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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.

Yes. You’re welcome for that. I only pointed out the largest economy in the EU and also the country where the President of the EU Ursula hails from (and spent 15 years in German government prior to that)…

Well, now let's see... "How long have you been a member here..." What has that got to do with anything? I believe you joined about ten years ago. Des that gives you some sort of entitled or superior status where you can take personal shots a various other board members and call them childish names and insult anyone who dares to disagree with you? Your constant arrogance and childish name calling towards other board members is an embarrassment to many other board members. And by the way, I have been on this board and its predecessor since 2006, twice as long as you. "... have a nice day little boy." This sort of remark is childish and petty, but unfortunately typical. "... does anyone care about or value ANYTHING you have to say?" That is amusing because obviously you do. But just FYI, I am probably old enough to be your father. However, if I were your father I would certainly have brought you up better and taught you some manners and shown you that arrogance is not a becoming personality trait. As far as the rest of your rant is concerned, as Shakespeare would have described it "...full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Gotta go have a nice day.

You realize Europe is not one country right? Belgium is not Germany (thanks to you guys :))

Yes, I know you love criticizing Americans like most Europeans. Too bad you can’t read though: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-could-scrap-law-banning-insults-against-politicians/a-77630055 Man, you are so confident and yet so wrong!

You are not allowed to call politicians “idiots” or Pinocchio and you say that is fair? Insane… LOL. These folks criticize America and its politicians all day everyday. If it were illegal to criticize U.S. politicians like it is in Germany, they’d all be in prison and have some hefty fines to pay.

Man you really confirm the stereotype of an American living in his own little world. I can easily insult politicians and government policies here. I am free to call all politicians idiots for instance. What I cannot do is call them "faggy nazis that need to get burned at the stake"... because that is homophobic and inciting violence.

May have been posted already: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0gp88q4l4o

You misspelled "american advertisement".

Should be a great F1 race this Sunday at Silverstone…