muscleman

Is this show modeled from the SAC capital saga?

I drive a volvo certified pre-owned S80. Much cheaper than a new volvo. (new S80 costs 39k. 1 year old costs 25k) 7 year 100k mile bumper to bumper warranty. Reliability almost as good as the Toyota and Honda. Fuel efficiency not as good as a Camry but given the increased weight and safety, I think it justifies. :)

That looks like a solid long term track record!

What's your 2015 portfolio performance? :D

You should create a poll instead of a thread. :)

I have several concerns regarding LUK's book value. First, there is $2.6 bn intangible and goodwill, which should be deducted from the $10 bn book value figure. Second, LUK's consolidated balance sheet inflated the book value, as it holds a few subsidiaries over 50% interest. I think GAAP's consolidation method is that if they hold over 50% interest, they will report 100% of the consolidated sub's balance sheet items, and then in the income statement, have one line that deducts the minority earnings. Therefore LUK's book value on the balance sheet is inflated. Without additional disclosure of the breakdowns, I could not figure out by how much it is inflated.

Please list one or at most two of your best ideas in 2016. I will start with Bank of Cyprus. :) http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/bocr-at-bank-of-cyprus/

It is indeed weird. Maybe he was just trying to show some progress on his GSE reform work? If this new jump start bill does nothing to intervene the current lawsuits, then it doesn't really do anything. Funny it is called jump start bill. More like a road block bill.

I can't find the Buffet annual letter that mentioned PPA reserve. Does anyone know which year that was?

I am doing a case study on CBI's Shaw acquisition. They kept saying there were no problems and kept reporting good earnings. At the same time, there was a short report that I could not fully determine whether it was right or wrong at that time. http://www.presciencepoint.com/reports/cbi_report_6-17-2014.pdf Now that CBI announced sale of its nuclear business with a huge "One-time" charge off, CFO departing and the CEO telling the analysts "I felt great, no regret" about Shaw acquisition, it does seem that they were reporting fake earnings in the past two years, there is quite a possibility that this short report is correct, though maybe by luck in the hindsight. Putting aside whether CBI was playing the numbers game, could you please help me with some questions regarding to post acquisition purchase adjustment accounting? Or if you could recommend a book, I will read it. I'd like to avoid similar land mines in the future. 1. After acquisition, is there a given period in which you can adjust purchase price? I remember reading a recent Buffet letter about this but can't quite remember. I will double check. I thought it was 12 months after purchase? If CBI adjusts this number beyond 12 months, is that a violation of GAAP? 2. I googled post-acquisition purchase adjustment but I could only find adjustments related to net working capital changes between deal time and deal closing time, or "Earnout". CBI's PPA seems to be neither of the two. It wrote up the goodwill due to the increase in "Contracts in Progress". The explanation is the following: Included in contracts in progress is a margin fair value adjustment of approximately $745,500 associated with acquired long-term contracts that were less than fair value at the Acquisition Closing Date. This margin fair value adjustment will be included in revenue on a POC basis as the applicable projects progress over approximately five to six years. Could anyone please help me with margin fair value adjustment? What is this? 3. It seems like an increase in Goodwill due to increased PPA will create some kind of reserve, which Precision Point claims to be 1.56 bn. Creation of this reserve does not impact earnings statement, and does not need to be carried on the balance sheet either? Why does GAAP allow the reserve not to show up on the balance sheet? Thank you very much in advance! :)

Yet the stocks went up even more this year, for AMZN, FB and GOOG. :)

How do you calculate the intrinsic value of Zillow?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how this changes the odds. Sweeney can still rule this as a takings without violating this new law - Treasury would simply keep their senior pref position at $187 billion. A 3rd amendment reversal would mean a return of the funds taken, instead of being used to pay down the preferred (so it wouldn't be a liquidation). With regards to your other point. I have believed from the beginning that Congress is never going to act to recap, release from conservatorship, or kill the GSE's. Why change the status quo when it is giving you a free piggy bank? I'd be surprised if they didn't acquiesce. Why should they mind? It's free money. Could there be another lawsuit that rules the jump start GSE bill as illegal? If not, what happens if congress keeps the current GSE status quo forever?

