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LOL, in Florida a legal representative can be anyone (literally). Nice try. You missed the point, as usual.

Usually I would preface this with an apology for posting in this thread about something so off-topic but I don't give a shit about the politics thread so... I still have a bunch of prints and stuff from the Imagerie d'Epinal - maybe she would remember that place https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagerie_d'Épinal I remember this badass climbing wall right near the city center called Carrière Collot - totally badass climbing setup for the middle of town https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/france/ambrail-epinal I lived in a suburb of Paris the year before called La Varenne in Saint-Maur-de-Fosses and that family was also super rich - they let me try to drive a Ferrari 328 when the only clutch experience I had was on a farm tractor or tiny motorbikes - a gated manual shifter! I didn't do great. Both years in France everyone in my program was paired with working class families - truck drivers, little stone houses, etc. Both years I got paired with the richest family in the community with multiple household staff and Range Rovers and beautiful people. My theory is that because my Father was a chain smoker we were the only family that filled out the form saying "smokers OK" and so I got paired with the rich families that smoked cigarettes. Or maybe it was just luck - but I decided back at 11 and 12 years old that that life suited me just fine! The kid I got paired with in Epinal was supposed to grow up to be a tennis star but that little fucker ended up becoming a race car driver... Unbelievable.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Leclerc His sister josephine was my first kiss, so there

You're absolutely right! Except in most states. The amount of misinformation that is confidently spewed by MAGA is mind numbing. No wonder Trump appeals to you guys. Florida: Texas: I'm not going to bother researching the rest for you. Poll taxes are illegal, elections are run by the States...if u don't like it, get over it or continue greasing up the loser in chief to MAGA the law.

As Buffett pointed out back in the day, PCC's purchase accounting adjustments were understating its owner earnings in the GAAP reports by almost $400m annually. He called it "a gift to my successors" because the D&A of acquired intangibles would be mostly gone by the 19 year mark and PCC would magically appear more profitable inside Berkshire after that. On the other side of the coin, he always calls out the annual capex at BNSF costing far more than the depreciation charge in our inflationary world. Replacing tracks from 1980 or even 2010 costs a shit ton more today. So at BNSF there is no "purchase accounting" bonus - if anything you need to add more to the depreciation charge to get owner earnings. He took the cash out anyway, because he was able to increase leverage safely. Pilot looked worse than it was and will work out fine but they sure learned a lesson and that lesson may pay for itself going forward. Lots of stuff made Pilot look like it shit the bed right after they bought it but most of that was inventory being written up at acquisition, shutting down the energy trading division that made it look like revenues crater-ed, the push-down accounting that pissed off the Haslams in the first place, and of course the fact that Berkshire overpaid for the large 2nd tranche because Haslam gamed the 10x EBIT contract by juicing EBIT that year.

Continue to build up my gold position with GLDM and exposure to short-duratoin TIPS via a few ETFs.

Yes, escalation of war is a terrible thing with its loss of life. You certainly are consistent... Continuing to predict the 'Fall of Donald Trump' once again. Good luck with that SD - the US will continue to deliver the gulf oil to the world via the SOH. You can count on the Orange Boy and the USA, but no one else...

This is all nothing new. Same as when one team loses in soccer or basketball and blames the refs. Theres definitely fraud as it’s statistically almost impossible for there to be none; fraud is everywhere, but it is what it is and it’s always the loser complaining about it which is also part of the issue. That said if you can’t present ID or come up with the same documentation you need to collect welfare, buy alcohol, cigarettes, go to nightclubs…notice most of those things are very dominant habits of certain demographics….go fuck yourself you shouldn’t be able to vote.

That's a great high level view of the PCC valuation, much appreciated as I can see the BNSF comparison. I wondered about the impairment damage and some of the other missteps. Thanks for all the detail.

@xboojum, -Please also read here [H/T @scorpioncapital ] and onwards about float financing!

I had no idea you could do that. Almost as easy as an illegal immigrant can vote in a US election.

Haha -- not bagging elephants, but... lions, then!

