frith2012

First off, good luck at the interview. Here are my quick thoughts FWIW: 1. Insurance as a whole is a terrible, commodity business although there are some niche areas of the P&C business like Markel's Excess & Surplus lines that seem to make money over time 2. Combined Ratios tell the first half of the story. (Claims + Operating Costs)/Premiums= Combined. Most insurers run combined ratios north of 100% (ie they lose money on the underwriting business) and then hope (and often pray) that they make money on the investing side via the float. 3. The reserve developments tell the other half of the story. Insurance, like most businesses, is a tug-of-war between the balance sheet and the income statement. Because of the mismatch between financial statements, typically issued annually, and often longer lived insurance policies, an insurer can make their financial statements say whatever they want in a given year. As a result, the change in the reserves over time is a key metric to watch. If the insurer was conservative in the first place, they should be releasing reserves over time ie they put too much money in the piggy bank to pay future claims and so they get to take some back out and put it into their (the shareholder's) pockets. 4. Reinsurance is more commoditized than the traditional P&C given it's low barriers to entry (at least from outside of the US),

anybody have a link to the article where Greenwald discusses the competitive positioning of railroads? I don't remember hearing him discuss this. Thanks.

The 13F comes from the filing entity, Fairholme Capital Management LLC, and would include both MF and HF holdings so the 13F will be an aggregate filing. Non '40 Act partnerships don't have separate holdings filings, unlike '40 act funds such as mutual funds which have their N-Qs and CSRs.

Charlotte, NC

I love the print version of Value Line. It's a great way to methodically review a lot of companies (around 1750) every quarter and can make a difference in noticing small changes within a business.

Anyone done much work around the Canadian and/or Australian bank shorts?

Munger said at last year's annual meeting that the idea of exporting our nation's natural resources at all time low prices is one of the dumbest ideas he's ever heard. Furthermore, he said that he thought we should consume the rest of the world's energy reserves first before we start consuming our domestic ones.

Someone we all know made the comment along the way to value things in a per unit basis. For example, if you're looking at an oil company, how much are you paying per barrell of oil. In that context, here are a couple ideas: retail: sales/sf Oil and gas e&p companies: price/barrell or boe real estate companies: price per acre (you can apply this to homebuilders, real estate developers, retailers with land holdings, etc...)

Anyone done any recent work on the gold miners? I know these are perpetually hated but they've been getting crushed lately on no news. Specifically, Allied Nevada (ANV), a Baupost holding, is down over 60% this year. They've been selling but still hold about $35m worth. Any thoughts would be appreciated

bmichaud- Do you know if there's a way to get access to the Off Wall Street research? I've never seen it before but their track record is impressive. Thanks. -Frith2012

Does anyone have the collection of Walter Schloss letters? I used to have it but must have misplaced it. Happy to swap anything that I do have if that is helpful. Thanks!

Greenlight Re is interesting in theory because it allows one to gain access to Einhorn at slightly better terms. However, they have a very poor recent track record in underwriting so you'd need to discount the valuation accordingly, depending on whether or not you believe this will continue. Their combined ratios have exceeded 100% over the past couple of years which is also worse than market. This mainly stems from a truck line of insurance that they mistakenly underwrote.

The prospectus says that the proceeds of issuance will be used to repay the 2013 short term notes.

Does anyone know any great investors in South America, specifically Colombia and/or Chile? It seems like we're inundated with US fund manager info/holdings but don't see much about value investors in South America. Anyone have thoughts? Thanks!

It'd be interesting to put together a list of owner operators, similar to the good companies list from a few days ago. Murray Stahl's writing it probably a good place to start but I'd throw in a couple more: Stryker, CR Bard, Rollins, Walmart.