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Charles Patterson, CFA January 7, 2026 Will Venezuela return to its former glory days now? Do such days even exist? When viewed through historical data, the picture isn’t clear. The path ahead appears more difficult and the challenges more endemic than might seem evident at first glance. Venezuela has a long history of currency controls and multiple exchange rates, with parallel rates transacted on the streets of Caracas at times wholly disconnected from official rates. This

"It's Mental Toughness Day" - Mr. Libro Deep Lessons from Middle School on Life's Absurd Nature Ryan Floyd April 30, 2025 My sixth-grade social studies teacher, Mr. Libro (name changed) taught the best lesson, which I hated: the world just isn’t fair, and sometimes it’s completely absurd. And you just have to deal with it, even if you are just in a middle school classroom. For the entire sixth-grade year in social studies, we had three teams in class for the great game calle

Robert Caro on Reading: It Doesn't Go Out of Style Lessons from Al Smith, Lady Bird Johnson, and Coke Stevenson Ryan Floyd March 10, 2025 Robert Caro ostensibly wrote his massive books to “show how power works,” as he has stated in many interviews. Beneath his lessons on power—how it’s built, wielded, and lost—runs a quieter, enduring theme: the art of learning. These days, there’s plenty of debate about education and growing up. In an age of Netflix, ChatGPT, YouTube, and Ti

A man cautiously follows his nose. Ryan Floyd Feb 28, 2025 I’m not sure what law this is in business, but I’ll make one up: Follow your nose. ---- I like making giant stews and soups in the winter. When I lived in Mumbai, I cooked dal and rice with a pressure cooker daily. I loved that thing. For some reason, when I moved back to America, I could never quite find a pressure cooker as good. Sadly, my pressure cooker skills fell into disrepair, and I spent time trying to figure

AI and the Humble Calculator: a Historical Perspective Insights from my two software engineer parents Ryan Floyd Feb 19, 2025 It’s common these days to compare AI to a calculator—a tool that helps us accomplish tasks. I’ve wondered: were people worried when calculators became widespread that students would stop learning math? So I asked my parents for their perspective. My parents aren’t worriers, but they also aren’t naïve. I would characterize their perspective—and probably

Yale’s Tuition Is Now Lower Than in 1934... ...when Priced in Gold Ryan Floyd Jan 17, 2025 A friend once told me: my interest in gold prices marked me as a “man of a certain age.” One of my nicknames in college was “Old Man Floyd,” so maybe I’ve always been this way. I don’t own gold, and I’m not pushing a gold-standard agenda. I noticed something odd. Tuition at Yale has climbed from $475 per student in 1934 to $67,000 today. But when priced in gold, it’s about the same and

A Man's Journey to Improve Online Image Ends in Seasickness Identity and AI Ryan Floyd Dec 14, 2024 I received some tough feedback the other day: “Your website is sketchy. It looks like you’re smuggling bitcoin.” Well, I’m not doing that, whatever that means. I help manage a thoroughly above-board business that follows all rules and regulations, abiding by high ethical standards. (Although I’ll admit, having to state that so plainly raises more questions than it answers.) Sti

“Drop it like it’s Hot.” -Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr Ryan Floyd Sep 25, 2024 I enjoyed watching the summer Olympics in Paris with Snoop Dogg as the commentator. I found myself smiling and watching badminton like never before with his lines like this: “They rollin, back and forth, give me that, no I need that, no over here, no over there, what about over there, nope, what about over there, no, give me that.” He was making every grandparent in the country happy too, even the on

On Working with Jonathan Auerbach (1942-2012), a Tribute Ryan Floyd Sep 20, 2024 At a mere 23 years old, newly engaged, I spoke to Jonathan Auerbach on the phone and eventually in his offices in New York. I didn’t know much about finance or investing, or the difference between the income statement and the statement of cash flows. But he and David Grayson were willing to hire me and give me a remarkable chance in life. Backing up, I had been working in Mumbai for Mahindra and

