Guggenheim's Minerd Muscles Think-Slow Strategy to $260 Billion

I’m afraid I erred a bit in my fact checking yesterday when I looked up why April 16^th was a holiday (being observed this year on Monday the 17^th) and thus our tax deadline this year is the 18^th rather than today as it usually is.  I only saw that the 16^th was some obscure holiday called District of Columbia Emancipation Day and recalled from news in years past that there was considerable controversy surrounding the fact that D.C., not being a state, had always been denied representation in the Congress.  I wrongly assumed that had been corrected and that the holiday celebrated that correction. 

Frankly I did not even consider the possibility that this might have something to do with Lincoln’s emancipation of the slaves since, why would we only be celebrating that historic event for D.C. and not nationwide.  So I published last night’s post without looking further.  Upon further study today, I discovered a different story. 

Tomorrow’s D.C. Emancipation Day is indeed a product of the Civil War era.  Evidently after the Emancipation Proclamation in which the government had provided for compensation to slave owners for their lost “property,” in D.C. this compensation applied only to whites suing the government for loss of rights, not to blacks doing the same.  So Lincoln signed another bill extending the right to suing the government to blacks as well, and this bill was known as the D.C. Emancipation Act.  The holiday has nothing to do with the residents of the District of Columbia finally being recognized as having the same rights as other U.S. citizens and being given representation.  In fact, residents of D.C. have still not been given representation. 

Our extended tax holiday this year is due not to a 21^st century injustice but rather a 19^th century one.  So enjoy the Easter weekend and the extra three days we have to file our taxes.  

Getting back to investments, this weekend’s reading is an article from Bloomberg Markets about a maverick fund manager named Scott Minerd at Guggenheim who is outperforming the market using unconventional approaches like, of all things, bodybuilding, scripture, and slow-thinking.  It may be worth a look since we’re always interested in the unconventional and certainly in out-performance. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter.  

Guggenheim's Minerd Muscles Think-Slow Strategy to $260 Billion - Bloomberg