Considering what’s at stake, we can’t dismiss the torrents of negative headlines, venemous tweets, pending AG investigations, and congressional rebukes that have justifiably buffeted Equifax on all sides, as hyperbolic grandstanding even if that’s exactly what much of it is. In a very direct and non-hokey sense, trust – that the data lenders and employers […]
Planet Money, Ep. #647 (Hard Work Is Irrelevant) “To get a job [at Netflix] and to keep it, you have to accomplish great things. Here’s another slide [from Netflix’s presentation on its principles]…’We are a team, not a family. And we are a Pro sports team, not a kid’s recreational team.’ In other words, if […]
Invest Like the Best, Ep. 53 (Meb Faber – Factors, Dividends, and Angel Investing) Meb Faber: “I saw a stat the other day that the average Robin Hood account checks his balance ten times a day…and so, all that does is create horrific behavior.” “There’s a lot of [fintech companies] getting funded that have great […]
Several weeks ago, the stock of Ellie Mae, a SaaS that automates the grueling task of underwriting residential mortgages, got hammered when the company reported revenue weakness on lower than expected industry refinancing volumes and longer than expected ramp times for larger enterprise customers, prompting management to dramatically cut its full year revenue growth guidance […]
Moody’s is a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs), a title bestowed by the SEC on a handful of credit rating agencies, the top 3 of whom act as an oligopoly in the US debt ratings gambit. As you well know, Moody’s (and S&P and Fitch) fell into disrepute during the last financial crisis when […]
Greenbrier and Trinity (TRN) act as a duopoly in the North American railcar industry, together accounting for nearly 80% of total backlog, with both players taking market share over the last decade (GBX: 13% in September 2006 -> 33% today; TRN: 36% -> 44%; ARII: 21% -> 6%). Needless to say, the railcar manufacturing and […]