“The good news is that the Italians make the pasta and the Swiss make the watches. But if we stop world trade, and the Swiss have to their own pasta, and the Italians have to make their own watches, then people in both countries, arguably, will be a little worse off.” - Howard Marks

Observations on the competitive rivalry in the VC world, recession and tech jobs in China, and how to legitimately lose money…

Deriving an accurate discount rate is a fool's errand. Value sits with the beholder of cash, who are you to say otherwise?

Singapore Airlines ends an interesting chapter of its history with the redemption of its last remaining mandatory convertible bonds.

Call it an "educated guess" or decorate it with probabilistic calculations backed by detailed analysis. The truth is in today's market, the movement of share prices are no longer driven simply by fundamentals. Buying a stock or crypto is effectively a speculative trade.

Amidst the high offshore funding costs and complex geopolitical environment, putting money in emerging markets is getting increasingly challenging. In China however, embracing policy is a necessity for firms.

For what initial public offerings are worth, they essentially represent the final destination for all stupid money, the final equity takeout representing the finishing line for all early investors in the business.

Our lack of understanding in how different countries are being governed are rooted in bias, largely based on what we are familiar with and what we are not.

Without connecting the numbers to a story, projecting cash flows simply becomes an emotionless exercise of numbers.