A lot of the time, the findings that go into financial studies and the rest are actually based on quite short data sets in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps 200 years max of good data. That means some of the investing truths we take for granted can rightly be called into question from time to time as conditions change. One bit of news that caught my eye over the weekend was that Warren Buffett has apparently invested more than half a billion dollars into Barrick, one of the world’s largest gold miners, while selling down holdings in banks such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs. Here’s what Buffett (allegedly) said about gold in a speech at Harvard in 1998: Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head. It seems like that stance has changed slightly. Another quote that is tricky to attribute: ‘When the facts change, I change my mind - what do...
