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 10 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
Phil Town: Modern Portfolio Theory Math Caused the 2008 Crash
“And modern portfolio theory math is what happened to the country in 2008. It's the same math that created the giant meltdown in, in mortgage bonds.”
Phil Town: 4–5% Index Returns Will Leave Millions Struggling in Retirement
“A five percent return or a four percent return, whatever the index is going to do over the next 20 years, is going to leave an enormous piece of America struggling to survive in retirement.”
Phil Town: Investing Is Buying Something You Understand for Below Value
“There's no difference between investing in a franchise, starting your own company, buying public stocks, buying private companies. There's no difference whatsoever. Investing is simply buying something that you understand for less than it's worth.”
Phil Town: Most People Are Merely Speculating With Their 401(k)s
“Everything else is just absolute speculation. And that's what most people are doing with their four or one case. They're speculating.”
Phil Town: Options trading is fundamental to good investing today
“So when I'm doing options trading, for example, which is fundamental, I think, to good investing these days, particularly this market, I know I'm going to lose some investments.”
Town: Greedy public company management teams are value investing's biggest risk
“Where we usually end up with trouble is that the management team, whoever's running it turned out to be a bunch of greedy bastards. And then you can get in trouble because they can do things that you don't, they shouldn't do. And they do it for their own benef…”
Town: Ben Graham Averaged 22% Annual Returns Through Depression and WWII
“Ben Graham, who sort of developed the ideas of value investing back in the thirties and forties, when he made about 22% per year through the depression in World War II, with what amounts to, in today's dollars, a billion dollar fund”
Phil Town: 45-Year-Olds Need $2.5M to Retire on $50K Annually
“For example, somebody who's 45 years old right now, who wants to retire in 20 years, is going to need about two and a half million dollars in in retirement capital to make it to 90 years old, spending In today's capital, in today's dollars, about 50,000 a year…”