the September issue of MFO is live

David_Snowball

I tried to sneak a lot into the publisher's letter, under the assumption that it was the end of summer and a holiday weekend and folks weren't in the mood of lots of long articles.

In addition to Rupal Bhansali moving on (which you knew and about which I've learned no more, though I'm still working on it), I shared a list of ten things - roughly half finance, half not - that I learned in August. One thing that I learned (again) is that ARKK is a disaster for its investors, fawning press and stunning results (up and down) notwithstanding. As the drought here worsens (and many residents in Iowa move deeper and deeper into denying both that the climate is changing and that we're to blame), I've been vaguely heartened by and fascinating by the story of concrete.

I spared folks from a completely unrelated discussion of what Roman roads last 2000 years and Davenport roads made it about five, but there were a couple cool articles on the subject - short version, start with a four foot deep trench and build the road with a series of distinct, compacted layers.

We profiled Artisan International Explorer after an hour-long interview with the managers. It was my first time meeting Anand Vasagiri and Devesh's first time chatting with either. Devesh agrees that David Samra's underlying discipline is sound but hasn't seen enough evidence that the team will remain stable and able to execute it over time. I totally get the concern, which was heightened by the conference call tech - a weird ceiling mounted camera and mic that occasionally seemed to move on its own and provided neither ideal sound nor a close view of face, but remain positive.

Devesh has a follow-up interview with Rakesh Bordia, the manager of the five-star Pzena EM Value in which he's now a shareholder.

Lynn walked through both notable young ETFs by age and muni funds by type. Shadow tracked the industry, as always, with special notice of an announcement from Osterweis.

I hope your holiday weekend is / have been / was joyful!

David

Sven

@David_Snowball and team, thank you for another month of great materials.

David_Snowball

Just in case you think I made it up, "Sand mining is a huge problem, new global survey shows" (9/5/2023)

That vis-a-vis my modestly cheerful story on concrete this month.

Old_Joe

Yes, in some parts of the world including here in California sand dredging has caused major damage to beaches and waterways, destabilizing adjacent land and damaging local fishing. Been going on for some years.