i had to rewind that part because I was like wait...

Curious to know why you disagree with Munger on Alibaba. It's a top position for me at the moment and am always looking for a solid bear thesis to counter my long term bull thesis.

@@yuva I second that. The only bear thesis that I've found goes somethong like "China is rat poison squared" and no further. I'd love to hear a serious bear thesis by a smart person!

@@yuva Chinese accounting standards are notoriously bad, Alibaba has limited appeal in western markets, the corporate structure gives you very little rights and the company potentially faces serious political risks

@@nobobonobo regarding accounting standards, one can make similar arguments about Wirecard right? Is that really a good enough reason to disregard an investment in Alibaba? You make a good point about ownership structure, but it's less of an issue by owning the Hong Kong shares. I would avoid the ADR for sure. Then again, one can argue that the HK shares are VIE anyway and that means one really should avoid Alibaba by that measure alone. We all make investment choices based on risk appetite and analysis of an underlying business. Having this argument about one stock Vs another is somewhat pointless if we aren't ready to go into a long enough analysis. My gripe is that most commentary is surface level at best. Alibaba is quite a divisive stock and I don't expect everyone to agree / disagree that's it's a good long term hold until after the fact. Kind of like Tesla in 2018 and Amazon in 2002.

I don't believe investing in a communist authoritarian govt ruled company is a long-term good idea. I have thought so back when Alibaba was at its peak and everyone called me stupid for not investing with them... There are many many many reasons why its a bad idea but I think this is the root of the problem. The same thing Munger views as a strength I view as a weakness. I don't trust China at all and neither should you therefore I can not trust companies ruled under China. Way too risky for me and way too many red flags. Shorting might be a better idea imho. But I don't short either.

Depends on the type of crypto currency but you could look at the fees charged for transactions on the network and what percentage of that goes to holders of said crypto.

You can also look at use-case today and (dubiously) extrapolate that in the future An example of would be BTC as digital store of value. If the BTC nework remains resilient and adoption more or less continues on its current path, you can arrive at ways to value the network. In fact, you can create a whole spectrum of scenarios for valuation An interesting question to think about in a favorable scenario for BTC - what should be the monetary premium of gold (stateless money) if it could be verifiably transferred on the internet, anywhere at anytime, with low fees and little/no cost of custody?

So glad you found it valuable!

Thank you so much, Robert!

Keep those blinkers on.

Guy Spier's problem is having too many smart friends, which prevent him to be independent thinker. Also he is too emotional. "Group decisions - my perhaps jaundiced view is that it is close to impossible for outstanding investment management to come from a group of any size with all parties really participating in decisions" - Warren Buffett. "The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know, the hotter you get." - Bertrand Russell. "You can't do well in investing unless you think independently" - Warren Buffett.