Reflections on a recent trip to Mumbai after many years Ryan Floyd May 24, 2024 I recently traveled to India for the first time since before Covid. I lived there from 2003 to 2005 and have visited several times since. This trip was a revelation, showing how much the country—and I—have changed over the past twenty years. I moved to Mumbai after a brief stint taking Hindi classes post-college some twenty years ago. I learned a formal style of Hindi, more common in the North, us

...even when those words were made up in the first place Ryan Floyd Feb 15, 2024 “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.” -Confucius, The Analects, Chapter 13 “Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, spe

"Don't have a corporate presentation with a black background" and other tips Ryan Floyd Feb 09, 2024 Over the last 20 years seeking to do business in almost every corner of the world, many corporate managers have asked me how their business can emerge from so-called “orphan” status and engage with the world (including one who wrote me today!). In response, I am providing a list of tips here that any company, regardless of size or location, could use to emerge from orphan stat

A Tribute Ryan Floyd Dec 20, 2023 Charles Hill took life and ideas seriously and encouraged me to do the same. He taught me in Yale’s freshman program in the classics and later grand strategy between 1999- 2003. In his hands, historians like Thucydides and philosophers like Rousseau and Burke helped us understand our current world and weren’t just old authors. He told stories about the ways great books provided insight into the world from his own experience in China, Vietnam,

Lessons from two American Civil War Generals Ryan Floyd Dec 16, 2022 I recently heard the maxim: “Everyone’s a value investor until stocks are cheap.” The joke suggests that investors are eager for low-priced assets during calm times but adjust their models downward once stocks decline so the assets no longer look attractive. Armed with worse financial figures, investors can freeze or, worse, sell at the wrong time. Even during times of chaos, a person’s actions matter. I oft

Ryan Floyd November 23, 2021 Comments on owning faster-growing businesses A company that grows topline for five years by 35% above inflation versus one that grows by 20% justifies a very different valuation, although 20% is excellent by any standard. As the world digests the probability of these different future paths, stock prices can swing around a lot. I realize this sounds obvious. In many ways, I am doing some of the best due diligence work of my life, triangulating data

Ryan Floyd June 06, 2015 A Letter from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania I thought I would reach out with some thoughts from my trip through Mozambique and Tanzania. Forgive some typos. I’m sending it from my hotel room. The banks in these markets can’t stop talking about mobile money, phone-based lending, and mobile wallets. I think that the retail lending industry in developing countries is going to go through a major shake up in the next ten years if not earlier. You have probably r

Ryan Floyd December 04, 2014 I noticed that accomplished athletes’ performance metrics also exhibit wide variations in their frequency distributions. Like Derek Jeter. Jeter clearly has skill—as anyone can tell by watching him play—and has a very high number of bases per game. On the left, you can see the bases per game over time; but I don’t see any trends indicating whether he was playing well or poorly at any given time. He had a handful of games with poor output: in one g

Ryan Floyd March 8, 2013 I took a trip to Peru in September of 2012 to research one of our holdings and dig a bit more deeply into the country's history and culture. I met up with one of my best friends who lived in Cuzco from 2006-2007. He wrote the definitive biography of Hiram Bingham—the American who “rediscovered” Machu Picchu—and now lives in Lima doing research on his dissertation on the history of grave robbing. Peru has experienced a different trajectory than other L

October 9, 2012 Ryan Floyd I have been thinking a lot about how I can improve as an investor. I read Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow with interest, particularly where he mentions the importance of frequent feedback. He states that people can improve on a skill when they receive frequent feedback but can say in stasis or actually get worse at a skill when the feedback loop is long as in our industry. The comparison makes me remember my middle school days of video game

Serge Gainsbourg at 5 am in Lagos and Observations on a Country Growing Rapidly Ryan Floyd Sept 11, 2012 After an overnight flight from London to Lagos, I refueled at my hotel’s restaurant for coffee and breakfast at six in the morning. The restaurant's speakers played Serge Gainsbourg's great, breathy, sensual and inappropriate "Je T'aime, Moi Non Plus" on repeat without the staff caring or noticing. I headed out for some meetings with various companies listed on the stock e