Reading, Reading, Reading...

I read The Big Short by Michael Lewis a few months ago when I started the blog. It was entertaining and gave a lot of good information in a way that was easy to understand. It's about guys that made billions (with a "b") by understanding that the housing bubble was a bubble and by betting against it. Lewis mentions that the guys who did it were a fan of another book, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt.

Although, it has probably the worst title ever, I just finished reading it and it's really good (despite the title). Between 1985 and 1994, Greenblatt's investment firm, Gotham Capital had annualized returns of 50%. His worst year was 1987 when he only made 29.4%, but the stock market also crashed in 1987, so I'll cut him some slack. His best year was 1993 when he made 115.2%.

The book gives a lot of good information that seems to make a lot of sense. Now I'm on to a book by Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor. Graham taught Warren Buffett at Columbia University and Warren Buffett wrote the intro to the book and says something like it is the best book there is on investing.... Buffett apparently loved this guy and was really good friends with him.

So, I think I'm about ready to make a billion dollars. I will keep you posted.

"Weekend at Bernanke's"

Here's a very good podcast about the Fed, inflation, etc. It may not be the end of the world like I originally thought.

Click the link below, it should start playing the file in a window. Right click the player and click "save as..." which should download the file. Put it on your iPod and listen in your car or on a walk... Let me know what you think.

The Invention of Money