I'm confused. I've always thought Mr. Buffett always has been 'fishing', but - mind you -, I have always thought he was 'fishing elephants', not whales or tuna! [j/k]

Another timely and entertaining one by Patrick Boyle. He's a former fund manager who worked for Niederhoffer and now teaches finance and makes videos about finance with a very dry Irish wit.

Well the past is the past but from here going forward, there is a whole lot more upside from PCC than downside. I do think they need to do some thing about management. I thought the left or were replaced afterthought purchase and I am surprised to hear that the same folks are still in charge.

Can one order the long-form birth certificate? Asking for my pal Barack:)

this is a really great point actually ... 'One great thing about the PCC deal is that Berkshire actually succeeded in buying it. Companies like that are very hard to buy for Berkshire because Berkshire doesn't like to pay up.'

I've always thought PCP had its issues - but yea, I agree ... it's worth a lot more then Berkshire paid for it. Also dont forget the CEO Mark Donegan fits perfectly into the Berkshire culture. I think he reports directly to Greg.

The bigger problem is that it seems to have left Buffett gunshy about larger acquisitions; I think PCC worked out poorly and maybe it's the case (I kind of think it is!) that needle-moving acquisitions are not unlikely to happen any more because large enough targets are going to attract people more willing to overpay than Berkshire, but the combination of the bad outcomes at PCC, Heinz, and Pilot plus climate- and Trump-related difficulties at Mid-American/BHE seem to have really pushed the company away from trying to land... not whales, but tuna... at all (with BHE GT&S being a welcome exception and OxyChem not really counting in my mind). Things may change somewhat with Abel at the helm!

Not only that, you can order a copy of ANYONE'S birth certificate. When they have no argument they make up excuses.

Holy crap! Wait until I tell Evelyne - she is not going believe this. She lived in Epinal for 3 years, but grew up on the Moselle in Charmes, which I believe is 20 miles?? Moved to Rockford at 20 with her first husband - talk about culture shock. Small world indeed GFP.

I'm increasingly looking for places to park cash while also focused on real yield and after-tax returns because my home state (Minnesota) has a high income tax. Just noticed that iShares rolled out a 0-1 year TIPS ETF (ICPI) late last year. Real yield on the portfolio is over 3% presently. I wouldn't be at all surprised if CPI averaged out 3.5-4% this year so you're talking a high nominal yield on treasuries. Main problem is the fund is still tiny. Only $13M in AUM so it's hard to buy anything material without moving the price. iShares also has a 0-5 year (STIP) option but real yield is a bit lower and there is some duration risk albeit limited.

Not accurate. As explained, a citizen can get a copy of their birth certificate, usually for $10-35, give them the County name & City name, parent's name, and your full name. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w/index.htm Some states may require a photo with signature or notarized. It's amazingly easy. You're getting ridiculous again.

Could IDBI be the buyer of the $1.3b in IIFL Finance with its excess capital? Taken with FIH’s stake, it’s pretty close to 50% depending how it’s priced. Also, it’s unclear to me, my apologies, but are you saying IIFL Finance has a stake in Digit? This whole post is really great. It shows how much optionality there is in FIH that is available for more than free.

Dang @cubsfan ! I lived in Epinal France when I was 12 years old! It started as one of those 3 week exchange programs but I stayed for a few months longer and the family I lived with was extremely wealthy. I learned a lot about the finer things in life that stuck with me. Later when the kid from Epinal came to Illinois and Indiana to see our family farm his verdict was that it was pretty shitty

Thank you for that story GFP. We have gone through hell with the State of Illinois DOT trying to renew my wife's drivers license. During COVID - her driver's license expired. She tried to renew a couple months later. DOT told us to bring in her birth certificate. We contacted Epinal, France and they faxed/emailed us a copy - perfect! We take her copy of foreign birth certificate in - NOPE - we will not accept that. After 3 visits, I gave up. This for a renewal of an expired driver's license. But you want to vote in ILL?? No proof of citizenship required - just say you are a citizen! Why would the State of ILL make it a snap to register to vote - with no proof of citizenship - but make it IMPOSSIBLE for a resident to renew their expired driver's license. The answers are obvious.