Michael Lewis Article

[Free To Canoe]

Michael Lewis has a new book out. He authored Liar's Poker and other financial tales.

While looking for it, I ran across this article which I thought informative and a good read. He makes it sound like he is inside the guy's head.

Betting on the Blind Side | Business | Vanity Fair

Full article is available for non-subscribers only for this month.

Free to canoe

 

[Steve O]

Thanks, that was a good read.

 

[donheff]

Great read. I have been trying to reserve The Big Short at the library and was surprised they didn't have it since Lewis is being interviewed on all the talk shows. This article explains that: the book is coming out later this month.

 

[Leonidas]

Great article. Burry's performance is a solid argument for not going along with the popular crowd at CNBC et. al.

 

[Alan]

Jon Stewart interviewed Michael Lewis recently - very entertaining.

Video: Michael Lewis | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

 

[Brat]

What I loved about the article is how a person leveraged his (dis)ability. His personal story is fascinating.

My daughter is a CFO. Lewis is speaking at their investors conference in a couple weeks. She said she would try to snag a signed copy of the book.

What was interesting about the 60 Minutes interviews is that they accused the industry essentially being stupid, acting against their employer's interests because of the design of the compensation system. As a retired HR professional I have seen executives attempt to negotiate (extort) better and better compensation agreements. The executive's goals do not necessarily align with the stock holders. One of the hottest chairs in a large business is that of Director of Comp.

My two cents, today.

 

[walkinwood]

Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

To me, it shows that markets are not efficient. Just because the information is all out there, doesn't mean that everyone has waded through it.

On the other hand, the article also shows why it is hard for a professional to exploit these inefficiencies & why you're not likely to get a reference to such people from your broker or your favorite investment rag. Also, did you notice the information on the last page?

By June 30, 2008, any investor who had stuck with Scion Capital from its beginning, on November 1, 2000, had a gain, after fees and expenses, of 489.34 percent. (The gross gain of the fund had been 726 percent.)

I buy into the indexing theory, but in practice have kept some actively managed funds (ironically, with very low turnover volumes) that have served me well for over a decade. I have stuck to indexes for new funds in the past few years.

 

[Moemg]

Thanks ,That was a great read !