What we’re reading (8/29)

• “Abe Defied Expectations To Build A Better Japan” (Bloomberg). “At a time when many world leaders are retrenching into nationalism, protectionism, racism, and authoritarianism, Abe defied expectations and became a champion of the embattled notion of liberalism. He leaves behind a legacy future Japanese leaders will struggle to match. But for the sake of their country’s continued strength, dynamism, and prosperity, they must try.”

• “Warren Buffett And The $300,000 Haircut” (Wall Street Journal). The “Oracle of Omaha” turns 90 on Sunday. As this article details, “[f]rom the earliest age, Mr. Buffett has understood that building wealth depends not only on how much your money grows, but also on how long it grows.”

• “Market Posts One Of The Strongest July-August Rallies In History As Hazard After Hazard Melts Away” (CNBC). For all you hear about how the market’s average P/E ratio is close to 30x and how that points to a bubble in equity prices, corporate profit margins are also at historically high levels.

• “The Stock Market Is On A Tear, But Now Comes September, The Worst Month Of The Year” (MarketWatch). Mark Hulbert discusses the stock market superstition that September is a bad month for equities; but, as he notes, “[t]here is no plausible theory for why September should be awful for the stock market, and without such an explanation, data mining becomes far more likely [as an explanation for why people believe that]."

• “Hedge Funds Wonder If EU Might Like To Do Something About All The Front-Running Going On Under Its Watch” (Dealbreaker). Brokers in Europe are said to be “front-running client trades with impunity from Lisbon to Riga and the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean coast while hiding behind a loophole-protected euphemism.”