HorizonKinetics

2026 New Year Letter from Our Founders Some clients have remarked on the private funds we’ve presented in recent years. Have we wandered from the value investing path? The answer is “the opposite.” Here's a deeper explanation, without character limits:  horizonkinetics.com/whats-new/

Our very own James Davolos joined the "Far From the Finishing Post" podcast to discuss the shifting inflation and investment landscape—and the merits of capital-light real asset businesses in the current environment. $INFL #inflation horizonkinetics.com/videos/james-d…

While memorializing our beloved Murray Stahl, a writer for Grant’s Interest Rate Observer was reminded of Samuel Johnson’s description of the 18th-Century British statesman Edmund Burke: “His stream of mind is perpetual.” @GrantsPub Read the full piece here: horizonkinetics.com/app/uploads/GI…

“Let a thousand flowers bloom.” A favorite quote of Murray Stahl (1953–2026)

(5 of 5) The top brands in sports cars, champagne, and luxury watches are frequently cited as examples of Veblen goods. If one could create a portfolio of Veblen goods companies, this would be an investment product with most interesting covariance properties.

(4 of 5) In contrast, a Veblen good is a product that experiences increased demand as the price of that product increases.

(1 of 5) A Giffen good—named after the Scottish economist Robert Giffen (1837-1910)—is a cheap, ordinary product subject to the conventional laws of supply and demand. Giffen goods can flourish in times of recession.

(6 of 6) For luxury goods, decreases in price—with other variables held constant—will frequently provoke decreased consumption. It seems mixing traditional consumer equities with luxury goods consumer equities in a portfolio’s consumer segment should reduce variability.

(5 of 6) At a constant income level, the consumption of a given luxury product will increase if the price is increased, even if the product quality and other characteristics remain constant.

(1 of 6) Luxury goods are consumer products with unique income- and price-elasticity characteristics. It should be evident that, as a category, consumer goods are income-elastic. In other words, consumption of such products rises with increased income.

(8 of 8) It is self-evident that funding is the centerpiece of the traditional fractional reserve banking system. If the fractional reserve trading system is placed in question, then it must logically follow that the entirety of the modern central banking system is in question.

(7 of 8) In fact, it is not only payment system fees and foreign currency trading that are under potential threat. A robust stablecoin system is also a threat to bank funding operations.

(1 of 8) The prediction market operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week, unlike conventional security and commodity markets. Traditional markets operate within normal banking hours so that cash can be transferred to settle transactions.