IBJ Articles

Debt ceiling brinksmanship the ‘Sword of Damocles’ for investors Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / May 19, 2023 In an ancient moral parable, the Roman philosopher Cicero told the tale of Dionysius II, a tyrannical king, and his court jester Damocles who commented on the blissful, carefree life [...]

Behavioral finance biases can destroy NFL Draft, investor returns Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / April 28, 2023 The NFL Draft and securities markets both provide researchers with huge amounts of data for analyzing “judgement under uncertainty” and “decision under risk.”  Research leads to understanding how NFL general [...]

SVB’s collapse illustrates fragility of banking’s “confidence game” Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / March 31, 2023 A bank takes money from depositors, who are paid interest for delaying spending.  The bank then lends these funds to borrowers, who pay interest for accelerating spending.  The bank profits on the spread. [...]

Microsoft’s ‘Sydney’ chatbot personifies Musk’s warning; “AI is far more dangerous than nukes” Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / March 3, 2023 The concept of “artificial intelligence” or “AI” was born in 1950 when English mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turning introduced the “Turing Test” to determine a [...]

Year after ‘Crypto Bowl,’ dominoes fall as former titans bite the dust Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / February 3, 2023 Back in the halcyon days of November 2021, cryptocurrencies (and other speculative “investments” like “meme” stocks, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF) soared [...]

COVID put “Globalization” in ICU and Putin pulled the plug; now what? Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / January 13, 2023 The following is an excerpt from Kirr, Marbach & Co.’s fourth-quarter client letter, available here. The seeds of the second great age of globalization were sown more [...]

Investors court “TARA” following messy divorce from “TINA” Mickey Kim and Roger Lee / November 25, 2022 Kirr, Marbach has been fortunate to have Roger Lee, CFA, CPA as a Senior Research Analyst for the past six years.  Roger is an exceptionally bright individual and shares my [...]

“Buy the dip,” but beware of tax pitfalls Mickey Kim / November 4, 2022 Bespoke Investment Group reported as of the end of September, “the Fed’s crusade against inflation resulted in a record destruction of wealth in dollar terms and an extremely large drawdown in percentage terms.”  The [...]

Market, economic storms are inevitable--so are bold, unreliable forecasts Mickey Kim / October 7, 2022 The financial markets and economy have been hit by their own metaphorical Hurricane Ian in 2022.  Stocks are firmly in “bear market” territory (down more than 20%).  Bonds, historically considered “safe” investments, have [...]

Why “free” is the most dangerous word in investing Mickey Kim / September 9, 2022 There are a number of words/phrases used to pitch investment products that are “red flags” and should cause you to “raise your antenna” and activate your “BS detector.”  These would include “bulletproof,” “guaranteed,” [...]