Today’s guest is Scott Reynolds Nelson, the author of Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World, and a Professor at the University of Georgia, where he teaches about international finance and global commodities.
Given current events today, our conversation with Scott about the role of wheat on the world couldn’t be more timely. Scott shares why access to wheat has caused the rise and fall of empires, social unrest like the Arab spring, and even plagues, all of which we’re seeing today. Scott walks through why he believes the Russia / Ukraine war is another example of countries going to war for access to wheat and the related trade routes.
As we wind down, we touch on Scott’s research into the history of US financial crises and the role of commodities in each.
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This episode is sponsored by AcreTrader. AcreTrader is an investment platform that makes it simple to own shares of farmland and earn passive income, and you can start investing in just minutes online. For more information, please visit acretrader.com/meb.
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Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com
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Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. 
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Scott Reynolds Nelson – How Wheat Made The Modern World | #431

Ready to grow your wealth through smarter investing decisions? With The Meb Faber Show, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and investment fund manager, Meb Faber, brings you insights on today’s markets and the art of investing.

Featuring some of the top investment professionals in the world as his guests, Meb will help you interpret global equity, bond, and commodity markets just like the pros. Whether it’s smart beta, trend following, value investing, or any other timely market topic, each week you’ll hear real market wisdom from the smartest minds in investing today. Better investing starts here.

For more information on Meb, please visit MebFaber.com. For more on Cambria Investment Management, visit CambriaInvestments.com.

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In today’s episode, Meb reads a white paper, “T-Bills and Chill…Most of the Time.”
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To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list. 
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Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com
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Sponsor: Today's episode is sponsored by YCharts. YCharts enables financial advisors to make smarter investment decisions and better communicate with clients. Visit YCharts to start your free trial and be sure to mention "Meb" for 20% off your subscription (new clients only).
Sponsor: Today’s episode is sponsored by The Idea Farm. The Idea Farm gives you access to over $100,000 worth of investing research, the kind usually read by only the world’s largest institutions, funds, and money managers. Subscribe for free here.
Follow The Idea Farm: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tik Tok
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Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com
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Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. 
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Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here! 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MEBISODE: T-Bills and Chill…Most of the Time | #528

Today’s guest is Cliff Asness, co-founder, managing principal and Chief Investment Officer at AQR Capital Management. 
In today’s episode, Cliff & I start by talking about some quotes he may or may not have said in the past. Then we kick around a bunch of topics. We talk about diversifying by both asset class and geography, the challenge of managing short-term expectations while keeping a long-term perspective, and how AQR is implementing AI and machine learning in their investment process. 
(1:20) - Welcome to our guest, Cliff Asness
(1:45) - Cliff’s article in the Financial Times
(2:30) - Parsing Cliff’s real quotes from fake ones
(8:56) - Thoughts on bonds as a diversifier
(13:37) - Moving away from market-cap weighting
(19:27) - Managing client expectations
(29:30) - AQR Data Sets
(29:56) - Alternative trend-following
(43:48) - Position resizing for alternative strategies
(48:06) - AQR implementing AI in their investment process
(51:46) - Cliff’s most controversial opinion
(57:39) - Cliff’s most memorable investment
Learn more about Cliff: AQR; Twitter
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Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
For detailed show notes, click here
To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com
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Sponsor: Today’s episode is sponsored by The Idea Farm. The Idea Farm gives you access to over $100,000 worth of investing research, the kind usually read by only the world’s largest institutions, funds, and money managers. Subscribe for free here.
Follow The Idea Farm: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tik Tok
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Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com
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Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. 
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Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here! 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cliff Asness: Timely & Timeless Investment Wisdom | #527

