LC

Right. And I think you can get there looking at the cash + earnings/valuations of the wholly owned subs + the equity portfolio.

Kindness does not pay the bills. Neither does being an asshole - the point is to distinguish between personality and value.

In that case, a CPA is probably not ideal at least in my opinion. Accounting rules can be learned independently as you mention.

Do you want to pursue a career in audit/accounting?

SSD

Yes, obviously. And if Brk-A trades at $1/share you should also purchase it. In reality it trades at a 6% yield which is why I said, "if your hurdle rate is 25% then you should be looking elsewhere."

Right- and this is one of the big benefits of pricing power. Cigarettes are a prime example of this but there are certainly others. In fact this is where Thrifty is actually somewhat on point - not many companies have tons of opportunities to re-invest lots of capital for growth. The utilities, the railroad, even the insurance ops provide built-in reinvestment opportunities. And (at least for the first two) the return is relatively stable. Actually it provides WB with an option: If he can't find super attractive uses for $$, he can always dump some into the heavy businesses. What is the value of a perpetuity-like reinvestment option? To the other point, I don't think Berkshire is investing below its cost of capital i.e. engaging in value destruction. If your personal hurdle rate is 25% for example then BRK is probably not where you want to put your money. ;D

You can play with the #s however you like, the point is that companies which can grow earnings without reinvesting capital (and therefore can distribute it to owners) are much more valuable.

Put it this way. CashCo dividends out $50 this year and $50 next year, then immediately goes BK. InvestCo retains $50 this year and dividends out $100 next year, then also goes BK. What is each worth.

Bought a little BRK and cloudflare

I agree it looks enticing but it has done so for months now. WB missed an opportunity back in Mar/Apr. I have added at points under 180 over the last 1-2 months, but for those reasons I am hesitant to commit a lot of capital. Although I do own some LEAPs, but BRK is about a 10-12% position.

https://apnews.com/144ec47b53e8637a8b7c232e64a44e01?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-deaths-covid-19

What I'm reading here seems to engage in some superficial understanding of how statistics is used to draw conclusions. In principal, to draw effective conclusions you need a theoretical and statistical link between cause and effect. But the absence of one does not necessarily preclude a causal relationship, for various reasons including lack of scientific (theoretical) understanding of the underlying mechanisms and/or poor measurement/collection of data. For example: To the first point: lack of observed correlation does not necessarily rule out a causal relationship. It could indicate we have an incomplete understanding of how the virus operates, or how our bodies are responding to the virus. Or it could be that our measurement system is flawed. To the second point: From what we do know, the virus is a respiratory virus which is primarily transmitted via water droplets from person to person. So it stands to reason (and prior experience concerning respiratory viruses) that limiting contact and thereby limiting exposure to water droplets from an infected person, would limit transmission and thereby infection & mortality. Statistics and empiricism in general is an attempt to approximate the underlying scientific mechanisms at work in the absence of scientific understanding. In fact, when previously validated scientific laws are empirically violated, it is more prudent to first question the measurement methodology rather than the underlying science.

To the man with a hammer...

A man and his dog are playing chess in the park. A woman walks by and says, "Oh my goodness, your dog can play chess?! That's amazing! What a brilliant dog!" The man says, "Pffft. He's hardly brilliant. I've won 4 of the last 5 matches."

Meiroy, thank you for articulating that better than I could.

Real life does not have black and white solutions. My guess is that many here agree with the following two statements:

There should be executive order for all rich people to book a dinner, stay, golf package at Mar-a-Lago or do time. We should not have unpatriotic behavior of hiding in their mansions. Jawohl! I don’t know the current status but there was some chatter recently about making leisure travel expenses tax deductible for the year or something like that. Not kidding. :o For people who are not scared to travel/etc., there might be some good travel opportunities around. ./shrug Airfares and air travel though might not be very attractive, since airlines cut a lot of flights. Chicago-Tampa flights are fully booked - albeit with social distancing seating.

There are some benefits to experiencing poverty and disease. As they say, there can be no light without the dark.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/878946307/the-rich-have-stopped-spending-and-thats-tanked-the-economy An interesting implication as the wealth inequality gap widens.

Bought a little more Livenation. Curretly sits at about 2.75% of the portfolio. Cloudflare is the other newer addition to the portfolio at about 1.85%. Should've swapped the investments around percentage wise :D My hesitation with Cloudflare is (1) I don't know the industry dynamics as well and (2) I was not sure how their middle-market offerings would be received in comparison to similar offerings to larger customers who may place more reliance on the various security offerings provided. Livenation by contrast I know the market more intimately.

Well, you can pay for various industry publications but need the subject matter expertise to understand the nuances, as I’m sure you are aware. To combine industry knowledge and investment knowledge is a valued skill and those folks are usually in senior management or employed on the buy side.

This is usually proprietary information and keeps people employed. At the risk of sounding offensive, why do you expect them to give away their expertise and livelihood to you, me, or anyone else, for free?

I was buying in the 170s, and already own calls I purchased back in the 180 range. I feel pretty good about Brk's main areas. The cash gives optionality as well.

bought a little livenation