All Activity

In the end, suppressing your population leads to some sort of revolution and that is what I think is relevant here-- AfD is leading in the polls in Germany Reform is leading in the polls in the UK National Rally is leading in the polls in France There is a clear pattern here...the people are sick of their voices and opinions being suppressed. At some point, the political status quo will burst at the seams. This is because European leaders have been using undemocratic means of suppressing the will of their people for too long and so the people are turning to something radically different than the status quo.

FYI that account has been reinstated: Elon is definitely a hypocrite if that's why the account got cancelled--but notice in this case it's not the government fining anyone nor sending anyone to jail--it's a private social media platform. The CCP doesn't make posts on "protecting Free Speech" like European leaders do though. European leaders are being dishonest while the Chinese are up front about what they do. They do not pretend.

Huh. I thought you agreed with the right to bear arms. And what does that have to do with a dude moving pamphlets? Did he have a gun? Did he shoot someone? To summarize your argument, you're saying that a dude who transports "free speech" deserves 30 years in prison because people he knew had guns. When I say, "I think it's largely because of political polarization--because everyone's fine with "their side" doing it to screw the other side," your reaction is exactly what I was referring to. Maybe next time, just say, "But it was Republicans persecuting the people, so it's okay." That'll save some typing. As I say, this is all normalizing President AOC doing whatever she wants to do.

Damn, Cabo Verde played a hell of a match.

So let's see. A dozen people show up with AK 47's and pistols, all loaded. They were charged with possession of 50 guns. The leader shoots the ICE agent, who while wounded, returns fire, and disables the leaders AR. The others get scared and take off, some on foot, some in vehicles - most are captured within a an hour - all wearing their body armor, with loaded guns. Yeah @RichardGibbons - I guess that qualifies as having "difference of opinion" instead of "terrorism". ROFL

Cape Verde - man, no matter who this ends, super impressive

Greg, have a Happy 4th of July! Restricted from posting till midnight tomorrow. You were already right, no need for insults or a homophobic response. Cheers!

Ah yes, the crime of having different opinions than the government, so being labelled a terrorist, and persecuted. When I say, "I think it's largely because of political polarization--because everyone's fine with "their side" doing it to screw the other side," your reaction is exactly what I was referring to. You should be prepared for President AOC to arrest you for the things you've posted here that she'll claim are fascist and incitement to terrorism.

Exactly. European REITs are just not great. leverage is too high. if things go good, the stocks just do Ok. If things go against them , the stock a solute get trashed and you are probably looking into diluted capital raises. I have tried in the past several, like Vastned, lured in by large discounts to NAV. That did not work out and I sold after seeing the KPI‘s slowly getting worse. I am invested in US multifamily REITs which have lower leverage and are more tax efficient for me. Why even try? I think there are many many better opportunity out there that European REITs.

Other than BTC, I agree. Someone once said the most important component of wealth is protecting it. Perhaps we need a separate thread on that subject.

Apparently the answer is NO I've never seen or heard of a more controversial asset in history.

Yea I admittedly don’t know anything about soccer and just found myself frustrated because I was watching what had the potential to be a great match and it seemed like every goal is held up and potentially negated because of a coin flip over something that to a casual observer, seemed immaterial

Seriously - that's a gross misrepresentation of the facts. The dude's wife was convicted of several counts of terrorism activities - among them providing material support to the guy that shot the ICE agent in the neck. She was present for the rioting and participated in the attacks on the ICE facility. His conviction was NOT for "Free Speech" - his conviction was for attempting to hide evidence that implicated his wife in the conspiracy. It is a very harsh sentence - but has NOTHING to do with Free Speech - only conspiracy in the terrorist activities. I definitely feel for the guy, but he married a lunatic.

A great many societies have a long history of being 'free' .... until suddenly they aren't; South America, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia, etc. The sudden imposition of capital controls is a very normal thing; to the great annoyance of central bankers and state authorities, BTC is a tool that helps to evade them . Hard to appreciate, until you've been in a society experiencing sudden change. SD

Agreed. In general the clarity of thought w.r.t capital allocation and compounding is much higher at Berkshire (of course) and Fairfax.

@Gregmal I understand your feeling. The problem is though: offside is a black and white decision just like if the ball is inside the goal or not. Is what it is. Also the refs and the VAR room know the rules much better than the public and it's their job to apply the rules obv. Wrt offside I've heard it mentioned that they should/could change the rule to if the feet are offside or not. I tend to agree that might be better. Still we'd be having the issue regarding centimers offside, but seem better to look at the feet rather than the body. Easier to see and understand.

I'm also puzzled why this topic came up at all. China is doing better than Europe economically, and free speech there is much worse. No idea why it's in the focus in investor's discussion.

(Gonna assume that this is now a political thread, since it's acting that way. If it isn't, let me know and I'll delete this.) Well, you can do it in the USA until you get 30 years in jail for distributing free speech. Free speech is under attack everywhere in the western world. I think it's largely because of political polarization--because everyone's fine with "their side" doing it to screw the other side. It's very short-sighted. Where I live, Canada, is certainly among the worst.

You can critizise politicians here as you like. You won’t get sued, you account will just get cancelled.

That is a pretty weak expression of Buffett's idea. If the spread between bond yields and cost of float is not a positive number, then the insurance business is worth nothing. Simply being positive, as in, 4% yield on bonds, 3% cost of float (or CR of 103) would be a pretty shoddy result, and a long way from 'adding up to the good over time'.

Love F1!

Unfortunately here we can absolutely blame the new regs! It won't be great as the drivers won't be able to go flat out in two of the most important corners due to saving energy instead (so they can go faster in a straight line!). It's so fucking crazy and ridiculous. Hopefully they'll get the regs sorted out as soon as possible. Hopefully going back to v8 eventually.

Who is there to be afraid of in a free society? And its not like you can hide your BTC. Try selling it without paying taxes in the US. But just to be clear, I greatly admire BTC's creators. They've pulled off one of the best widespread, legal cons in my lifetime. Wonderful sales pitch (but don't ask too many questions). Only thing is, those who fall for it should know when to get out. Just like any other speculation and frenzy. You're right though - not my thing - different strokes.

A treaty is just a piece of paper - Kaiser Wilhelm II

Yeah and I only point out that Europe has 44 independent countries... you really cannot make that many generalized comments about it. It would be like me saying you're all red necks because I met a couple of Texans. And Texas is 22 times the size of Belgium by the way. I'm also not anti-US. I despise some of our own policies and see the US doing so much better, especially regarding innovation and immigration. However I am satisfied with our freedom of speech and I believe our system where we tax higher incomes more to provide better social security to the lower ones, is better... even though we might have taken it a bit too far.