The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 8 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Davis Advisors suffered a 90% single-day dilution on AIG during 2008
“Then bam, one day we're down 90, 90% diluted in a single day. And of course you couldn't, couldn't recover. And by the way, when it was all fully said and done, it was probably more like 95%.”
Davis: De-risking from Wells Fargo to Nestlé in 2008 led to underperformance
“So, we de-risk the portfolio. Now, I had studied my dad enough to know that going to 30% cash was not the right thing to do, but it may have been, you know, selling some wells and buying Nestle. That ensures that if the crisis gets worse, we're gonna own busin…”
Davis Advisors mistakenly sold 17 million shares of Costco bought at $27
“Costco closed at 41, had been come down from 45. It was a momentum growth
Stock darling. They reported a bad quarter that stock opened at 27. And we amazingly bought seventeen million shares that day. It was one of the great trades my whole career. And you cou…”
Davis offered his teenage kids $700 cash to fly coach over business class
“I hit on this idea about when they were your kid's age of I'll split the difference with you. Like I literally will write you a check. You can choose. Like, we'll get you a seat in business class, or you get 700 dollars.”
Davis: Davis Advisors held no Bear, Lehman, Fannie, Freddie, or Countrywide in 2008
“If you think of the six horsemen of the apocalypse in the financial crisis, you know, Bear, Lehman, Fannie, Freddie Wamuu, Countrywide you know, we didn't own a share of any of them, and yet here I am running a financial fund, running a fund that probably had …”
Davis journals every alcoholic drink weekly to prevent addiction
“That's an area where, you know, I keep a journal of every alcoholic drink I have a week.
Because I love alcohol.”
Davis: I avoid ultra-wealthy enclaves like Southampton to check personal envy
“And so a big part of checking that weakness in me is not to get in that pool. And so, you know, I don't go to South Hampton, not because I don't think it would be lovely and not because there aren't some amazing, interesting people that I admire hugely that li…”
Davis: Parents required summer jobs and covered pay for unpaid internships
“There was a rule from about the time we were 13, which was, you know, you were allowed in the house, you know, three weeks without a job, so that sort of got you through. You know, Christmas break or spring break, but the assumption was you were going to work …”