UK

It was! But how many more times/puts one has to go through, in order finally to adjust and live with this likely staying new reallity?

I was to young to invest at the time, but my family went through a period, when money in out country basically turned to the toilet paper (actually twice different currencies in a short period of time). At the end, we as a kids were either using them as a monopoly game money or were buying some (not much) candies with all these 500 nomination bills:)). The only viable alternative for most people who had at least some wealth (not that many did at the time) was real estate and it worked really well to protect their purchasing power and later even rerated and provided extra returns because of the improved economy (this part could happen or not). But this was not investments done to earn some big returns in this regime at the time, only mainly not to lose and to protect, if you had something. Not really any other alternatives at the time for general public. There was also lots of other interesting stuff going on at the time, some things almost like in the book The Black Obelisk (this is fictional book by Remarque, but it is good anyway and right on the subject), but these endeavors were either reserved for few people (e.g. who managed to get loans from the state banks at the time as few infamously did) or you had to take some serious additional asset or even health risks:)). Real estate was kind of available to everyone, it was publicly registered (not so easy to take away, like some pile of metals in the garage:)) and doable/easy to understand for most.

https://fortune.com/2012/02/09/warren-buffett-why-stocks-beat-gold-and-bonds/ 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. I like to reread this occasionally:)

I thought this was interesting discussion on the subject: https://stratechery.com/2025/robotaxis-and-suburbia/

3000:)

Great post, thank you!

https://open.substack.com/pub/michaeljburry/p/foundations-the-big-short-squeeze?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Yes, I agree, there is still better insurance operations, but perhaps it is mostly mix driven, like with CB, which is mainly primary insurance. Perhaps nobody also would argue that Progressive or stand alone Geico is not miles better business (at least until those robots takes auto over:)). But recently, and I think the track record is getting quite clear on this, FFH insurance is not worse as BRK insurance as the whole. I think this change from ~2015 is really important in FFH case, because historically it was not the case and I am quite optimistic they are not going back and it is more likely this will improve in the future.

I have comparison only vs BRK. It seems quite not bad? BRK FFH float.pdf

What a brilliant safeguard against possible Russian conspiracy against freedom of speech:)) The debate on the amendments in the Seimas lasted more than 7 hours. On Tuesday evening, members of the Seimas considered amendments that would make it easier to dismiss the LRT director general. Opposition MPs have registered dozens of proposals, which have been rejected one by one by the ruling party. However, one ironic proposal related to Agnė Širinskienė's cat Firebrand was nevertheless approved. When considering the opposition's proposals, the ruling party unanimously rejects them, however, one of the ironic amendments proposed by the opposition - the proposal of conservative Dalia Asanavičiūtė-Gružauskienė - was approved, writes ELTA. "The LRT Director General can be dismissed from office due to lack of confidence in him before the end of his term of office only if Seimas member Agnė Širinskienė's cat Firebrand expresses no confidence in him," the parliamentarian voiced the proposal. 43 members of the Seimas voted for such a comical proposal by the conservative, 23 were against, and 8 abstained. The opposition accompanied the approval of this amendment with applause. A. Širinskienė reacted to this on Facebook: "Firebrand [that is the name of Širinskienė's cat] thanks the Seimas for the trust and is very much looking forward to the ruling party voting for the project, which mentions his duties and name. It will be the first time in Lithuanian history that a cat is mentioned by name in a draft law and the ruling coalition votes in unison."

Thanks!

Could you please direct me to the slides/slides you are referring here?

I agree! And if you think it is misunderstood in NA, it is like even still totally not on the radars here in EU, or more globally I think. Some time ago I remember trying to buy few shares for my relatives in local bank and you literally had to ask them to include FFH into their trading system, meaning nobody has done it before, despite some crazy speculative and much smaller CAP stuff already being present on the list. It is easy to underappreciate this, being here at COBF and having the opportunity to follow FFH through the eyes of members such as Viking and other:)

"Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold. When downpours of that sort occur, it's imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs, not teaspoons." This was written in ~2015 I think, but somehow (and perhaps without the good reasons, especially looking from WB perspective) this feature was kind of turned off in the last decade or so at BRK. Like in 2020 or 2022, or arguably even now, if your do not think that the SNP500 is your only investment option. But maybe this will change after the transition. Still lots of ways, including some serious shrinking, to be more proactive, opportunistic or creative (or aggressive:)) for BRK.

https://youtu.be/TUu0PNw3HqY?si=u-OZjb3hZ-ipj3Xl Patience:)

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/how-the-us-freight-rail-industry-got-dirtier-than-coal-power-plants-4408868

Good summary ot top makro problems: https://archive.is/7Td6S

I think this discussion about EU uninvestability sometimes really misses the point. First of all, even on the macro level, European countries are very different. E.g. Scandinavian/Nordic countries are very different (stable, low debts, quite socialistic, but very business friendly with a strong rule of law/shareholder protection traditions), or what is wrong with Switzerland? Then even in euro area, if you want some strong macro, just look at Ireland, this country (and it is kind of by design) just thrives within EU/Euro zone. But also from a micro perspective, as others already mentioned, there are al lots of great global companies in EU and their business exposures is not very different from similar companies is US (sure in this case usually valuation is not that different either, but why would they be uninvestable?). It is funny, and it is by accident/micro driven, but actually right now I think I have less then 20 per cent US exposure, if you look by jurisdiction, yet I think it would be no less than 60 per cent US exposure their real business wise. Sa am I invested in Europe or US this way?. And yes, there is price for everything, because like I already posted, European banks, which are perhaps the most macro related business one can think of, just produced one of the best 3 year return globally, including in Greece or Italy:). So perhaps US is still generally the best jurisdiction, but I think Europe in general and especially good/global companies is Europe is not really that different. As for Russia (or even China for that matter), this is perhaps different...or recently I was looking at a KZ bank with 20-30 ROE trading at 3-4 PE in London, now here I think this investability question is relevant:))

https://stratechery.com/2025/google-nvidia-and-openai/

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-mustafa-suleyman-weekend-interview/?srnd=homepage-europe

Exactly...what WB used to say about this ass kicking contest in different situations, seems also very relevant here:)

Not to derail anything, but this is impressive, go Denmark:) https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20251211-1

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-12-10/warren-buffett-s-successor-looks-to-make-berkshire-hathaway-his-own?srnd=homepage-americas

Thanks, it seems I got average trade volume wrong.