Home » Articles » The Intellectual Investor Podcast » 30 Years in America – Edition 2024 – Ep 222

30 Years in America – Edition 2024 – Ep 222

June 6, 2024

AUTHOR:

On the 30th Anniversary of my family's arrival in the United States from Soviet Russia, I reflect on my time here. After recounting the hard early days in a new country when I was "fresh off the boat", I offer perspective on how America has changed since I arrived. What I see now is, in some ways, more troubling than what I found all those years…

This week, I am going to share with you two essays that I wrote a few years ago. I want you to see this country through the eyes of an immigrant. If you were born here, you have only seen prosperity, making it more likely for you to take what you have for granted. We tend to not appreciate what we have until we lose it.

📩 Join 87,000+ readers on my weekly email newsletter: https://investor.fm/sign-up/

📚 Get my books:

Soul in the Game – https://amzn.to/43CF73v

The Little Book of Sideways Markets – https://amzn.to/3QWTlqZ

Active Value Investing – https://amzn.to/3u8zn3A

WHO AM I: Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Investment Management Associates (IMA) in 2012. Forbes Magazine called him “The New Benjamin Graham.” He’s written for publications including Financial Times, Barron’s, Institutional Investor, and Foreign Policy.

New to investing?

Explore these valuable guides to get started.

Value Investing
Student
Curriculum

The 6
Commandments
of Value
Investing

Letter to
a Young
Investor

October 1, 2026

Your Sophist Filter: On CEOs, Cynics, and the Voice in Your Head – Ep 304

A great speaker can bend logic with emotions and exert undue influence on your decision making. The better someone speaks, the more discriminating your Sophist filter needs to be.

September 24, 2026

My New Daughter – Ep 303

On Jonah and Molly's wedding

September 17, 2026

Depressing Reasons Why I Am Bullish On Gold (Part 2) – Ep 302

Here is what changed my mind. Not something about gold, but many things about the dollar. The US dollar is the world's reserve currency. It has had a well-deserved place since WWII, and that rested on three things: the largest, steadiest, most diverse economy; a politically stable democracy; the best military.

September 9, 2026

Narrative Change (Part 1) – Ep 301

Narrative change is a reversal of mass behavior. Economics and stock market valuation are governed by soft laws, but the reality bent by human behavior can disagree with these soft laws for much longer than rational actors would expect, or stay solvent. The change, going from euphoria to despair, is a change in narrative.