Introduction

Most people are no doubt somewhat familiar with the Pew Research Center, which claims to be a “nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world”. Moreover, the Pew Research Center claims to be agnostic with respect to public policy, not taking a position on public policy at all. In this debate, I will argue that these claims by the Pew Research Center are misleading, that it is deeply rooted in Evangelical Christianity, and that its religious orientation biases not only its choice in what to research, but how it conducts its research, and what findings it hopes to elucidate.

History - The Pew Charitable Trusts

But first, a history lesson (or two). The Pew Research Center began life as a legitimate research organization – the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press – in 1990. The goal of the organization was to conduct opinion polls and to make their findings available to the press so they could report on how well (or how poorly) government policies aligned with the will of the people. While one might question how apolitical an opinion polling organization can really be when its primary funding source is a media organization, this isn’t the subject of the present debate. In 1996, and for reasons that are not entirely clear, the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press came under new management by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which among other things, funds The Gospel and Our Culture Network (source). The Gospel and Our Culture Network describes itself as “a network to provide useful research regarding the encounter between the gospel and our culture, and to encourage local action for transformation in the life and witness of the church” (source). That Pew Charitable Trusts would provide funding for an overtly religious organization is consistent with the history of the organization. Joseph Newton Pew, who began the family’s fortune after having founded the Sun Oil Company, was a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Republican Party (source). The Sun Oil Company is today known as Peoples Natural Gas and does not appear to be a part of the family’s portfolio of holdings. Moreover, The Pew Charitable Trusts has expressed great concern over the environmental impact of fossil fuels, as well as oil

Hi all, Greetings from London.

I am reposting this post of mine from months ago to lift some spirits today.

Sir John Templeton: In 1939, at the outbreak of WWII and conflict in Europe; the stock market sunk. Sir John Templeton seized the opportunity of the uncertainty & fear in the markets. He bought 100 shares of every stock selling less than a dollar. He held all the stocks (even the ones facing bankruptcy); and when life returned back to normal: he made 400% in four years!

Holding stocks that are declining feels very counter-intuitive, uncomfortable & depressing.

(1) Focus on the business value - and leave anxieties about news updates & headlines, future outlook and trends to other investors. The daily churn of gloomy/downcast media front page headlines can be overwhelming. But, Baba is buying back $15B in stock, spending billions of dollars buying businesses for years; expanding & reinvesting into their business. They got their huge $2B fine and a much smaller one recently. As someone mentioned on a different thread, Didi was a listing that should never have happened. China is bringing in regulations - they are not going to unwind their own tech empire and return to the halcyon days of farming.

(2) Think differently to the crowds - If you want superior returns and performance, you must think differently to the crowds. This is why following trends and reacting to speculative news items and commentary is futile. For that reason, I think technical analysis provides such a limiting bounded view. Instead, look to buying stocks below some concept of their intrinsic value. Ask yourself - objectively - whether the Chinese state really intends to divorce itself from international capitalism? And how much of that is hysterics - such as the education sector.

(3) Sunny weather tomorrow - In one year, the news and everyone will forget what's happening today and the stock will move up. In 2008, everyone was thinking that US is totally doomed and the world financial system was collapsing - but it very quickly recovered. It can sometimes seem like End-of-Days but life goes on and everything returns to normal. The Stock Market Crash 2020 must have seemed like the end-of-the-world.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/may/francis-collins-nih-wins-templeton-prize-biologos-genome.html

“I think of God as the greatest scientist. We human scientists have an opportunity to understand the elegance and wisdom of God’s creation in a way that is truly exhilarating. When a scientist discovers something that no human knew before, but God did—that is both an occasion for scientific excitement and, for a believer, also an occasion for worship.”

• Francis Collins, 2001 (an excerpt from the CT May 2020 article I linked above)

“[Evolution] may seem to us like a slow, inefficient, and even random process, but to God—who's not limited by space or time—it all came together in the blink of an eye. And for us who have been given the gift of intelligence and the ability to appreciate the wonders of the natural world that he created, to have now learned about this evolutionary creative process is a source of awe and wonder. I find these discoveries are completely compatible with everything I know about God through the Scriptures.”

• Francis Collins, CT January 2007

I think that it would realistically end up being something similar but just with better topics, but I would love to see them explore Presidential Debate or something.

John Templeton was among the greatest investors and investment managers of the 20th century. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 95. He became known for rather contrarian views, which included not following the crowd and buying after major market declines.

“If you want to have a better performance than the crowd, you must do things differently from the crowd,” Templeton once stated. Since there are superior performers in the market, it means that there are plenty of underperformers at the same time. But unlike short-term trading, which is a zero-sum game (one gains at the expense of the other), when it comes to investing, many participants benefit from rising markets. Still, following the crowd brings mediocre results. At times, following the hype a crowd has bought can lead to financial ruin.

