Buy Businesses, Not Stocks

• John Mauldin, Thoughts from the Frontline|
• August 20, 2021

Holding Forever

Perpetual Inflation

Better than the Market

I write this letter on my way home from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where I spoke to the fascinating “GoBundance” group of mostly young, successful, enthusiastic entrepreneurs. Before that I was in Grand Lake Stream, Maine, for the Camp Kotok economics/fishing retreat. I’ll have some details for you later. Today we will look back a few months to a Strategic Investment Conference presentation that truly affirms my optimistic outlook for both business and humanity.

You’ve probably heard of Ron Baron, founder of Baron Funds which has grown to a stable of not just mutual funds but a variety of private investments and Ron’s own capital—something like $50 billion in total. Ron is a legendary investment genius and we were thrilled to have him on the SIC virtual stage, where my good friend David Bahnsen ably interviewed him.

The party’s over: China clamps down on its tech billionaires

Date: 22‑08‑2021

Source: The Guardian

The symbol of ByteDance’s app TikTok, which has gained global popularity.

The startling rise to wealth of the nation’s entrepreneurs has been an affront to Beijing’s political philosophy and increasingly, a threat to the communist party

In a Politburo group study session on 23 November 2015, China’s president, Xi Jinping, recommended the book Capital in the Twenty‑First Century by the French economist Thomas Piketty. “The rich data he used demonstrated that … unrestrained capitalism accelerates wealth inequality … [His] conclusion is worth us pondering on.”

Back then, Piketty’s work on inequality was reported all over the world and sparked soul‑searching among elites from Wall Street to Main Street. Some were surprised that Xi was paying attention, too.

Since his ascent to power in 2012, Xi has discussed the issue of inequality on several occasions. Early this year, he told his provincial ministerial‑level cadres that achieving common prosperity was “not just an economic issue, but a significant political one that matters to the party’s basis to rule”.