UK

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-16/biden-again-calls-xi-a-dictator-showing-limits-of-cooperation#xj4y7vzkg

I saw this and thought it was strange, but maybe Prem and Alan were included more like to give this bid some extra weight because of their local status or something?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/16/charlie-munger-says-there-isnt-the-slightest-chance-buffett-traded-own-account-to-enrich-himself.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-15/nate-anderson-carson-block-become-sec-tipsters-for-cash-payouts?srnd=premium-europe The practice is widespread, with big-name short sellers Nate Anderson, Kyle Bass and Carson Block among the tipsters. If the SEC investigates and levies a fine, a short seller can collect up to 30% of the proceeds. That’s on top of any profit they might make by betting on the stock’s decline. The whistleblower program is open to all comers — including short sellers, corporate insiders and random internet investors — and the would-be informants can’t get enough of it. They’ve flooded the agency with over 18,000 formal tips in the 2023 fiscal year. For perspective, that 12-month tally is double the total of all SEC enforcement actions over the past 10 years.

Obviously, they switched to FFH, we just can not see this:)

I recently stumbled on some youtube interviews with Christoph Waltz. Seems very nice and interesting person. And than realised that I almost do not remember Django Unchained. I hope to rewatch it soon / sometimes it is good to have not so good memory:)

Only if you live in Denmark? Borrowers may redeem their mortgage loans at any time without negotiating the price, as prepayment may always take place at the prevailing market prices. Danish mortgage borrowers may terminate their loans by buying back the mortgage bonds in the bond market and delivering them to the mortgage bank. This option is referred to as the delivery option or the buy-back option. The buy-back option applies to all mortgage bonds whether callable or non-callable.

https://www.ft.com/content/c587a47a-fa2e-4d86-b22d-16b0dcdfb4a9 "Reinsurance executives, also speaking at the event, warned that inflationary factors, and a push to improve profitability after years of losses, meant prices were unlikely to soften. “A market correction was needed,” said SiriusPoint’s chief executive Scott Egan. He forecast that there would be “no drop in rates” in January. “Reinsurers are prepared . . . to stand their ground.” The other thing I would like to ask: does anybody can explain why TRV trades at a such a high multiple vs FFH or even MKL, despite being valued very similarly (all at ~1.3 BV?) 5 years ago? How does this makes any sense? Not the best chart, but to ilustrate the question:

https://www.ft.com/content/dd9ba2f6-f509-42f0-8e97-4271c7b84ded Despite its consumer success, OpenAI seeks to make progress towards building artificial general intelligence, Altman said. Large language models (LLMs), which underpin ChatGPT, are “one of the core pieces . . . for how to build AGI, but there’ll be a lot of other pieces on top of it”. While OpenAI has focused primarily on LLMs, its competitors have been pursuing alternative research strategies to advance AI. Altman said his team believed that language was a “great way to compress information” and therefore developing intelligence, a factor he thought that the likes of Google DeepMind had missed. “[Other companies] have a lot of smart people. But they did not do it. They did not do it even after I thought we kind of had proved it with GPT-3,” he said. Ultimately, Altman said “the biggest missing piece” in the race to develop AGI is what is required for such systems to make fundamental leaps of understanding. “There was a long period of time where the right thing for [Isaac] Newton to do was to read more math textbooks, and talk to professors and practice problems . . . that’s what our current models do,” said Altman, using an example a colleague had previously used. But he added that Newton was never going to invent calculus by simply reading about geometry or algebra. “And neither are our models,” Altman said. “And so the question is, what is the missing idea to go generate net new . . . knowledge for humanity? I think that’s the biggest thing to go work on.”

I am really not expecting this or counting on this...but stranger things have happened and it a lot of cases complexity, especially if that was a story of some geniuses being involved, was enabler and even necessary to justify nonsensical valuations or earnings projections:) Isn't the most important things driving story value are story telling itself, but even more importantly, price action of the stock? As with FFH (or insurance more broadly at the time?) this "story" story also happened once. Of course, lets stay conservative: maybe 1.5-1.7 BV would be all right / enough for the next (this?) time:)

https://www.barrons.com/articles/treasury-auction-bond-yields-stock-market-db08c04b https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-09/el-erian-says-2024-s-big-fear-is-credit-risk-as-fed-rate-peaks

https://stratechery.com/2023/the-openai-keynote/

. Not holding my breath...but, I wish the end this time would be also similar:)

