The other investment strategy was to be the ultimate provider of capital during financial crises. In both cases, it was a "take it or leave it, one and done" offer with no negotiation. I think that must evolve. There's too much capital availability now to just wait.

This is one I’ve been thinking about the last couple months. There is just so much capital sloshing around these days looking for a home that “bargains” are as rare as a politician with a good reputation. By the time something gets even close it’s snapped up by desperate capital looking for that extra tenth of a point. While bargain hunting has always been hard, it’s never been like this, I bet.

Add to that the idea that those “wholly owned family firms” just aren’t big enough to move the needle these days (a couple of obvious exceptions exist, but remarkably fewer than earlier), and if they are there are lots of firms which promise not to strip the place for assets and fire everybody - even if that’s untrue - that the universe of those kinds of acquisitions gets smaller with every passing year.

Yes, I don’t know what an “old time” investment house is to do in these times of hot money and flash trading and pico-second fiber lines and AI algorithms, although I’m sure enough that there’s still a place for honest, competent stewards of my money, even if they have to duck and weave among all the new obstacles that a changed economy throws at them. And if I’m wrong, well, I won’t worry that I will be robbed, just that I might not have made that extra 10-large at the end of my life when I don’t need it anyway.