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We've only discussed politics In detail with one man and then his family as we've formed a friendship. He has spent time in the US, he's an OBE designation rear admiral in the British military who deals in high level nuclear issues. Our bond was concerns about DJT and it went from there. We met him on a train in Switzerland. For whatever reason he found us to be interesting and it was his motivation that's energized the friendship, but we completely enjoy the connection.

I’d love to know when they started selling. You think it was after the conflict started? I was kind of thinking it was before the conflict started. If we see more sales in the next 13f then I will change my opinion.

From my childhood: “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” ”wish in one hand and shit in the other, see which one fills up faster”

Take your cues from the strongest hand in the game - Berkshire sat on a large position in Chevron, earning T-bill like dividends at a lower tax rate (15.75% effective tax rate vs 21% for t-bill interest income) than bond interest, while maintaining optionality and a natural hedge should oil prices spike on any exogenous event. Oil spikes. Berkshire trims CVX and buys DAL. Oil falls, CVX yield increases... Don't be surprised if Berkshire repurchases some of that CVX it sold on the spike.

Yea…CNBC, I remember when I first started investing

Does anyone in their right think the Parisians are going to stop drinking? Good luck with that. Paris restricts alcohol consumption and sales as Europe's heatwave shifts east French authorities have announced public alcohol consumption and sales bans in Paris, in a bid to ease pressure on the capital's hospitals during the heatwave. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy0pdq89zno

The bigger thing here, the lesson, is again, so what? if we have another conflict and maybe again oil prices temporarily surge to $100-120? What? Then we ll still have the divas whom are ALWAYS screaming about an incoming commodity super cycle keep screaming and telling everyone that we re still “going way higher”? It’s a total joke and as an investor, there’s so many better places to look for real investments…what’s with the obsession with fuckin oil? It seems like a cool thing for the Twitter divas and podcasters, but generally speaking, a horrible place to actually try to compound capital. Commodity speculation is gambling; if you’re good at it, you can make a fortune, problem is everyone thinks they’re @SharperDingaan but results wise maybe only 3-5% are.

watching CNBC is bad for you as an aspiring investor sort of trying to learn the craft. But I know you aren’t interested in taking any advice on how to learn the craft from older investors not named Warren and Charlie…. Just remember- you never get these years back. Your track record started the minute you started investing

One final point I’d also like to make is that markets are defined at the margin: You can have 99.9% of owners sitting soundly with their holdings, but if that 0.1% of people trading in the markets start getting real erratic, the price for a security can start going all over the place. I was trading a stock a while ago where my single purchases would be the only volume in a whole trading day. I could literally set the price if I could only find a seller on the other side. I caused the price of the security one day to go down 15% or so, and since the family owned like 3/4ths of the company in a trust, they lost a lot of money that day, that is if you valued their holdings at market.

Planetary Intelligence: AI Leaves the Internet, Moves Into Space, Earth Gets a Nervous System This episode is about the collision of Earth intelligence, orbital compute,

Hell, I like to talk about credit crises. If you go back and study exactly what a credit crisis is, it’s basically an event where a lot of people are forced to sell assets, all at the same time, in order to raise liquidity. Of course asset prices then crash as a result, but my point is, how does that mean anything about the value of those assets? Is real estate worth less because a bunch of people did some dumb borrowing? What about stocks because companies don’t have enough liquidity at the same time banks are in trouble? The fallout of those events can certainly have an effect as there’s contraction generally, but think about how unrelated those selling decisions are to the actual values during that period of time. Markets are interesting. Buffett is right when he says that they can do just about anything, no matter how irrational.

That is quite a surprising statement. I am not sure that it is that simple. I would expect trojan horse and related malicious software to be quite a huge problem and among the biggest risks for the whole AI agent movement. For example, modern software systems have huge code dependencies on third party libraries, and dynamically linked library functions are resolved at run-time (no?). If you install software today, and next week or next year some third party library deep in the code is updated and again resolved at run-time, who detects this? It seems a wicked problem as I understand it. But maybe I am missing something obvious ...

If you read what I write, you would likely come to the conclusion, and rightly, that I disagree with much of what Kernen has to say. But I oddly still like him. I think CNBCs lineup with Andrew, Becky, and Joe is perfect. I don’t know. It’s kind of like having @cubsfan on the board. He drives me crazy but I still think his views are important to consider.

I didn’t know the peace deal consisted of Iran continuing to hit people with missiles. Is this not a board of value investors? Why are there many here so incessantly fixated on today’s prices? Prices today mean zero outside of your option to buy or sell. And of course this goes beyond just the price of oil. I mean, my god. The last two decades nearly have been a time of general exuberance across markets: easy credit, low interest rates, low inflation, booming asset values, everything in the book. And while two decades in the context of time is nothing but a blip, there has been so much emotion and prediction within that period. Fundamentals are the only measurable thing that matters. Very rarely do I see some gotcha post talking about how the fundamentals changed, it’s always seems to be some bullshit about prices. Just because the price of an asset has performed poorly in the past is no indication that it’ll do the same in the future. It’s of course the same thing for the inverse. But yet prices seem to grab ahold of people’s souls. And I feel like people on here should know better; y’all are smarter than that.

Joe Kernen is old enough to be Greg's daddy!

How crazy would it be if @Gregmal was actually Joe Kernen?

I’ve never been to Europe, but it would definitely be interesting. You ever bring up politics and the sort with them? If you do, what do they have to say about America currently?

We’ve spent plenty of time in small European towns, often being the only Americans around. But we are city people and feel very stimulated there. And guess what plenty of locals to talk too and likely with more sophisticated perspectives. No, give me the Four Seasons.

As with travel everywhere, most major cities are simply hubs with international airports. Overnight the day of arrival, or the eve of departure; thereafter, use the transport links to travel elsewhere. Much easier in a Europe, where distances are shorter, and travel infrastructure better developed. Typically, the more contrast the better .... if you can handle it. Most US travellers outside of the US aren't going to be so hot in the typical press of a New Delhi, or a Cairo ... yet they are both great places to visit . Most European travellers outside of Europe, will have much less of a culture shock. Size matters. The US and Canada is big enough, that one can stay entirely 'in-country', yet still have radically different experiences. If you are not so hot at cultural adaption, you don't have to. The cost, is the richness of the experience. SD

LoLz - It's obviously Silly Season by now here on CofB&F about Europe being univestable. - It's also too hot by now!

That takes a lot of nerve.

Our loves: Hike a bit, do culture, history, and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors. Then hit the pub late afternoon and chat it up with locals. Its an obsession now, we can't seem to find any small place in Europe that doesn't fascinate us to no end.

Isn't the market overpriced most of the time? So what? Can't ever remember the overall market valuation ever affecting even one personal investment decision.

Could it be that Americans work much more than Europeans? That said, I spent most of the month of May in Italy - during the off time in many places. As someone posted earlier, avoid major European cities and destinations in peak Summer months.

Everybody's thirsty till it's their turn to buy.