“Focus on value because most investors focus on outlooks and trends” is one of Templeton’s maxims. Watching trends can be profitable, especially for experienced traders and investors. Technical analysis, which includes looking at past trends, is one of the tools. However, if everyone follows the same rules (such as buying at support and selling at resistance), it becomes very had to make profits. Also, looking at trends can lead to speculative mania and buying at the top just before the downfall. On the other hand, looking to buy stocks and other assets below their intrinsic values can be a very profitable strategy for those who are patient and have skills at finding out what the value is. One of the ways of finding it is with fundamental analysis...

Excerpt from The Educated Investor's Handbook: What You Need to Know First

Found this list online (credit to https://monevator.com/). This list is similar (though more about stock picking) to the earlier post on John Bogle's 12 Pillars of Investing.

1. For all long-term investors, there is only one objective: ‘maximum total real return after taxes.’

2. Achieving a good record takes much study and work, and is a lot harder than most people think.

3. It is impossible to produce a superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.

4. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.

5. To put ‘Maxim 4’ in somewhat different terms, in the stock market the only way to get a bargain is to buy what most investors are selling.

6. To buy when others are despondently selling and to sell what others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude, even while offering the greatest reward.

7. Bear markets have always been temporary. Share prices turn upward from one to twelve months before the bottom of the business cycle.

8. If a particular industry or type of security becomes popular with investors, that popularity will always prove temporary and, when lost, won’t return for many years.

9. In the long run, the stock market indexes fluctuate around the long-term upward trend of earnings per share.

10. In free-enterprise nations, the earnings on stock market indexes fluctuate around the book value of the shares of the index.

11. If you buy the same securities as other people, you will have the same results as other people.

12. The time to buy a stock is when the short-term owners have finished their selling, and the time to sell a stock is often when the short-term owners have finished their buying.

13. Share prices fluctuate more widely than values. Therefore, index funds will never produce the best total return performance.

14. Too many investors focus on ‘outlook’ and ‘trend’. Therefore, more profit is made by focusing on value.

15. If you search worldwide, you will find more bargains and better bargains than by studying only one nation. Also, you gain the safety of diversification.

16. The fluctuation of share prices is roughly proportional to the square root of the price.

17. The time to sell an asset is when you have found a much better bargain to replace it.

18. When any method for selecting stocks becomes popular, then switch to unpopular

Introduction

Most people are no doubt somewhat familiar with the Pew Research Center, with Sam often citing figures from Pew studies as though they were gospel truths. The Pew Research Center claims to be a “nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world”. Moreover, the Pew Research Center claims to be agnostic with respect to public policy, not taking a position on public policy at all. However, I will argue that these claims by the Pew Research Center are misleading, that it is deeply rooted in Evangelical Christianity, and that its religious orientation biases not only its choice in what to research, but how it conducts its research, and what findings it hopes to elucidate.

History - The Pew Charitable Trusts

But first, a history lesson (or two). The Pew Research Center began life as a legitimate research organization – the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press – in 1990. The goal of the organization was to conduct opinion polls and to make their findings available to the press so they could report on how well (or how poorly) government policies aligned with the will of the people. While one might question how apolitical an opinion polling organization can really be when its primary funding source is a media organization, this isn’t the subject of the present debate. In 1996, and for reasons that are not entirely clear, the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press came under new management by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which among other things, funds The Gospel and Our Culture Network (source). The Gospel and Our Culture Network describes itself as “a network to provide useful research regarding the encounter between the gospel and our culture, and to encourage local action for transformation in the life and witness of the church” (source). That Pew Charitable Trusts would provide funding for an overtly religious organization is consistent with the history of the organization. Joseph Newton Pew, who began the family’s fortune after having founded the Sun Oil Company, was a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Republican Party (source). The Sun Oil Company is today known as Peoples Natural Gas and does not appear to be a part of the family’s portfolio of holdings. Moreover, The Pew Charitable Trust

Hi all, Greetings from London.

Holding onto stocks that are declining feels very counter-intuitive and uncomfortable (if not depressing). But you need to focus on value and leave anxieties about news updates & headlines, future outlook and trends to other investors. The daily churn of gloomy/downcast media front page headlines can be overwhelming. Sure, I've have been muttering to myself : "President Xi Jinping .... Stop making speeches!!!".

But don't forget that if you want superior returns and performance, you must think differently to the crowds. This is why following trends and reacting to speculative news items and commentary is futile. For that reason, I think technical analysis provides such a limiting bounded view. Instead, look to buying stocks below some concept of their intrinsic value. Ask yourself - objectively - whether the Chinese state really intends to divorce itself from international capitalism? And how much of that is conspiracy theory / hysterics .

It can sometimes seem like End-of-Days but life goes on and everything returns to normal. The Stock Market Crash 2020 must have seemed like the end-of-the-world.

To illustrate this: In 1939, at the outbreak of WWII and conflict in Europe; the stock market sunk. Sir John Templeton seized the opportunity of the uncertainty & fear in the markets. He bought 100 shares of every stock selling less than a dollar. He held all the stocks (even the ones facing bankruptcy); and when life returned back to normal: he made 400% in four years!