cubsfan

You have a good point - and that visual is enough to keep me away..

Merry Christmas to all of you ! I offer my sincere apology to ALL of you for delving into the subject of politics at all this year. I'm done for good - and promise to be a better citizen of CoBF going forward. Peace to all the great minds here.

Thanks - only good news of the day.

Doug Kass loved to put these shorts out on BRK when it was a little pricey - always got the headlines and scalped a few bucks here and there. Even got him an invitation to be the featured short bear at the Berkshire meeting on the panel with Becky Quick, etc - where he shamelessly promoted himself in front of 40,000 attendees.

There is no doubt China has been the leader in industrial espionage. The Chinese Red Army steals trade secrets every day. It's been going on for years. I have friends who work at CrowdStrike and have traced so much of the activity back to the Chinese Red Army. This hardware play is new to me though, but on the software side, it's a business for them. The US government has know about this for years, but feeling that China may actually move toward democracy, and being such a valuable trading partner, etc - we've not rocked the boat. The plan always seem to just try and block them via technology. Perhaps shining the spotlight on them with the public is the right way to go.

Fantastic - thanks for posting!

Most boards are lap dogs anyway, what the heck - might as well spread it around to the women. Good for them!

But these are perfectly good reasons for retaliatory tariffs on China - as they do not protect US producers and have been stealing US intellectual property for years, both here and in China. If Chinese IP was stolen by US companies in the USA - the US company or individuals would be prosecuted and protected by our government. We are a nation of laws and respect the rights of others. The Chinese are not. Trump is using his leverage and doing the right thing.

COB - Chairman Of the Board But I don't know what it is in Danish - ha!

Thank you, Mike. My pleasure John - thank you!

Hi. I've been looking a bit into that. Seems very interesting. Have you seen a decent writeup anywhere or mind to share a couple of points? What's obvious is the deposit growth, which is incredible. The culture is based on the Commerce Bank model, that Vernon Hill "invented" in America. The culture is real - I can tell you that. Both customers and employees love this company. You have 56 "stores" going to 100-130, roughly in 5-6 years. The "store model" is totally repeatable - and UK will eventually support, perhaps, 200 stores. There are structural reasons for the growth - by that I mean - the UK banking sector is being forced to shrink (I mean the legacy banks) as the UK regulators and the public's interests have not been served. (RBS is still 65% owned by gov). So some assets are being dispersed, the market is opening up, and legacy branches have closed at a fast rate due to cost cutting and poor locations. So there are significant industry tailwinds for the growth of "challenger" banks. Metro is the best of them all. It's the fastest growing bank I have ever seen in my life.

Hi. I've been looking a bit into that. Seems very interesting. Have you seen a decent writeup anywhere or mind to share a couple of points? If you PM me - I will send you a writeup. I spent 2 days onsite in London in June at the bank.

Added to Metro Bank (MTRO.L) - UK exchange

It seems safe to say in retrospect that June 26th at 186.44 closing price was an attractive buying opportunity for Berkshire. BRK up 18% since, SPX up 6.75% We buy when Berkshire gets cheap - because we know how to value it - regardless of the index performance or correlation. Just soo true. It's extremely cumbersome & boring, occupies a lot time to read everything on the Berkshire forum here on CoBF and to discusss [World's best place to discuss Berkshire, I may add!]. - And still we all have personal opinions about a lot of things absolutely not being somewhere near optimal at Berkshire... I, for one, still can't find a modest praying carpet on the Berkshire Wear website ... [<- J/K] John - the Motley Fool Board on BRK has some outstanding commentary and valuation analysis as well. FYI.

Good for you Parsad - done!

I am a big fan of the "Dhandho Investor" - that is what I given out to all newbies. It that doesn't resonate, then I'm not sure the value track is up their alley.

Love it!

If they don't purchase it, it will not be for ROE reasons. $20 million is a drop in the bucket, and the purchase would be more for sentimental reasons kind of like the local newspapers. Having said that I am sure $20 m overvalues the building. Having Berkshire as a tenant means people might be willing to pay up for it. You know, that's a good point - if people are willing to pay $3M to have lunch with Warren, why not buy the building, you might get to have lunch with him a lot more often!

I loved my Jag - about my favorite car - but I would never buy one again. Too many problems & expensive repairs. I live in Illinois, and always seemed to have trouble passing the emissions test - neither the Jag dealer or the State could ever figure out the issues. Pretty awesome and fun car - if you do buy one - I'd suggest you have it covered under warranty the entire period.

I don’t think we have ever seen a president surrounding himself with so many crooks and lowlifes ever- Manafort, Ross, Nunberg , Scaramucci, Pruitt etc. Feels like a banana republic to me. Surreal. Yea, except for Obama - Hillary, Rosenstien, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Susan Rice, Reverend Wright, etc, etc..... Why exactly is Susan Rice for example a crook? Reverend Wright was quickly sacked and never part of the government or even campaign in any way. Not the nicest fellow in my book, I agree on that. Susan Rice - ok, you got me there. She's not a crook, but she's the worst kind of liar and sleaze in the Obama administration. 4 American heroes died in Benghazi - but she engineered the coverup with the phony video story. It was a spontaneous attack fueled by that damn video! - because the Arab world loves President Obama - how could it have been anything else?? Of course it was not a planned terrorist attack? She dishonored those 4 heroes for political gain - pure and simple. It cost her the Secretary of State job.

I don’t think we have ever seen a president surrounding himself with so many crooks and lowlifes ever- Manafort, Ross, Nunberg , Scaramucci, Pruitt etc. Feels like a banana republic to me. Surreal. Yea, except for Obama - Hillary, Rosenstien, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Susan Rice, Reverend Wright, etc, etc.....

It's so good to see Warren change his mind on these things.

Here you go: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180717006046/en/ Under the amendment adopted by the Board of Directors, share repurchases can be made at any time that both Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s Chairman and CEO, and Charlie Munger, a Berkshire Vice Chairman, believe that the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, conservatively determined.

Viking - that's a really great little website - thanks for posting.

Wow - great material - you guys are awesome.