Investors are taking their eye off the ball. With all the hand wringing over what the Fed is—or isn’t—going to do with rates, there’s a much bigger problem lurking in most investors’ statements. It’s called survivorship bias. Most of the big movers never existed when I was a kid. Great ideas or concepts don’t last forever. I was reminded of that reading this story about Howard Johnson’s.
Brian MacQuarrie writes:
The last Howard Johnson’s restaurant in New England is scheduled to close Tuesday — leaving only one more in the country — and an uptick in customers is arriving for one final serving of pancakes and nostalgia.
“If these people had come before, we’d still be in business,’’ Jewett said this week with a head shake and a smile.
News of the closing has spread, bringing regulars and tourists to a restaurant whose cozy booths and counter stools conjure memories of family trips and roadside comfort food here and elsewhere.