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A little Fairfax, MSCI and Constellation Software.

BWET has been on a rampage, if crew wages go up then this will get truly nutty.

I don’t mind. I’ve been adding every paycheck. I’m just surprised the opportunity still exists, but then when I listen to pitches like the recent TIP podcast I can understand why it does.

Now we know it will be funded through debt issuance. S&P updated outlook to Negative due to risk of not restoring leverage to 5.0x in next 12 months. Some information below suggests Sleep Country had noticeably improved profitably in 2025. https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/article/-/view/type/HTML/id/3597931 On July 21, 2026, Sleep Country Canada Inc. announced its plans to acquire Sleep Number Corp. for a total purchase price of $725million. The company plans to issue a $270 million term loan A and $400 million senior unsecured notes to fund the transaction. We assigned a 'BB-' issuer credit rating to Sleep Country Canada Inc. We also assigned a 'BB-' issue-level rating to its proposed $400 million senior unsecured notes. The recovery rating is '4', indicating our expectation for average recovery (30%-50%; rounded recovery: 40%). We estimate pro forma leverage of about 7.4x for the 12 months ended March 30, 2026, which is above our 5x downgrade threshold for the 'BB-' rating. The negative outlook reflects the likelihood of a downgrade if we believe Sleep Country is unlikely to restore its S&P Global Ratings-adjusted debt to EBITDA to 5x by mid- 2027 due to weaker consumer sentiment or a slower-than-expected turnaround at Sleep Number. Management has identified at least $67 million in cost synergies to be implemented through 2027, primarily through lease renegotiations, supply chain optimizations, and procurement efficiency, specifically the replacement of suppliers to reduce input costs. We expect synergies from store rationalization and lease renegotiations (completed via the Chapter 11 process) to be realized immediately post-closing. Procurement synergies are also expected to materialize shortly after closing, given the short lead time for inventory orders. Nonetheless, Sleep Number’s margin profile will remain 14% compared with Sleep Country’s 20% EBITDA margins in 2027. Consequently, we forecast Sleep Country’s EBITDA margin will decline to 16% in 2027, reflecting the dilutive impact of Sleep Number’s lower-margin profile. Sleep Number has incurred $236 million in total restructuring costs since 2023, which we do not expect to recur going forward. We expect the company to prioritize its strong free operating cash flow (FOCF) for debt repayment. Sleep Country ‘s FOCF has improved due to higher profitability. It reported FOCF of about $69 million in 2025, compared with $30 million for the same prior-year period. We expect FOCF will be depressed in the first year post acquisition. Absent any further restructuring and transaction related costs, we forecast FOCF will rebound to about $115 million in 2027. We also expect capital expenditure (capex) to decline to 2.5% of revenue going forward compared with 3.5% before the acquisition. We forecast it will use FOCF toward its deleveraging plan, prioritizing its term loan.

When Fairfax makes a really big investment, do you want them to buy high or buy low? I much prefer they buy low. And the lower the better. Fairfax's low share price of the past year has been a massive gift for long term shareholders. We should be celebrating our good fortune. Volatility in the stock market is a wonderful thing. It provides opportunity. Fairfax's stock is crazy cheap. And Fairfax is feasting.

Getting difficult to keep tankers crewed in the SOH. https://gcaptain.com/shipowner-offers-seafarers-six-months-pay-to-sail-through-strait-of-hormuz/ " Sinokor Group, the world’s largest owner of supertankers, offered six months extra salary if they make a return voyage, which it said would take about a month in total. [Other] shipping firms were adding as much as 60 days of salary to a 30-day contract". The highest-paid person on most ships is the captain, who has the ultimate say on navigational decisions. They earn as much as $15,000 a month on oil tankers, according to officials at two shipping companies. A junior sailor, known as a rating, might earn about $1,500 a month in normal times. They have the right to ask to leave a vessel and be replaced if they don’t want to sail into the danger zone. “We have heard stories of a large number of crew members getting off, but they are able to find people who are willing to go.” Junior ratings are not rich people, and typically have families reliant upon their continuing income to survive .... things have to be extremely bad for them to give it up. One of these under-crewed tankers gets attacked, it's abandoned at sea .... salvage for the picking All this before the Houthi threats on Red Sea tankers, and the closer proximity of Somali pirates looking for salvage. SD

That's the real answer to a different question. What's your point? People generate net worth typically by working, and in some cases by inheritance. Your link that you started the subject with is using entire US population for median and mean net worth, right? I suspect if you wanted to ask the median net worth of active workers, you'd end up with a much higher number than the one you cited.

