The Ledger
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Mauboussin: Tesla's Stock Surge Saved Its Underlying Business Fundamentals
“So I think that it was not too many years ago that, that Tesla was sort of skating on thin ice in terms of finances and so forth. And then as a stock took on a life of its own, the stock went up a lot that allowed them to raise capital and get themselves on mu…”
Mauboussin: The Distribution of Active Manager Alpha Has Consistently Narrowed
“One of the ways we can measure that is to look at the standard deviation of excess returns, right? So alpha, right? So excess returns. So, so you'd imagine and if you'd imagine If you're an active manager, what you want is a big fat bell shaped distribution, r…”
Mauboussin: US Corporate Intangible Investments Reached $2 Trillion in 2021
“Back in 2001. So the year the first book came out capital expenditures and intangible investments. And this is for like called the Russell 3000. So basically us public companies Was about the same amount, 636 hundred and forty billion, something like that. So …”
Mauboussin: Walmart Had Negative Free Cash Flow for Its First 15 Years
“Walmart for the first 15 years that it was public had negative free cashflow for each of those years. Walmart was profitable on the income statement, but they were investing like crazy.”
Mauboussin: Basketball Is the Least Luck-Driven Major Professional Sport
“Basketball is a sport that's furthest away from randomness. So the most essentially skilled dictates the outcomes.”
Mauboussin: Top Venture Capital Firms Retain Return Persistence Unlike Public Equities
“And so it turns out if you look at venture capital in particular by the way, in public equity markets, very limited persistence, right? So if you did really well last year, your expected value is closer to the average the following year. Buyouts. They used to …”
Mauboussin: 2001's Top 10 Companies Excluding Microsoft Lost $460B Over 20 Years
“So if you took Microsoft out, so you bought the other nine turns out their market capitalizations are down It's about four hundred and sixty billion dollars in the 20 year period.”
Mauboussin: Two of 2021's Top 10 Public Companies Weren't Founded in 2001
“Interestingly, by the way, three of the top 10 companies today were not public in 2001, and two of the top 10 were not founded, had not been founded yet.”