Sample Issue 2026 Resources
1. By far the most powerful item of periodical literature posted this summer—and the one we should send to all clients and prospects immediately—is the essay “The Big Secret to Long-Term Investment Success” by Morningstar's Daniel Sotiroff. It's essentially a paean to long-term optimism, with a ringing conclusion. “The most catastrophic disruptions are those we never saw coming. All those events tend to wash out over multiple decades. The secret to long-term investment success comes down to tapping into…long-term economic growth in the most cost-effective way possible. It also requires staying put when the inevitable downturns unfold (emphasis added).” This is our entire philosophy; sometimes our clients just need to hear it from somebody else.
2. Americans' view of “capitalism” continues to deteriorate, according to a recent Gallup poll—while their belief in “small business” and “free enterprise” remains very high. (This supports the late Daniel Kahneman's concept of “thinking fast,” the human capacity to hold ideas both intuitive and contradictory at the same time.) We Spartans, who hold capitalism to be our foundational truth, are thus having to row upstream that much more strenuously. The shortest, strongest and most profound elucidation of the subject is Roger Lowenstein's September 1 WSJ essay “How—and Why—U.S. Capitalism Is Unlike Any Other.” It's simply the best thing of its kind I've ever read, and a must-read for all of us. It should be sent out of the blue—quite unconnected to any other content—to all our clients and prospects. See the quick summary nearby.
3.A tremendous amount of silliness is written and spoken by “industry consultants” on the subject of how an advisor may, and I quote, “differentiate” himself/herself. Leave it to a genuinely successful toiler in our real-world vineyard to state and rigorously advance the thesis that the ultimate differentiation is I refer to our mutual friend David Bahnsen's August 21 posting in his B2Bahnsen series, “How Can an Advisor Truly Differentiate?” Not to be missed.
4. Our clients should see this under-two-minute YouTube clip from David Rubinstein's interview with Chris Davis. Mr. Rubinstein, as is his wont, wastes the first 40 seconds with a question that could have been asked in half that time or less. This has the effect of making Chris's wonderful response even more powerful, to wit: “An advisor who can modify your behavior is one of the most important investments you make.”
5. To me, the two great underreported stories so far this year have been profit margins—which continue to expand despite inflation and tariffs—and a steady acceleration in labor productivity. “Creating more goods and services per hour of work,” the WSJ's James Freeman reminds us, “is the path to higher wages and rising living standards.” See (and circulate) Mr. Freeman's pithy note from August 7.