In his newest commentary, Kopernik’s CIO Dave Iben draws inspiration from Robert Plant and the deserts of Morocco to discuss the Fed’s printing press, the Cantillon effect, and the value Kopernik is finding in scarce, undervalued, useful assets.
With so much anxiety about the current euphoria in the market, we thought it was a good time to send out a little stocking stuffer with some of our thoughts. In a nutshell, we reach back into Greek mythology to explain why we believe that people are buying great companies but at the wrong prices. Of course, some are buying hopes and dreams at ridiculous prices as well, but that is a story for another time. More importantly, in our opinion, the real-money making opportunities lie elsewhere. This gives us hope as 2020 merges into 2021. Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Our most recent commentary explores why the "Big Brother" interpretation of the British post-punk band XTC's song "Making Plans for Nigel" reminds us of the inevitable increase in angst that is being felt, in no small part due to a decade of QE monetary policy. One can only imagine what will eventually be felt as a consequence of QE-infinity. We discuss how our current era of palpable angst is similar to that of the late 1970s, which was the cyclical end of a period of high inflation, of big government, and the bull market in commodities while also the beginning of a super cycle in stocks and bonds. While the current era is likely another major inflection point in the markets and the end of all those cycles, the silver lining is that the valuation divide between expensive and attractively-priced stocks has probably never been this wide, making it a great time to be a bottom-up, value-conscious investor.
In our latest commentary, we look back to the great Jack London novel The Call of The Wild as a parallel to the herd mentality dominating the current investment environment. Following a dozen years of post-Global Financial Crisis policy designed to transfer wealth from financial assets to real assets, investors who are operating in panic mode are buying and selling the wrong assets. This has created incredibly cheap buying opportunities and, with that, a favorable environment for value investors.
In our most recent commentary, we pay homage to the 1960’s by contrasting our current environment to that of a mere half-century ago; it was a period when Wall Street saw only good things while Main Street saw turmoil and change. We view 2019 as arguably a supercharged version of the late 1960’s, which can serve as a guide and an excellent source of instruction on how to successfully navigate the current investment environment.
In his latest commentary, Kopernik analyst and co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy Mark McKinney uses Thomas Sowell’s classic question “At what cost?” to articulate potential unintended consequences of finding solutions to current economic challenges.
As a follow up to his last commentary, Kopernik Analyst and Co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy Mark McKinney furthers the discussion that “help” from the government will create more economic harm than benefit, specifically as it relates to inflation.
In his latest commentary, Kopernik Analyst and Co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy Mark McKinney describes how the “help” from economic policymakers and government officials has historically and will continue in the future to create more harm than benefit economically and societally.
In his latest commentary, Analyst and Portfolio Manager Mark McKinney discusses the rise of a new group of believers in the omnipotent power of the government and central banks, affectionately nicknamed “Fed Bugs,” who believe that printing more money will solve society’s problems. He argues that these Fed Bugs are missing the point: economic logic always wins in the long run.
In this white paper, Kopernik’s Investment Research team analyzes the potential risks and upsides of investing in the mining space and describes how Kopernik values mining companies.
In this update of our 2017 white paper, analyst Steve Rosenthal discusses Kopernik’s perspective on uranium, its unique properties, and the global opportunities Kopernik is currently seeing in the industry.
Our CIO Dave Iben was recently interviewed by The Wall Street Transcript, where he discussed Kopernik’s investment philosophy and why companies in emerging markets are compelling for investors looking to construct a more diversified portfolio. Read the full interview here.
Update on Russia/Ukraine Exposures (as of August 2, 2022)
Thoughts on the Ukrainian Situation (as of February 24, 2022)
David Iben, CIO & Lead Portfolio Manager and Alissa Corcoran, Deputy CIO & Director of Research discuss the investment implications of the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
Presentation: Investment Implications – Russia/Ukraine Conflict Presentation
Video Replay: Kopernik Global Investors | Investment Implications - Russia/Ukraine Conflict (Vimeo)
Transcript: Edited Transcript of Investment Implications - Russia/Ukraine Conflict
Note, the discussion took place on Friday, February 25, 2022 at 11 am ET. We continue to monitor developments related to the Russia/Ukraine Conflict.
Recently, Kopernik CIO Dave Iben spoke with Institutional Investor for a deep dive on the importance of investing in emerging markets—including Ukraine and Russia—and discussed where exactly to find opportunities in Eastern Europe. Read Dave’s full interview here.
Kopernik's CIO Dave Iben spoke to the Financial Times about why Russian assets still hold value, even in the wake of the war with Ukraine. Read the full feature on the Financial Times website here (Requires login)
