Finding the best person or the best organization to invest your money is one of the most important financial decisions you'll ever make.

Whether a tops-down or bottoms-up investor in bonds, stocks, or private equity, the standard analysis tends to judge an investor or his firm on the basis of how the bullish or bearish aspects of the cycle were managed.

In questioning initially whether I am a great investor, I open the door to question whether other similarly esteemed public icons like Bill Miller are as well. It seems, perhaps, that the longer and longer you keep at it in this business the more and more time you have to expose your Achilles heel - wherever and whatever that might be.

People have different impressions of themselves, and where reality lies is somewhere in between.

Slow growth and inflation have a tendency to accompany large deficits and increasing debt as a percentage of GDP.

I am tough but I have a soft side.

Bond investors want growth much like equity investors, and to the extent that too much austerity leads to recession or stagnation then credit spreads widen out - even if a country can print its own currency and write its own cheques.