Paraphrased quotes from Steele: “I can’t remember being more excited about representing a case.” “Let me ease any concerns… nothing in any of the briefs by the government could be considered a surprise or unexpected. The arguments were very predictable. Nothing we’ll have a hard time responding to.” “The government set up a standard they must comply with and then they violate their own standard. You’ll see this clearly in our response briefs.” “We will dispute each and every claim the government made, there are no concessions* to be made.” *I’m not sure if “concessions” was the word he used, but that was the idea. I know specific words are very important when it comes to legal matters but I didn’t catch the exact word, although it may very well have been “concessions.” “Very short in their responses to Delaware and Virginia law. They didn’t spend much time on it because they want the court to focus on dismissing the case outright.” Upcoming Court Events (according to Steele): -January 16th is deadline for Steele’s written reply to each government argument. -Then a reply from the government shortly after that. -Then it’s in Federal District Court Judge Sleet’s hands. Q&A Christian Herzeca (attorney that covered the MBIA case so well on his blog a few years ago) asked a question but I didn’t write it down as it didn’t strike me as material. It probably was material given Herzeca’s profession is law and mine is not, but I didn’t write it down. Joe Light (WSJ) asked if Steele was open to asking for damages instead of just the 3rd Amendment complaint. Steele responded (paraphrased) “we have the option to amend our complaint for damages. If we were to do that I’d hold my response until then.” Roger Parloff (Fortune article author) asked if Steele represents both preferred and common shareholders. Steele responded (paraphrased) “we represent our clients Hindes and Jacobs and each has held both.” Overall, I thought it was a very good call. Steele seems confident. Thank you for taking the notes. I joined late and didn't take any notes, but I recall these are pretty much all the questions people asked.

This doesn't worry me too much. I doubt that was pulled off by Syrian refugees. To me it sounds like an inside job by someone who knew that the alarms were disabled. There are plenty of guns in the US already, a dozen more aren't going to make a difference, and I'd much rather the guns be in the hands of civilians than the government anyway. If you buy guns legally, you have to register with FBI background check. Since you know that FBI knows you have guns, you will be more careful when you use it, and I don't think you can buy M4 assault rifles? If you steal guns, you don't need to go through any checks. That's day and night's difference.

Guys. I think you are mixing up the question of having immigrants into the US vs having ISIS infiltration through the immigration system, and this post is supposed to discuss the later, or the former. US is built by immigrants and we are all immigrants if we look back for 300 years. I definitely agree that we have a great immigrant system and we should not shutdown immigration. However, when you see Syrian refugees coming all looking like strong males and you see no kids or women, I would be surprised that you are not concerned if they are real refugees or not. This has nothing to do with discrimination. More bad news: http://www.weaselzippers.us/240022-breaking-fbi-on-high-alert-after-weapons-stolen-from-u-s-army-armory-in-worcester-ma/ "The U.S. Army Reserve armory in Worcester, Massachusetts was broken into Saturday night and more than a dozen guns were stolen, a law enforcement source tells The Daily Beast. Six M4 assault rifles, ten pistols, and several long guns were taken from the armory, according to the source. The break-in was discovered this morning. The armory’s alarms did not go off, according to the source who added they may have been disabled due to ongoing construction."

I just joined. No need for a code. Just dial and tell the operator which conference you wanted to join.

Really? Have you seen this? http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/05/06/isis-allegedly-claims-it-has-71-trained-soldiers-15-american-states

Yes. These articles make me feel alarmed. If Syrians are having war problems, the best way to help them is to donate as much food and weapon to them as possible so they can protect their own homeland by themselves. Why should France, Russia and US risk the lives of our armies to battle for them while hosting the Syrians in our country?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc Trump mentioned that most of the Syrian refugees coming into the US so far are strong males and he hasn't seen many women or kids. I wonder if this is an infiltration. ::) http://nypost.com/2015/10/11/trump-says-syrian-refugees-could-be-a-trojan-horse-for-isis/

http://timhoward717.com/2015/10/19/obama-abandons-the-truth-and-throws-black-america-under-bus-egbert-perry-to-even-the-score/ When pressure continues to build, the default reaction for the government and the white house is to remain the inertia, just as I expected before. The government and regulators are better at reacting to past blow outs than anticipating and reacting forward. Therefore I think the HYPE should really stop and we should just count on the courts to move this forward.

Contact ValueAct: http://www.valueact.com/contact.pl I made a call to them. The receptionist told me to write an email to her and she will forward it to Jeff. Let's see what happens next. :) I can already picture the press release headline: ValueAct welcomes new partner Muscleman :D And after 6 months: Ubben outmuscled - replaced by forum prodigy "It was time for that old sod to go. Clearly his best days were behind him." says Muscleman who gained influence in the firm after going against Ubben on Microsoft. Haha you guys are funny! ;D

Contact ValueAct: http://www.valueact.com/contact.pl I made a call to them. The receptionist told me to write an email to her and she will forward it to Jeff. Let's see what happens next. :) I can already picture the press release headline: ValueAct welcomes new partner Muscleman :D Guys that's insider trading Why is this insider trading? I do not even have one share of MSFT since I left the company in 2013.

I wrote them a list of issues and what I would do if I hold the baton.

Contact ValueAct: http://www.valueact.com/contact.pl I made a call to them. The receptionist told me to write an email to her and she will forward it to Jeff. Let's see what happens next. :)