To help those allergic to sesame seeds make better dietary choices, Congress passed a law requiring food manufacturers to label sesame on their products. In response to the law, many companies began using sesame in their products for the first time, a measure to prevent potential recalls due to trace amounts of unlabeled items. By including “sesame” on the label, the companies had complied with the law, even though those affected are now inadvertently consuming sesame in products they had safely eaten for years. The law of unintended consequences. In response to a late 19th century epidemic of cobra attacks … Read More

In the past 10 years I have attended more University of Tennessee softball games than UT football and basketball games combined. Apparently, my affinity for college softball isn’t uncommon, at least not according to television ratings. According to Sports Media Watch, on June 3, the SEC champion Lady Vols softball team game against Oklahoma was broadcast on ABC, drawing 1.4 million viewers. That same day, 736,000 people watched the UT vs. Clemson men’s baseball game on ESPN2. (For context, 21 bowl games last football season drew fewer viewers than the UT-Oklahoma softball game, along with every televised home game in … Read More

While commentators and analysts focus attention on the ballooning U.S. national debt, it is tempting to overlook the importance – and threat – posed by total debt, including consumer; corporate; and local, state and federal governments. Debt is a lever that creates huge potential benefits in periods of low and declining interest rates. And it is a massive threat when rates are high or increasing. The official federal debt is currently $31.9 trillion, or 120% of annual Gross Domestic Product. (GDP is a measure of the total size of a country’s economy.) But that figure only paints part of the … Read More

The newest way to cheaply imply that your company is on the cutting edge of technology is to repeatedly chant “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) to shareholders and customers. In first quarter conference calls with analysts, references to AI increased 77% from a year earlier.  Alphabet (Google) mentioned AI 65 times in its April call, compared to only 7 times in April 2022. Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft combined for 109 AI references, compared to 29 a year earlier. As Jeremy Achin, CEO of DataRobot explains, “everyone knows you have to have machine learning [AI] in your story or you’re not sexy.” DataRobot … Read More

If your social media feed or favorite cable news show is full of dire warnings for weeks about an impending economic crisis, that’s a pretty good clue that there is no impending economic crisis. Real financial calamities are almost always surprises, although most are followed by plenty of after-the-fact claims of “I told you so.” As I think about the real financial crises that have occurred in the almost 40 years I’ve been investing, I realize that none were discussed on television for weeks ahead of time. And the horrible things that are predicted for weeks on television seldom, if … Read More

The economic value of social order and peace is significant, and it seems we are seeing the reverse of that some areas of the U.S. In a recent press release, retail giant Target said that merchandise theft will likely rob shareholders of $500 million of earnings this year – bringing the two-year theft total to $2 billion. Walmart lost $3 billion to thieves in 2022. Total U.S. retail theft last year is estimated at more than $100 billion. This is not an old problem that has suddenly become a convenient excuse for big businesses to demonstrate some long-held animus toward … Read More

A company in California, Prime Roots, has a new product, Hickory Koji-Bacon, the main ingredients of which are koji culture, coconut oil and yeast. Call me old fashioned, but bacon is made from a slaughtered animal, usually a pig. “Vegetarian bacon” is an oxymoron. Somebody made up the phrase to accomplish a marketing goal. There is a new category of mutual funds, aimed at investors who want to be socially responsible with their money. These funds do the reverse of Prime Roots, selling people old fashioned pork bacon while calling it broccoli. One of the top performing ESG funds in … Read More

On Saturday, an expected 40,000 people will gather in an Omaha, Nebraska arena to attend the annual shareholders’ meeting for Berkshire Hathaway. The actual business meeting will last about 4 minutes, followed by hours of Q&A featuring the wit and wisdom of Berkshire’s 92-year-old Chairman, Warren Buffett. Over the decades, much of Buffett’s advice has predictably been about investing. But his common sense, unemotional, logic about the nature of human behavior – not his unmatched 70-year investment track record – is why he has become an icon. Buffett is a voracious reader, understanding that risk comes from a lack of … Read More

There is a reason they call it commencement. Now is when your work really commences. Don’t believe the people who tell you that college was the best time of your life. Maybe it was the most important, but it’s a sad person whose life peaks at 21. Focus. The cat who chases two squirrels doesn’t catch either of them. Decide what you want and what you are willing to give for it. Set a deadline. Create an action plan and write it all down. Making a bunch of money isn’t the best goal in the world, but it’s not the … Read More