r/valueinvesting
Honest and ethical companies should be prioritized
Prioritize ethical firms like Berkshire Hathaway where management avoids self-serving stock hype, unlike peers promoting personal interests.
- Management integrity serves as a strong moat, reducing agency costs and aligning leadership interests with long-term shareholder value.
- Companies with steady earnings do not need aggressive promotional campaigns, indicating robust fundamental business health.
- Buffett's candid admission when Berkshire is 'not cheap' demonstrates transparency and capital discipline, protecting investors from overpaying.
Honestly, we should think about why Trump and Jensen publicly recommend stocks that are beneficial to them, while Buffett never asked anyone to buy Berkshire, and he sometimes says Berkshire is not cheap. An honest manager would not do such unethical action. The companies that earn a lot steadily would not need their management team to hype or promote their products.
Let me present deontology (the action is inherently bad, regardless of the outcome) versus teleology (the action is morally right if it produces a good outcome). The OP is taking a strict deontological stance. But from a teleology perspective: if Jensen pumping his partners' share prices accelerates AI that eventually feeds starving children in Africa, then the hype is morally justified. We don't know his ultimate objective, so we can't judge the ethics purely on the act of promotion. Note: I don't think he is pumping AI hype to feed starving children in Africa - but purely judging from a deontological perspective is in my opinion oversimplifying it.
By that logic if we enslave 1 million people to work for these AI companies to get to AGI faster, saving more than 1 million lives in the long term, that's moral. Teleology can be trivially used to justify authoritarianism, slavery, and many other evil things.
That is certainly a way to frame teleology in a bad way - but you can also frame deontology in a bad way. Most people (including me) are not strictly deontologists or teleologists.
Some environmentalists are protesting a lithium mine in Serbia (the Jadar mine); because they inherently believe that doing damage to the environment is bad (deontology). The result is though, that the lithium supply is now gonna come from South America where the environmental regulation is less (and biodiversity bigger). Is it okay to harm the environment in one place, If it means less overall harm to the planet? Teleology would say so.
Ethics and morality are complex topics. Note, deontology can also be used to justify not acting against authoritarianism, slavery, and many other evil things.
we should regulate access to keyboards
Bots don't need keyboards
Is it manipulation if it's true? Would it be better if they did insider trading instead?
Now its public knowledge. Do with it what you will.
Every company has good people and bad people. It’s one of the reasons I don’t boycott.
Ummmm…. Moody’s and S&P Global facilitated the Great Recession. Their unethical behavior nearly destroyed the entire world.
Warren Buffet was never caught up in any scandals. Oh. Wait.
How do you know? If you know these are lies, it makes sense to short the stock.
I fully understand what you are saying, but honest and ethical companies are, over the longer term, usually prioritized. The bad eggs and capital destroyers are discovered and punished - it may take years.
As Buffett said, the market is a voting machine in the short term and a weighing machine in the long term. I don't worry about what others are doing - I (try) to buy good businesses and hold onto them.
Dell was a loser for YEARS. They didn't just startup in 2024.
Rolls Royce and chill
What was his motivation for appearing on TV for decades?
To be fair after a certain point in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett knew that people would buy the stocks that he bought. If he never agreed to appear on TV I would agree with you, however he did interviews throughout his career on an almost monthly occurrence.
Honestly I think if Buffett was born in the 90s he would be another YouTube investor.
LOL. Nice. Don't forget to buy alcohol, tobacco and firearms stocks 😃
Others following the wrong side doesn't mean you have to join them. Do what is correct and act right.
Missing the boat