by Mawer Investment Management, via The Art of Boring Blog
A reminder to focus on the long-term; a look at growing corporate debt levels; a helpful explanation of stock buy backs, and a tip to improve the workplace. It’s been an illuminating week.
FCLTGlobal – Summit 2018 summary report: Focusing capital on the long term
Though this was published in February, we still find it timely given some of the cracks showing in markets recently. (And it’s always a good time to read about the benefits of thinking long-term.)
Don’t worry—it looks long, but there are bullet point summaries and they even list session source materials if you are keen to look up more.
Bloomberg – Titans of junk: Behind the debt binge that now threatens markets
Some of the types of financial gymnastics being used to skew financial ratios.
One outtake: “The search identified 69 companies spanning the globe that have boosted their debt levels by 50 percent or more in the past five years and now have at least $5 billion of debt. Together, they’re sitting on almost $1.2 trillion of bonds and loans, most of it rated junk and the majority due within the next seven years.”
VOX – Stock buybacks, explained
This piece from Vox gives a pretty good history of stock buybacks and the incentives behind them.
Enterprising Investor – The Power of Appreciation
We have an appreciation here for Jim Ware’s view on workplace culture (we even talk about it in a podcast episode). But there is a nice simplicity to the idea that “appreciation can simply be the act of paying close attention to someone…by simply asking a staff member how their work is coming. And then — this is the key — paying close attention to their response.”
This post was originally published at Mawer Investment Management