Today’s guest is Steve Edmundson, the Chief Investment Officer of the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada, which manages over $60 billion.
As pension funds continue to hire more employees, pay more and more fees and build more complex portfolios, Steve is an outlier for his approach that emphasizes simplicity over complexity. He’s one of two investment professionals on staff and has indexed 100% of all publicly traded asset classes. I love it! 
Steve talks about the culture that allows this model to work and shares some thoughts on the rise of private markets and the impact of higher interest rates.
The late Jack Bogle had a quote that applies well to Steve & Nevada PERS: “Don’t do something, just stand there!”
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Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
For detailed show notes, click here
To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com
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Sponsor: Today's episode is sponsored by YCharts. YCharts enables financial advisors to make smarter investment decisions and better communicate with clients. Visit YCharts to start your free trial and be sure to mention "Meb" for 20% off your subscription (new clients only). Read their 2024 Advisor-Client Communication Survey
Sponsor: Today’s episode is sponsored by The Idea Farm. The Idea Farm gives you access to over $100,000 worth of investing research, the kind usually read by only the world’s largest institutions, funds, and money managers. Subscribe for free here.
Follow The Idea Farm: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tik Tok
-----
Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com
-----
Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. 
-----
Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Indexing Nevada PERS: Steve Edmundson’s $60 Billion Strategy | #527

In today’s episode, Meb reads his blog post, “Should CalPERS Fire Everyone And Just Buy Some ETFs?.” 
Resource: What Does Nevada’s $35 Billion Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing
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Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list. 
-----
Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com
-----
Sponsor: Today's episode is sponsored by YCharts. YCharts enables financial advisors to make smarter investment decisions and better communicate with clients. Visit YCharts to start your free trial and be sure to mention "Meb" for 20% off your subscription (new clients only). Read their 2024 Advisor-Client Communication Survey
Sponsor: Today’s episode is sponsored by The Idea Farm. The Idea Farm gives you access to over $100,000 worth of investing research, the kind usually read by only the world’s largest institutions, funds, and money managers. Subscribe for free here.
Follow The Idea Farm: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tik Tok
-----
Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com
-----
Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. 
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Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here! 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MEBISODE: Should CalPERS Fire Everyone And Just Buy Some ETFs? | #526

Today’s guests are Peter Atwater and Grant Williams, two guys that have known each other for a decade. Peter is a professor and author of The Confidence Map: Charting a Path from Chaos to Clarity. Grant is the author of the newsletter Things That Make you Go Hmmm… and host of The Grant Williams Podcast. He was also a co-founder of Real Vision.
Today’s episode is a masterclass in how to analyze market sentiment, which seems particularly timely given how the market has been lately. Peter shares his framework for looking at the world through the lens of certainty and control and how that drives consumer confidence. Then he and Grant kick around a bunch of topics, including the relationship between natural gas and Nvidia, Elon Musk and the velvet rope economy, gold and Bitcoin, the opportunity in Japan, and much, much more.

(1:40) - Welcome to our guests, Peter Atwater and Grant Williams

(2:28) - Confidence and vulnerability’s role in financial market

(6:18) - Elon Musk 0 - 60mph Tweet


(10:21) - Peter’s take on natural gas and Nvidia

(13:17) - Class versus wealth

(17:30) - Thoughts on gold and Bitcoin

(22:38) - The world of luxury

(28:43) - The UK stock market

(33:10) - Why Grant is excited about the Japanese stock market

(37:14) - Who would Grant want to interview today?

(38:23) - Modern-Day Asset Management Business w/ Anthony Deden


(44:29) - Peter and Grant’s most controversial opinions

(48:59) - Peter and Grant’s most memorable investments

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Follow Meb on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
For detailed show notes, click here
To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com
-----
Sponsor: Today’s episode is sponsored by The Idea Farm. The Idea Farm gives you access to over $100,000 worth of investing research, the kind usually read by only the world’s largest institutions, funds, and money managers. Subscribe for free here.
Follow The Idea Farm: Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tik Tok
-----
Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com
-----
Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. 
-----
Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott Reynolds Nelson – How Wheat Made The Modern World | #431

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