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Palantir

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Posts posted by Palantir

  1. While Booth has better brand name, it's not the FT MBA program, which is the "real" one. AFAIK, Booth part-timers don't have access to the same recruiting channels, and I have heard at events they used have to wear colored bands to clearly depict their status. I don't know if that's true anymore, but you get the picture. The PT program is really geared for people who are working and plan on staying in their company, while FT programs are more relevant to career-changers.

  2. The problem is there are so many unknowns so that you cannot estimate the payoff of climate change. Yeah maybe a few trade passages open up and maybe some frozen land thaws, but it could result in droughts, permanent weather pattern changes that could affect crop yields, warming climates could now be exposed to new tropical diseases to which animals have no immunity, leading to extinction events.

     

    Thinking about the net impact of climate change won't get us anywhere.

     

    It doesn't cost all that much to help solve the problem. Start subsidizing renewable energy, and minimum have tax breaks for RE.

  3.  

    For one, S.A. was burned before by supporting prices and cutting production when other countries did not.  In the end, if S.A. cuts production from S2 to S1, and prices go up from P1 to P2, they are probably still going to be making the same amount of revenue but lose market share.  S.A. has already said they can increase production by another million barrels.  They probably will to make up for lost revenues.

     

    Exactly. Here is more commentary:

    http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2016-04-11/the-oil-price-crash-is-basic-economics-rather-than-sexy-geopolitics

     

    In this highly competitive environment, trying to effect a price increase by a unilateral cut in output would be commercial suicide, because your market share would be gobbled up by a competitor instantly. What about a coordinated output cut by OPEC? Glancing back at Figure 2, operating a cartel that does not include two of the top three oil producers (the United States and Russia), and that includes geo-strategic rivals (Saudi Arabia and Iran), is almost as improbable as some of the conspiracy theories currently circulating.

     

    If any of the above sounds familiar, it should – Al-Naimi has been repeating it for about 18 months, which makes analysts' affinity for conspiracy theories even more baffling. The best explanation that one can conjure up for this wholesale rejection of transparent Econ 101 principles is that those suffering from low oil prices may be trying to force Saudi Arabia into some sort of commercial error by creating public pressure. In particular, a lot of U.S. shale oil producers are going bankrupt, while Iraq will have great difficulty in attracting oil investors if prices are low.

     

    Fortunately for Saudi Arabia, Al-Naimi seems to be indifferent to these long-shot lobbying efforts. And as oil investment collapses, there are good reasons to expect modest increases in oil prices in the next two years. Until then, Saudi Arabia looks likely to sustain the unique feat of being blamed for high (in 2011) and low (in 2015) oil prices despite barely changing its output – a contortion even a conspiracy theorist would be proud of.

  4. How is rational the idea of losing something like $5 a barrel or $50 million a day for simply disagreeing to freeze your production for 6 months at its highest level in years or near max capacity?

     

    No, my religious enemy is trying to increase its production by 500,000 barrels a day, if they are lucky, so we will do all we can to make sure we all lose $100's of millions a day on 50 million barrels a day of production. That has to be the summum in intelligence.

     

    Cardboard

     

    I don't think you understand the market. Ali Al-Naimi knows what he is doing. Their stance is perfectly rational, and justified by both theory and experience.

     

     

    For those interested, here is a look into Mr. Al-Naimi:

     

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-12/saudi-arabia-s-plan-to-extend-the-age-of-oil

  5. I think one big mistake is this tendency to invest in poorly returning stocks. Good example is BRK.B. Even the bulls on BRK say they expect a 8-9% return, which is a really anemic bull case IMO. Could say the same things about IBM or KO. I think to actively invest, you really need to be setting your sights a lot higher.

     

    (1) Because 8-9% is too low for the effort; OR (2) 8-9% is too low to compensate for mistakes?  That is, the 9% bull case can't compensate for a mistake elsewhere so you'll end up lower?

     

    What's the effort?

     

    I don't know what StevieV means regarding effort, (he could mean the effort of actively managing money), but the point is that 8-9% is a mediocre rate of return to target for an investment.

     

  6. I think one big mistake is this tendency to invest in poorly returning stocks. Good example is BRK.B. Even the bulls on BRK say they expect a 8-9% return, which is a really anemic bull case IMO. Could say the same things about IBM or KO. I think to actively invest, you really need to be setting your sights a lot higher.

     

    (1) Because 8-9% is too low for the effort; OR (2) 8-9% is too low to compensate for mistakes?  That is, the 9% bull case can't compensate for a mistake elsewhere so you'll end up lower?

     

    I was thinking the former, but I think you bring up a good point with the latter.

  7. Nobody is dividing the issue, the issues are literally separate. These are all separate sanction regimes with different enforcing parties. The nuclear sanctions are enforced by the UNSC, while the US has other unilateral sanctions. Think about who is in the UNSC, some countries see Iran as an adversary (like the US and UK), while others see Iran as a friendly partner (China and Russia), with Germany having economic interests there. To get all of these countries on board for a nuclear agreement, the focus will naturally be narrowed to issues all 5+1 nations want to enforce. Why would Russia and China care about enforcing American sanctions? It doesn't make any sense.

     

    Aside from this, the US continues to enforce other sanctions against Iran's missile program.

  8. No, that is incorrect. The delivery system is a separate issue that has no association with the nuclear deal and is dealt with by a separate sanction regime enforced by different parties. Obama has pursued sanctions in order to limit Iran's delivery capability along with restricting the nuclear program through the JCPOA. The idea that the enemies of the US are now suddenly able to take advantage of the US is a myth. Indeed, where was Bush when NK was developing nuclear weapons?

  9.  

     

    Obama was all about "reconciliation" or what he perceived as necessary after the Bush years and honestly he has been abused by more than one country in his dealings. Think about Iran with their missile tests and then saying: "It is not in the nuclear agreement." Or Russia always poking at the U.S.

     

    Except Obama is right, the missile issue is a separate one from the nuclear agreement. You conveniently also forget that Russia also used to poke the US regularly during Bush's tenure. Best example is them obliterating US ally Georgia and GWB couldn't do anything. This narrative about other countries taking advantage of Obama's US is a joke.

  10. Selling BRK.B today. Will keep 1 share just for the annual meetings.

     

    did you replace w/ cash? Or another stock. if so, which?

     

    curious on why you held pre-annual report and are selling now? price / value seems to have not changed much.

     

    Nothing has changed, but while BRK is still undervalued, the upside is not so great. I'm replacing with PAGP and OKE.

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