Become a Better Investor Newsletter – 3 December 2022
Noteworthy this week
- Earnings recession to come
- US housing prices take a massive hit
- Chinese protest in the streets
- Dutch farmers are not only getting killed by ESG
- The Green leaders are burning tons of coal
Earnings recession to come: We appear to be in the first leg of the bear market; the second leg features an earnings recession.
So far in 2022, there have been already 5 months where the S&P 500 was up or down at least by 7.5%
The first leg of a bear market is driven by multiples compression: it’s volatile & involves big rallies
The second leg features an earnings recession & resembles a slow grind down pic.twitter.com/IaVAw4GLkI
— Alf (@MacroAlf) November 25, 2022
US housing prices take a massive hit: Only the 2008 crisis has been worse, but this correction is not yet over.
We’re in the second biggest home price correction of the post-WW II era. pic.twitter.com/XHnPpEaw52
— Lance Lambert (@NewsLambert) November 29, 2022
Chinese protest in the streets: The Chinese are tired of the tyrannic zero-covid policy. Let’s see if this leads to a quicker re-opening and/or massive clampdowns from Xi and the CCP.
The mass protests breaking out across China against the draconian lockdowns are both courageous and historic. The people have had enough. Authoritarianism never ends well. History has taught us that. The Chinese protestors are creating their own history.pic.twitter.com/y1aLGswuZU
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) November 28, 2022
Dutch farmers are not only getting killed by ESG: The Dutch government makes it extremely hard for farmers to operate due to its extremist ESG policies. At the same time, fertilizers are at very high prices.
Here is the inflation in fertilizers that Dutch farmers are faced with before even considering the ESG initiatives.
No wonder they are angry pic.twitter.com/21GSlkOHE6
— AndreasStenoLarsen (@AndreasSteno) November 29, 2022
The Green leaders are burning tons of coal: When the wind is not blowing in Germany, almost half of the electricity comes from dirty coal.
Germany is burning a lot of coal (~45% of all electricity generation) as wind stops blowing.
It’s electricity carbon intensity jumped to a crazy 745 grams (CO2 gr per KWh) this evening — higher than in South Africa and India
Closing nuclear matters | #Energiewende h/t @ckazok pic.twitter.com/b9VZJCs5l2
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) November 29, 2022
Poll of the week
The percentage contraction in US housing prices will be worse than in 2008-09.
— Andrew “The Worst” Stotz (
@andrew
) December 2, 2022
Results from last week’s poll
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Weekly market performance
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Chart of the week
Discussed in the Become a Better Investor Community this week
“We’ve just updated our Thai FVMR strategy. Since its inception, it has gained 105% versus the SET 100 Index’s return of 38%.”
“We’ve just updated our ASEAN FVMR strategy. Since its inception, the portfolio has generated a before-fee total return of 177% versus MSCI ASEAN’s 25%.”
“We’ve just updated our Asia FVMR strategy. Since its inception, it has generated a before-fee total return of 96% versus the MSCI Asia ex Japan of 48%.”
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Podcasts we listened to this week
MacroVoices #351 Dr. Pippa Malmgren: Update on All Things Geopolitical
Erik Townsend and Dr. Pippa Malmgren have exciting discussions on World War III, Russia’s willingness to weaponize oil prices, China, and the start of a space race, among other things.
Ep 1: Gives a great insight into where Sicart Associates, LLC comes from.
Ep 2: Interesting discussions related to anthropology and evolutionary psychology.
Ep 3: Great discussions on fear and how it impacts your investing.
Readings this week
The MacGuffin, Part 2: The Story Arc of SBF and FTX by Ben Hunt
If you want a detailed account of the FTX debacle, this is the piece you want to read.
Book recommendation
The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy by William Strauss and Neil Howe
“A startling vision of what the cycles of history predict for the future.” (USA Weekend)
“The authors look back 500 years and uncover a distinct pattern: Modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting about the length of a long human life, each composed of four eras – or ‘turnings’ – that last about 20 years and that always arrive in the same order.”
Audible is great; have you tried it? If not, click here to get 2 books for free.
Memes of the week
Santa: “And what would you like for Christmas, little boy?”
Boy: “Tamed inflation, a market rebound, and geopolitical stability”
Santa: “lmfaooooo suck my ass kid” pic.twitter.com/blYN1tNFvW
— litquidity (@litcapital) November 26, 2022
— Adam Singer (@AdamSinger) November 29, 2022
New My Worst Investment Ever episodes
Ep626: Tara LaFon Gooch – Vet Your Business Partners
BIO: Tara LaFon Gooch is a 2X business founder and entrepreneur. Before entrepreneurship, she was a corporate sales director who got burnt out on corporate life and wanted to explore more possibilities.
STORY: Tara started a business with a partner who didn’t align well with its goals. This saw her do all the work, and she had to quit after realizing this wasn’t a partnership anymore.
LEARNING: Vet your partners well before getting into a partnership with them. Listen to your gut.
Access the episode’s show notes and resources
Ep625: Adrian Choo and Sze-Yen Chee – The Great Career Paradox
BIO: Adrian Choo is a Career Strategist in Asia and the founder of Career Agility International. Sze-Yen Chee is the Executive Director/Co-founder of Career Agility International and is a top Singaporean career coach.
STORY: We look at their book The Great Career Paradox (When Pursuing Career Success May Not Lead To Career Happiness).
LEARNING: Your career is not everything.
Access the episode’s show notes and resources
Ep624: Litan Yahav – The Risk of Investing in Single-Family Rental Properties
BIO: Litan Yahav sold a startup, decided to invest a lot of the money he made into real estate – mainly syndications, and encountered a lot of (good) problems managing it. That led him to build a new startup to solve his problems and similar problems of millions like him.
STORY: When Litan sold his company, he and his co-founder decided to buy single-family homes in Ohio via a property management firm. The two never anticipated the challenges they’d encounter from tenants and the municipality.
LEARNING: Investing in single-family rental properties is never really passive. Buying a single-family home is riskier than investing in an apartment block. Buying properties far away from you is just full of risks.
Access the episode’s show notes and resources
Published on Become a Better Investor this week
David and Andrew talk about the difference between “continuous” and “continual” improvement – and how that applies in classrooms.
Listen to Continuous vs Continual Improvement: Deming in Education with David P. Langford (Part 5)
In November 2022, we published 13 new episodes of the My Worst Investment Ever podcast. Listen to all of them here.
Listen to My Worst Investment Ever November 2022
PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk (AMRT IJ): Profitable Growth rank of 3 was up compared to the prior period’s 4th rank. This is above-average performance compared to 600 large Cons. Staples companies worldwide.
Read Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk – World Class Benchmarking
Sappe Public Company Limited (SAPPE TB): Profitable Growth rank of 3 was same compared to the prior period’s 3rd rank. This is above average performance compared to 260 small Cons. Staples companies worldwide.
Read Sappe – World Class Benchmarking
Asia Potash International Investment Guangzhou Company Limited (000893 SZ): Profitable Growth rank of 1 was same compared to the prior period’s 1st rank. This is World Class performance compared to 430 medium Cons. Staples companies worldwide.
Read Asia Potash International Investment Guangzhou – World Class Benchmarking
DISCLAIMER: This content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Readers should not consider statements made by the author(s) as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. The author(s) cannot be held liable for any actions taken as a result of reading this article.