If I was forced to choose between only gold or Bitcoin and USD or any paper currency to keep my net worth forever in the future, it would be tough decision and very sad situation. Perhaps I would just spend most or at least half of it:))) But I thought the idea was to compare it or bet not on US or USD, but on productive assets, which could be priced in USD, EUR, CNY, some new USD/EUR/etc, gold, Bitcoin or whatever currency in the future? Isn't it the main problem with betting on gold, Bitcoin, art or other non productive assets? Meaning that 170 K tons of gold or 21 M Bitcoins or some painting will just stay the same, while productive assets will grow? Kinda: A century from now the 400 million acres of farmland will have produced staggering amounts of corn, wheat, cotton, and other crops – and will continue to produce that valuable bounty, whatever the currency may be. Exxon Mobil will probably have delivered trillions of dollars in dividends to its owners and will also hold assets worth many more trillions (and, remember, you get 16 Exxons). The 170,000 tons of gold will be unchanged in size and still incapable of producing anything. You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond. Or: Whether the currency a century from now is based on gold, seashells, shark teeth, or a piece of paper (as today), people will be willing to exchange a couple of minutes of their daily labor for a Coca-Cola or some See’s peanut brittle. In the future the U.S. population will move more goods, consume more food, and require more living space than it does now. People will forever exchange what they produce for what others produce. Our country’s businesses will continue to efficiently deliver goods and services wanted by our citizens. Metaphorically, these commercial “cows” will live for centuries and give ever greater quantities of “milk” to boot. Their value will be determined not by the medium of exchange but rather by their capacity to deliver milk. Proceeds from the sale of the milk will compound for the owners of the cows, just as they did during the 20th century when the Dow increased from 66 to 11,497 (and paid loads of dividends as well).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2023-11-07/oaktree-co-chairman-howard-marks-talks-rates

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-08/china-is-having-a-hard-time-wooing-foreign-investors-back

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-08/china-s-innovators-are-lying-flat-primavera-s-hu-says?srnd=premium-europe Hu pointed to China’s daunting challenges, particularly from the ongoing property crisis — a saga he said “is still unfolding.” “I don’t see the end anytime soon,” Hu said, adding that China’s real estate woes are “quite different” from what the US experienced in the run-up to the global financial crisis. “I think it’s a multi-year process — it’s more like in Japan, the real estate crisis in Japan in the 1990s. A slow-motion crisis. So China will have to deal with this problem for at least a few more years to come.” ... “This sense of insecurity, in my observation, in the Chinese entrepreneur community, really I have not seen it like this since 1978,” Hu said, referring to the years just after the death of leader Mao Zedong and before China embarked on a series of broad economic reforms. If China “really commits to rule of law and market reforms, I do think the confidence will slowly but surely come back, then the animal spirit will be rekindled.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-07/bridgewater-had-believability-issues?srnd=premium-europe With the hope of turning around the firm’s investment performance, members of the Circle of Trust put together a study of Mr. Dalio’s trades. They trawled deep into the Bridgewater archives for a history of Mr. Dalio’s individual investment ideas. The team ran the numbers once, then again, and again. The data had to be perfect. Then they sat down with Mr. Dalio, according to current and former employees who were present. (Lawyers for Mr. Dalio and Bridgewater said that no study was commissioned of Mr. Dalio’s trades and that no meeting took place to discuss them.) One young employee, hands shaking, handed over the results: The study showed that Mr. Dalio had been wrong as much as he had been right. Trading on his ideas lately was often akin to a coin flip. The group sat quietly, nervously waiting for the Bridgewater founder’s response. Mr. Dalio picked up the piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball and tossed it.

'Nevertheless, the takeaway applies everywhere: The private sector may not be able to provide as much bond-market liquidity as officials’ fiscal plans imply.' and 'Eventually, central banks would buy bonds again. But backstops kick in only after severe market disruptions.'

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-07/buffett-s-157-billion-cash-pile-isn-t-an-ominous-sign?embedded-checkout=true Everything in the world is relative, including Warren Buffett’s cash position.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/the-big-problem-with-government-debt-isnt-what-you-think-b876c198?mod=hp_minor_pos21

https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/10/27/a-golden-age-of-tv-is-losing-its-shine There are some subjects where the globe-spanning tech titans are even touchier than the old broadcast networks. Apple recently cancelled “The Problem with Jon Stewart”, a satirical current-affairs show, reportedly because of concerns about Mr Stewart’s critical stances on China and artificial intelligence. Some of the people who helped to create tv’s golden age are downbeat about its future. hbo “died at 50”, Michael Fuchs, who ran the network in the 1980s, tells Mr. Biskind. “There’s no longer an hbo.” A producer of “The Wire”, one of hbo’s grittiest and most celebrated shows, says the company would never make it today. For creatives, television’s golden age is turning into a gilded cage.

Hindenburg’s biggest oversight, according to Turlov, was in “underestimating our shareholder structure and the level of trust our clients have in us.” Does this mean he does not dispute other accusations by Hindenburg:)?

I sometimes feel this way, especially looking only at value of their stock portfolio and Apple position size. But is it really so9 crazy at 20 per cent from total assets or value? Even if something really bad happens to Apple (China/Taiwan?) and it's stock price halves, it would be only 10 per cent hit vs BRK's market cap. It is hardly a tragedy, a week ago it was down the same amount or liitle more from it's September ATH.

Long live higher (normal?) interest rates. Isn't it nice, how at the same time higher rates are starting to hurt a lot of (most?) companies and sectors, BRK's insurance operation is starting to perform so good? I also remember WB talking about need for more normal interest rate envirinment, in order to achieve higher longterm BRK returns. Insurance should be also be more or less recession proof, just in case it happens in the future. All of this should also apply 100 per cent for FFH:)