Grenville

Finally starting to read the letters from the start of 1978. Thank you for posting the compilation! Does any one have the 10K's pre 1994? Also I found the commentary helpful here regarding the takeover of Talcott National: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/leucadia-national-corporation-history/

Thanks for the article. Interesting company.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1549575/000154692712000070/dalal13f9302012v3.txt Holdings: BAC C CHK GM GS ZINC

Very interesting story regarding coverage at Statefarm vs Chubb. Hard to know these things until it's too late. Also thanks for the story about GEICO. I hope they keep growing and keep their service levels so high.

more details: Dealbook article with some additional details regarding previous owners and selling owner KKR http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/berkshire-to-buy-oriental-trading-company/ Official press release http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20121102005098/en/Berkshire-Hathaway-Acquire-Oriental-Trading-Company

They are HQ in Omaha. http://www.orientaltrading.com/h3-aboutus.fltr

The phone looks very nice. Lots of cool upgrades. The photo quality and panorama is very nice. here is a link to the presentation: http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2012/

Nice read! Thanks for posting.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thanks! Enjoyed the article and your experience meeting him.

- Canada (Northbridge) 105.6% - U.S. (Crum & Forster and Zenith National) 107.0% - Asia (Fairfax Asia) 88.8 % Reinsurance - OdysseyRe 85.8 % Insurance and Reinsurance - Other 100.9% Insurance and reinsurance operations 97.5% Glad we have ORH, growing and writing profitably

Thanks for mentioning that bit. I am enjoying the story about A.P. Giannini and his acumen as an entrepreneur and businessman.

Started reading Biography of a Bank. Enjoying it so far, just 70 pages in. I liked this quote: "At thirty-one A.P. Giannini had formulated the philosophy concerning the accumulation of personal wealth that he was to carry through life. "I don't want to be rich," he said. "No man actually owns a fortune; it owns him." p.9 (1954 edition)

Petec, that's it! Thank you so much. I kept re-listening to that bit to figure out what came before the "bank" when he said the name. The book was written in 1954 so it lines up with Buffett's comment of reading it in his mid 20's.

Any idea what the name of the book is that Warren refers to reading when he was 20. It helped him understand the breadth of Bank of America. I couldn't catch the full title. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/buffett-no-question-jamie-dimon-tells-the-truth-s7jGOsZ0TI6p_VSBkgtDKg.html It's between the 4 & 5 minute mark.

Thank you for the post!

I haven't seen it reported anywhere, but MBIA for example is reporting a certain amount that it will recover. From the Q1 2012 release: expected RMBS recoveries are 3.2bln and cumulative total incurred loan losses is 4.8bln.

It looks like BAC tried to settle with MBIA in the past and they must not have been able to come to an agreement, see the article below from last July. I agree that prolonging the litigation does raise a decent amount of risk. The other side is that MBIA isn't allowed to write any new business until the 78 proceedings are complete. I don't know if they are unable to write new business if they win the current trial and BAC appeals it. The other option is to put Countrywide into BK. I'd prefer a settlement and move on.

Eddie Lampert moving firm to Miami, loses COO http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/lampert_beats_it_fRKpuZePmjBxqR69cmJcAK?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Business I wonder if Berkowitz and Eddie would join forces now that they're both working in the same area and have a decent investment in SHLD.

Isn't Sean Egan from a ratings company, he's not a hedge fund.

From the Q3 2011 NAIC filing, their counter parties are: Deutche Bank, Citibank Canada & JP Morgan Chase

My reply from another thread: The question was asked at the AGM. Brian Bradstreet answered the question, and he said it was a good question. It is a real risk with the CPI derivatives, but he said there will be some work out solution if the Euro dissolves itself. If I remember correctly he said there may be a weighted measurement of the CPI across various countries. He mentioned that the TIPS market in the Euro is big as well and they'll need a solution if the Euro dismantles.

Warren's letter to the newspapers: http://dataomaha.com/documents/warren-buffetts-letter-to-publishers-and-editors

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/patriot-coal-plunges-report-bankruptcy-advisor-pitch