PE4FAMs Blog

For the last three months we have been so fixated on red and blue states we hardly noticed how many “black and blue” states are struggling from the pandemic’s onslaught. Unlike the Federal system where money printing of all kinds and deficit spending are accepted monetary policy tools, states are prohibited both from printing money […]

Few people really understand how currencies work. It requires math to figure out how much more or less a cup of coffee (Starbucks), or a hamburger (Big Mac), costs in Boston versus the same products in Moscow, Shanghai or Hamburg. If we had a universal currency like Bitcoin or Libra (Facebook), the currency math would

The world has 10 major stock exchanges, three of which are either controlled or influenced by China. Here are those exchanges: Exchange Established Mkt. Cap New York Stock Exchange May 1792 $19.3T NASDAQ February 1971 $13.8T Tokyo Stock Exchange January 2003 $5.7T Shanghai Stock Exchange November 1990 $4.9T Hong King Stock Exchange February 1891 $4.4T

This is the time of year when you can actually find child like joy in your Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Take the Cleveland Indians with their small market budget as an example. Not-withstanding, their loss of an important starter, Mike Clevinger, the Tribe has actually secured a playoff spot by dominating the division leading

I remember the Over-The-Counter Trading Desk at a regional securities firm called Prescott, Ball& Turben (PBT) where I was employed in the Mergers & Acquisitions group from 1987-92.  Trading small stocks was an art with high commissions and limited liquidity.  Good trading desks did not “position” securities by holding them in inventory, rather they preferred

For most politicians the US economy is a fable, like the magic coffee grinder in the story about “How the Sea Got Salty”. According to legend the owner of the coffee grinder was a poor farmer who first used the magic grinder to provide food and shelter for his family, then all of his neighbors

When the Israelites fled Egypt under Moses’ leadership they were constantly attacked by the Amalekites.  In the valley of Rephidim the Israelites under the command of Joshua, met Amalek in a battle where Moses guaranteed his general a victory as long as Moses could oversee the fighting. According to the Book of Exodus, the Israelites

We have watched quite closely the first half financial performance of our portfolio of lower middle market companies. Almost all of them have benefitted from four trends that have accelerated in the pandemic:             Business Travel Has Stopped             Business Entertainment Has Been Curtailed             Capital Expenditures Have Focused on Customer Experience             Falling Energy

I have written before about moon tides (and how they remind us about investment markets tending to exaggerate fear or greed) https://capitalworks.net/moon-tides/. Dangerous shoals are hidden when the tide is 20% higher and keels are in the mud or on the rocks when the moon tide has fully ebbed. But this part of nature is

Bankruptcy is a little bit like the Greeks’ vision of Hell or Hades. There is a river you have to cross called the Styx with a ferryman called Charon whom you have to pay with a coin for safe passage. If your relatives forgot to bury you with a coin, you had to swim the