We humans are strange creatures. We’re at once deeply rational but susceptible to seduction by pleasing illusions. We want to be ourselves, but we also crave the embrace of the group.

Warren Buffett famously compared the perfect business (and we paraphrase here) to sole ownership of the only source of water on an inhabited island.

A storied pizza chain with sinking sales. The reluctant in-house acknowledgment that a lousy product was to blame.

Can this company be fixed? That is the question we must wrestle with (nearly) every time we buy a new stock.

As we approach back-to-school season, we thought it might be timely to riff on that staple of teen fashion magazines everywhere and serve up a list of what’s “in” and what’s “out” according to our Marshfield style guide.

In writing about company and industry quality and the kinds of signifiers of durable value creation we seek, we never want to lose sight of the importance of price.