A week ago I posted about John Maynard Keynes' impressive track record managing money for Kings College and two insurance companies. Then I saw a short book review (scroll down to the bottom) in Barron's of a new book about Keynes and his less well known success investing.
Keynes and the Market: How the Worlds Greatest Economist Overturned Conventional Wisdom and Made a Fortune on the Stock Market
is written by Justyn Walsh. Those of us with libertarian leanings will bristle at that "World's Greatest Economist" part but, like I said before, Keynes' success managing money is a separate category.
As Jay Palmer writes in his Barron's review:
Walsh's book offers an intriguing glimpse of this facet of Keynes, the
shrewd fund manager. There are lessons here, basic lessons, that
investors would do well to heed in today's world.
This from the book's inside flap (found on Amazon):
The author reveals how, after twice being brought to the precipice of
financial ruin as a result of financial speculation, Keynes developed
the investment principles that would win him singular stock market
success. He completely inverted his investment philosophy, switching
from short-term speculator to a long-term investor—one who seeks to
profit from pendulum swings in the market rather than participating in
them. By effecting this transformation, Keynes became one of the
world's first value investors, the forefather of a long line of
venerable and highly successful stock market practitioners such as
Warren Buffett and Sir John Templeton.
My memory may be wrong, but I think Buffett has said good things about Keynes' letters to shareholders of the investment companies he managed portfolios for. I wonder if any are incorporated throughout the text, or in an appendix. I'll look for this book next time I'm in a bookstore.
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