in 2023, and some even achieved their wildest dreams. [WSJ]
- The T Predictor: What We’ll Be Obsessing Over In 2024: We asked 46 artists, filmmakers, chefs and other creative people to forecast next year’s cultural trends. (Spoiler: We’re all going to be wearing a lot of brown.) [NYT]
- Black Friday Isn’t What It Used To Be: Big discounts, many of them online only, start appearing well before Thanksgiving and will run long after. Some people still go to the mall, though. [NYT]
The graph above shows the most-shopped days on Black Friday Weekend and the corresponding amount of shoppers. Traditional Black Friday leads with the most expected shoppers.
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