The facts are pretty tenuous for your sexist joke. Factoring in for single parent households, I suspect there's more men on these means/asset tested programs, but it's a moot point. The public benefits trap applies to men and women. There are plenty of men and women in the USA that can't fund a savings account or try to get a 20% raise because the benefits cliff is insurmountable without a very large one time increase in income (to replace subsidies). People do dig out through education (which is typically how one gets a very large one time increase in income), and there are actually pretty generous means tested subsidies for education as well.

+1 Human error or bias should never be "part of the game."

Yup, myriad rule changes ruined this stuff. It used to be a great asset to have an agitator with some skill. Shit, Claude Lemieux(rip), Essa Tikkanen, etc.

Posting here for those more competent than me to take a look and comment. Full letter is in the comments section on X. If true, I guess this is a positive for exco? I am always skeptical of this kind of macro predictions.

I wish pro sports would use their data: 1000s of hours of footage and referee decisions; to design and train real time AI referees. Completely objective, perfect camera angles...players and teams would adjust quickly...would improve a lot of games i think.

Back in the day, 'Tiger Williams' was always a joy to watch, especially if you could also scrape up enough for the ticket to attend a game in person. Never a dull moment, assured of a shake up, and the antics were always quite something. Sadly, all banned now https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/9/the-tiger-ice-hockey-goon-spent-3971-minutes-in-the-penalty-box-during-his-nhl-career SD

Yup, I mentioned it above to some ridicule...but when a super low probability event(just jogging through some random lines in a spot where an uncontested shot has sub 30% chance of being a goal) can get turned into a penalty kick(IE ~80% chance of scoring), on something highly discretionary...your system and rulebook is in major need of repair.

I just try to add as best as I can. Even if it’s just pieces of a stock.

yes, this is one potential explanation....that most people are exercising their freedoms and choosing to be poor. That would generally reflect better on the US than the other explanation which that the bottom 1/2 or whatever can't accumulate wealth due to lack of opportunity or because we need to build more houses or whatever. definitely think americans consumer-y ways are part of it (my own wealth accumulation is certainly slowed by my lavish expenditures), but not sure if it's the only reason.

Posting here as well for those interested

The starts are aligning...

Sure (it's not intrinsically boring). But when the rules incentivize flopping, flopping is what you get.

No different to hockey, when not playing in the world cup, the players are continually playing against each other in the various premier leagues around the world. When everyone plays at the top of their game, scores are low, and mostly 'cause of some kind of temporary breakdown. When everyone has incredible ball control, and 'presence' in time/space; the outliers have to be true masters (Messi, Ronaldo, Gretzy, etc, etc) to score at the levels they do. They are; but most teams only have one/two at best, at the same time. These things can be learnt, routinely are, and the 'unknowns' can get to be just as good (Cape Verde, Canada, Morocco, etc). But their best players don't stay at home; they go on to play in the premier leagues, routinely play against the best, and become part of the best. The bigger the global pool that plays, and the more movement between teams, the better the game. SD

Buying anything other than fairfax (both ffh and fih) feels so wrong...way cheaper than anything else...but also a >30% position for me. I worry I might not get another chance to buy csu this cheap. Hopefully I'll have something to trim by the end of the year!

It seems at this point Fairfax and this board are the only buyers. Sadly for the stock price, most people on this board may already have close to full positions.

I think it's largely boring for the same reason a lot of people complained about hockey 20 years ago. The systems have skewed way too much towards defensive styles that abuse the current application of rules. As such, theres very little scoring.

https://nypost.com/2026/07/21/us-news/more-than-6000-non-citizens-registered-to-vote-in-nj-by-software-error-gov-sherrill-admits/ Looks like horseface had an oopsy daisy moment.