Graham And Doddsville

Professor Greenwald was recently interviewed on FT.com by a former student.

The first part of the interview covers topics including Benjamin Graham’s relevance today, behavioral finance, cheap and ugly stocks, and sustainable franchises.  Click here to watch part 1 of the video.

The second part of the interview covers topics including short selling, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, value traps, and earnings power value.  Click here to watch part 2 of the video.

For more on Professor Bruce Greenwald, see the “SuperInvestor Resources” page. Also, check out this interview with Mohnish Pabrai who shares Professor Greenwald’s view on short selling.

The latest issue of Graham and Doddsville was released this morning.  The newsletter is excellent and just keeps getting better with each new issue.  How high can the bar go?

This edition features Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital, David Samra of Artisan Partners, and Kevin Dreyer of GAMCO.  You will also find investment write-ups on Amedisys Home Health Services (AMED) and Care Investment Trust (CRE).

Also, check out the newsletter archive here.  I sure miss my days as editor of the newsletter.  Keep up the great work CBS!

I recently came across this interview with Michael Mauboussin who is a Columbia Business School Adjunct Professor and Strategist of Legg Mason.  Mauboussin’s new book, Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition hits bookshelves on October 12, 2009.  If it lives up to his past books, it will become a must read.  I highly recommend checking out Cap@Columbia.  The site provides a wealth of content on investing, including articles written by Michael Mauboussin.   For those of you who live in the NY/NJ area, Professor Mauboussin will be speaking about his new book on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at The New York Society of Securities Analysts (NYSSA).  Click here for more information on the NYSSA event.

There has been a lot of talk about Professor Greenwald’s new book, “The Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies”.  The book was co-written by Bruce Greenwald, Jonathan Knee, and Ava Seave.  All three are on the faculty of Columbia Business School.  To learn more about the book, check out the post on Columbia Business School’s Public Offering Blog here or Columbia Ideas at Work here.

Finally, I have created a new archive page for the Graham and Doddsville newsletter produced by the students of Columbia Business School.  This morning at the 19th Annual Graham and Dodd Breakfast I learned that a new issue is imminent.  I will post it to the archive as soon as it is released.

Julian Robertson, who founded Tiger Management in 1980, is a legend in the hedge fund industry.   His Tiger Fund has spun-off dozens of so-called “Tiger Cubs.”  Many of these cubs, which include Maverick Capital, Viking Capital and Lone Pine Capital to name just a few,  have since spun off their own successful funds.

John Griffin, a former Tiger Analyst, is the founder of Tiger Cub Blue Ridge Capital.  Along with analyst/PM David Greenspan, John teaches a course to select Columbia Business School students called “The Investor’s Edge:  Advanced Investment Research.”  In the past, students have presented their final research memos to a panel of judges that included Julian Robertson.

Mr. Robertson talks on CNBC about a range of topics, from the risk inflation poses to the economy to the U.S. dependence on China and Japan to fund its debt.

This past Wednesday, hedge fund manager Zhao Danyang dined at Smith and Wollensky’s in Manhattan with Warren Buffett.  Danyang paid $2.1 million for the opportunity to have lunch with his hero, over 3x more than it cost the 2007 winners.  Proceeds from the lunch go to benefit the Glide Foundation.

This time last year two of my mentors, Guy Spier of Aquamarine Fund and Mohnish Pabrai of Pabrai Funds, along with their wives and Mohnish’s two daughters, sat down for lunch with Mr. Buffett.   Below are two great interviews where each investor reflects on the time they spent with Warren.  I find it interesting that their memories have little to do with investing, and instead focus on ‘general lessons for life’.

“That’s One Expensive Buffett” – an American Public Media audio interview with Mohnish Pabrai.  (thanks S.F. and NoiseFree Investing)

Betty Liu of Bloomberg Television interviews Guy Spier outside Smith and Wollensky.

For more on Guy and Mohnish’s experience see the article Guy wrote last year for Time Magazine: “My $650,100 Lunch with Warren Buffett”.

(For more on Mohnish Pabrai see my interview with Mr. Pabrai when I was a student at Columbia Business School.)

A great video from the recent Columbia Business School Follies:

Just in case you didn’t see the 2007 Follies hit, Every Breath You Take, click here for a classic.