Graham And Doddsville

Morningstar recently posted a four-part interview with Bruce Greenwald, Columbia Business School Professor and Director of Research at First Eagle.

Investors are again being offered an extraordinary opportunity to put capital to work in high-quality companies at a good price, says Columbia professor Bruce Greenwald.

Click below to view the videos:

Part 1 – Greenwald:  Why First Eagle Favors Amex Over Citi

Part 2 – Greenwald:  The Most Extraordinary Thing About This Market

Part 3 – Greenwald:  Opportunity Even When the Market’s Not Cheap

Part 4 – Greenwald:  Wouldn’t Bite on Apple

(source: Morningstar.com)

I have never really made any requests on this site but I am going to make a brief exception.  For those of you who have never tried Dropbox, I highly recommend that you try it out. It is the best way I have found to sync files between multiple computers.  I will paste the short details below, but you can go to Dropbox.com to learn more.  Anyone who signs up can get 2GB of storage for free.  However, for each referral you make, you can earn an addition 250mb of free storage.  If you are interested in the program, I ask that you sign up by clicking this link:  https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTExOTY4NTk .  Once I reach 8GB I will take this post down.  Thanks for your help and I hope you enjoy Dropbox as much as I do.

From the Dropbox website:

Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.

• 2GB of online storage for free, with up to 100GB available to paying customers.
• Sync files of any size or type.
• Sync Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
• Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected.
• Work on files in your Dropbox even if you’re offline. Your changes sync once your computer has an Internet connection again.
• Dropbox transfers will correctly resume where they left off if the connection drops.
• Efficient sync – only the pieces of a file that changed (not the whole file) are synced. This saves you time.
• Doesn’t hog your Internet connection. You can manually set bandwidth limits.

(Please remember to actually install Dropbox, or I don’t get credit for the referral.  I think you will find the program incredibly useful and thanks for your help.)

Every year value investors are inundated with notes from the annual “Woodstock for Capitalists.”  I have read many blog posts, notes, and accounts of the weekend.  My friend Ben at The Inoculated Investor has posted what I believe to be the best/most complete notes I have seen this year.

Click here to see Ben’s notes on the 2010 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.

Thanks, Ben!

(Update)

On April 23, 2010 Bloomberg TV convened a panel of top value investors at Columbia Business School to discuss the future of value investing.  Members of the panel, led by Bloomberg anchor Betty Liu, included Professor Bruce Greenwald (Columbia Business School Professor and Director of Research at First Eagle Funds), Robert Olstein (Chairman of Olstein Capital Management LP), Thomas Russo, (Partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner), and David Winters (CEO of Wintergreen Advisers LLC).

The 21 minute program is a must watch and is filled with gems of value investing wisdom.   You can watch the entire program here.

Columbia Business School’s blog post on the panel can be viewed here.

Columbia Business School Professor Bruce Greenwald will be featured in a Bloomberg TV special “Buffett and Beyond: The Future of Value Investing” on Friday, April 23rd at 7 pm EST.

Link to Bloomberg TV

I am extraordinarily fortunate to be able to count Guy Spier of Aquamarine Fund as one of my personal mentors.  In 2006 Guy, along with Mohnish Pabrai of Pabrai Funds, won the annual charitable auction for lunch with Warren Buffett. This year’s lunch took place yesterday in Manhattan.

Obviously one can learn much by studying Guy as an investor.  One can learn even more by observing how Guy absorbs various mental models and incorporates them into not only his investment style, but also into every aspect of his being.  I believe that Guy exemplifies the term intellectual curiosity.  In a recent interview with Betty Liu of Bloomberg, Guy discusses some of the lessons he took away from his lunch with Warren Buffett.   Click here for the interview.

Warren Buffett also mentioned Guy and Mohnish in his interview with Betty Liu.  Click here for the interview.

Click here to read an article Guy penned for Time Magazine after his lunch with Mr. Buffett.