Long-bonds

The back cover of this book-like-object tells us that this is a book that will inform us on "How we did it." Unfortunately, the book itself fails to deliver that information. After reading it twice, I still don't know what they did, how they did it, or if they did anything at all. Did the author make real money? How much and when? Errors abound in this little tome. Some are trivial like the one about Alaric being a Goth (he was a Visigoth), the Swiss Franc is 140.6 to the dollar (impossible!), CoIogne Re is a reinsurer (it's Cologne Re) etc. Other errors are more serious especially the emphasis on value investing. Logic proves that value investing suffers from two errors: begging the question and vague definition. Which is more valuable? Philip Morris which is going nowhere or Microsoft? The text of this book runs only 69 pages and after that there is filler with previously published letters from Warren Buffet and others attached as Appendices 1,2 & 3. Appendix 3 looks like an ad for Tweedy, Browne and its form of so called value investing. There are several pages of explanation of why Tweedy underperformed the market and the main reason seems to be that they bought and held the wrong stocks at the wrong time. They don't like technology because they don't understand it and, boy have they suffered for that ignorance. Too bad their holdings are in Swiss Francs and must have lost over 40% of their value because of the strength of the dollar. I could go on about the stale jokes, the misprints, the irritating repetitions, the lack of an index, but why bother? Some books were meant to be chewed and digested, some were meant to be tossed.

This is a well-written account of Herbert Hart's extensive experience in the world of investing and how it has worked for him. This is not a long book, one can finish it in one session. It is very readable, and very funny. Mr. Hart's sense of humor shines through almost every other sentence. He captures the attention of even the most easily bored reader.

The book is also an excellent guideline for how to invest your money, even when you need to start small, as most of us do. I am sending it to my 23-year old son, and I hope he will follow Mr. Hart's wise counsel from the beginning, - including his tips on how to be frugal. As for me, I am going to revise my portfolio to follow Mr. Hart's system more closely. It has worked for him!