Economist Article Weekly – Buying Stories

As I tend to quote and link to The Economist on a regular basis, I decided to create a specific serie where I would “limit” myself to one article per week. The one I preferred of course. That way you will enjoy a quick extract of my Economist reading and will know when to expect it – I read the Economist during my week-end.

This week article is about Buying stories. I highly recommend it for its clear definition of the differences between two schools of investment principles: value investing and Growth investing.

It also ends on a few very interesting paragraphs demonstrating the value of a good Story Telling .

Plenty of studies find that people are seduced by stories: all shopping will take place over the internet, the world is running out of oil, and so on. They also like to associate with winners. It sounds better to own shares in, say, Google, than in some struggling housebuilder at the moment. So we end up overpaying for success.