People tend to take credit for their successes but blame external factors, or other people, for failures. This is self-serving bias. It allows us to protect our self-esteem, which in turn is good for our confidence. There are regular examples of self-serving bias in sports. The winning team considers they…
Since the commodity boom, the only game in town has been residential house and apartment construction. Virtually all of this construction has been financed by offshore lenders, through local banks. This made eminent sense when Australia’s cash rate was much higher than the rest of the developed world. However, this…
Gold is considered by many to be a strategic investment. Others say that it is a “barbaric relic” that has no place in an investment portfolio. In fact, until 1971 and the end of Bretton Woods, gold has been money for at least the last 5,000 years. Read about Bretton…
Alain de Botton (“AL-on de BO-ton”) is a contemporary philosopher, born in Zurich and based in London. His father (now deceased) is Gilbert de Botton, born in Egypt, moved to Zurich when Nasser kicked out the Jewish community, and founded Global Asset Management in 1983. Egypt’s loss. Alain has said…
When I last posted on the sector in May I identified 51 companies in the lithium space with a combined market cap of $3.3 B. This month there are 60 companies with a combined market cap of $3.9B. That is, a 15% increase in the number of players over a month, and…
Humans are hard-wired to belong to a group, typically one with shared cultural and/or socioeconomic attributes. Most people are social and have a natural desire to be accepted by the group, and therefore adopt the group’s customs and behaviors. An individual may behave quite differently when away from the group.…