cubsfan

Frost Bank in Texas (CFR) - quite disciplined. Avoided dumb lending during housing boom and same during energy boom and declines. Republic First Bank (FRBK) - fascinating bank running the growth model of Commerce Bank. Fantastic service and low cost deposit model. Vernon Hill is COB. Metro Bank (MTRO:LN) - same as FRBK, except UK based.

+24% - I'll take it. Should probably learn about bitcoin! Congratulations to everyone. Shocking to see such huge years. Hope some of it rubs off!

Thanks John - just ordered it too. Nate does a terrific job.

Allergan - AGN

love it !

BG - Good seeing you here last month. I wished you lived in Chicago. I need someone like you here to kick my ass! Good luck and stay in shape buddy!

I love Grantham - imagine you are the pension fund manager for Joseph Stalin: you under-perform his target benchmark, and you are shot. You over-perform, and you get a Black Sea vacation, and a dacha in the country. Now that is real career risk!

DD - we're voting you in on that one. Get up at 2:00am, get in line, and you'll be first guy at the mike I'm sleeping in!

Stubble - fair point: Those distinctions would make an excellent question for the annual meeting. I certainly don't understand it that way, and it would be good for Buffett to clarify - because he makes no such distinction/exception in the Owner's Manual.

Direct from the Owner's Manual: 11. You should be fully aware of one attitude Charlie and I share that hurts our financial performance: Regardless of price, we have no interest at all in selling any good businesses that Berkshire owns......... Nevertheless, gin rummy managerial behavior (discard your least promising business at each turn) is not our style. We would rather have our overall results penalized a bit than engage in that kind of behavior. IF you are going to pontificate on a breakup of Berkshire - I think it's very unlikely to happen. Warren keeps his promises, and Howard Buffett, as the keeper of the culture is going to enforce this promise long after Warren has left the scene.

I can't see how a breakup of Berkshire is even possible. Correct me if I am wrong, but Buffett made a promise to those owners who sold their business to him - that those businesses would not be sold, that Berkshire would be a permanent home for thier life's work. Isn't that the case? So unless labor relationships change or the businesses look like unending losses, Berkshire is not going to sell wholly owned business to make a few extra dollars. I think, even the Owner's Manual published by Buffett, even warns new investors coming in - that that is the case. Am I missing something here??

I love seeing BRK on a tear, as I own a ton. But the value creation might be overestimated in reality. As BRK has a number of permanent stock holdings that will never get sold - so the economic impact is zero even though BV increases.

It was meant as a joke, cubsfan. [ ; - ) ] - We have this separate topic in the General Discussion forum "Please tell me a joke..." T&T slapping does not qualify in that particular topic, because the jokes have to be PC [<-relative to this board]. So, basically I just chose to post my comment here, in this topic. Choice between plague and colera. I just couldn't help it, I had to get it out. [ :-) ] Peace. [ :-) ] John - no offense taken at all - I'm a little dense at times - keep the faith.

Don't be too hard on T & T - if Todd brings Berk another deal like Precision Cast Parts (which Warren said he never heard of), then the boys will earn their keep.

I'm still adding to BAM, DVA & WFC - but also started a position in HBI, which looks pretty interesting.

they are copyrighted, hopefully, one of these days, author will make the available. OID is inactive, the website no longer exists, the phone lines are down. Besides, how does copyright anyhow prevail over the contents of a public meeting whose contents were transcribed, not created by OID? No expert in copyright law, but this seems odd to me. Wouldn't the copyright belong to the original speakers i.e. Buffett and Munger? OID took great care to create and published the transcripts from their notes, so you will have to ask them. Buffett didn't provide it to them. I'm not defending them just stating the facts.

they are copyrighted, hopefully, one of these days, author will make the available.

The Clayton stuff was a smear campaign done by a Seattle newspaper. The "investigative" reporter got all his facts wrong, sensationalized the mistreatment of the poor. Was all addressed and refuted by Buffett and Clayton. No apology ever forthcoming from scumbag reporter or editor.

Shows you why OID was worth the money - it was pricey - but the WESCO and BRK meeting transcripts are priceless. A hell of a lot more expensive than this book - but well worth it.

I hear/read this sentiment about mutual funds a lot. What are you comparing MFs to in order to have this opinion - hedge funds, SMAs? Where's the evidence that MFs have done worse than their active counterparts? Everything I've seen suggests MFs have crushed HF returns in recent years. Also, what he has done with the amount of assets he manages is nothing short of incredible. Managing a personal portfolio of a couple hundred thousand doesn't even begin to compare with a 40 Act, let alone a multi-billion 40 Act. Well, for one you almost never see a mutual fund (non sector specific) manager out perform by more than 1-2% over a decade vs the market (the elites, like SEQUX) have done about 4% annually but even that has trailed over the past decade). You do see that in hedge funds. There are quite a few hedge funds that have done better than 4% annually. For others interested in Tillinghast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAINC-3dcig Thanks for posting the interview. He's brilliant.

What's your personal take on this, especially from the angle that it's on SA, Liberty? Personally, I'm in doubt about what to think. Naturally shorting is ruthless, if you are wrong. Personally, I do not short, and if I did short, I would never even think about shorting a company's stock which was run by a friend. It would just be a no-go. Just pay back time? My take is this. Tilson got the letter, and he decided to meet with Hastings. He figured out Hastings was sincere and Tilson then decided he was wrong about Netflix and went long. He make a ton of money off of it eventually.

This guy is an idiot. Total click bait. Buffett really eats like he says he does.

Yes - "The buck stops nowhere" Total crap from a large IT organization that has multiple sign offs and procedures for change control. Their business is IT financial services and it makes them look very dishonest.

So true, Spekulatius, This is certainly severe, thereby the company is simply not investable. The whole apperatus in the US hasen't started yet - I wonder what it will bring? Think the big US banks post GFC, think the Macondo Blow Out, think Volkswagen. The real culprits stand in court, pulling their pockets in their trousers inside out, stating: "I have no money", and the real risk takers - the shareholders - end up picking up the tap at the bar. US logic. Do you recognize the pattern?: New York Times: Equifax Breach Caused by Lone Employee’s Error, Former C.E.O. Says. Yea, sounds like total BS to me.

Prasad, Mohnish, is certainly impressive in that he had the integrity to make his clients whole: + 6% / annum after 10 yrs. However, 6% return in 10 yrs is a 80% gain, the S&P 500 TR has return more than that in 10yrs, so as you said, he made a profit something like $8M above expenses, all for lagging the S&P500 TR. Just want to clarify things for real...... thanks I'm really having trouble with this - Monish has smoked the S&P on all, but I believe one of his funds. Where are you getting your data? Are we going down this performance rathole again on the Pabrai funds?