John Hjorth

Somehow, we should take and accept at par what the man himself has to say about it - in writing to his clients : Latest SAI Client Letter, p. 145 : I don't know how you read it, but I read it as material matter of a conscious a priori decision now 25 years ago about achieving and sustaining staying power in this game, not to end up as day fly in a constantly changing investment universe. Personally, I do not only understand that stance, I actually respect it. It is about defining 'the mission', so clients understand it, and can relate to it. Satisfied clients are a prerequisite for wanting to go to work, otherwise you're ruining your own life. It is about creating an upwards spinning wheel, not a downwards. - - - o 0 o - - - I dare guess that Semper Augustus' investment vehicle[s <- ??] is [ are <- ??] some kind of a non-permanent capital legal entity, by the way. I may be totally wrong about that.

Thank you, @UK !, Added to wish list. [For once, a book where I share interest with the Lady of the House, I think!] - - - o 0 o - - - Edit : I saw your edit now, expanding proposed readings or where to look from one to three. Thank you again!

Point taken, @Dinar , Where would you propose to read about that?

Thank you for sharing, @UK, Deeply worrying. Today I have pressed 'Follow' on Reuters at the subsection 'World' <dropdown> -> 'Ukraine and Russia at War', by the use of my free Reuters account. Better be prepared than sorry. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen has been in the political game for several decades and he is an experienced, driven and astute politician, not naive. I have seen him interviewed on TV where he openly and honestly admitted that some time now years back he made the serious mistake to trust Vladimir Putin on any matter, remembering being in Restaurant 'Grøften' [<- translates to 'The ditch' [mind the symbolic]] in Tivoli in Copenhagen, getting a beer [likely Carlsberg] with Putin, thinking he [Putin] was an OK guy : [Obviously Putin liked the beer, and has now taken the Russian Carlsberg subsidiary. Carlsberg booked a loss of DKK 48 B [~ USD 7 B] in 2023 related to this 'transaction'.] I thank God that I did not own Carlsberg shares when that story broke, it would certainly not have been good for my blood pressure!

Today, I received a letter and a brochure in my digital inbox from the Danish State, the Danish Emergency Management Agency, containing advice about how to prep, for the purpose of staying self served for three days and nights. I do not recall ever in my life before to have received something similar from the public here in nice and cosy Denmark. It says a lot about the general sentiment here and it is certainly related to the geopolitical sentiment in society here. Beredskabsstyrelsen - Letter - 20240909.pdf Beredsskabsstyrelsen - Prep Brochure - 20240909.pdf -forberedt-pa-kriser_en-.pdf

Mind you, you're on the Berkshire Hathaway turf of CoBF. I don't know Mr. Bloomstran personally, nor am I a Semper Augustus client [, nor will I ever be], so I have not asked him any questions, - at all, at anytime. Latest SAI Letter speaks for it self. To me, at least, and at all, pretty candid, actually really nobody protected. What tf is it with you? - Don't you understand how lame your proposal is with regard to ever ask any - what so ever - a question - again - after asking this question? Here, I'm guessing / speculating, as well as you are. Personally, I think the quoted text above can't really be misunderstood, but that may just be me. Now, enough of this. I have really had enough of this. Take the discussion up with Mr. Bloomstran yourself. I'm not his shrink, nor his client. Next time, you ask a question like you did in this topic above, you may not only 'miss' reactions from me, perhaps also from others, whose opinion may be of your interest. Meaning you are welcome to dump my comment about 'lack of trust' from Mr. Bloomstran towards mr. Mr. V. Prem Watsa, for your own part, however Mr. Watsa may very well be aware of that, already, as a fact. Thank you.

Thanks, [at least for my part], meaning Mr. Bloomstran does not trust Fairfax management anywhere near to his trust of Berkshire management by now. Things appear on surface so complicated, while some times they are so simple. Please place your bets.

Personally, I think this question - if else I understand it correctly [I'm not sure, at all, of that] - should be discussed in separate topic. I understand your question as related to what Mr. Buffett and Berkshire is doing with its own stock. Is so, please go somewhere else than this topic, to discuss. Now who is 'he' in your post above?

It is certainly also about the way capital surplus is put to work [buying operating businesses in stead of just hoarding more bonds], thus just the use for my part of one word alone 'strength' as the common denominator, but please just let it go from here.

Mr. Bloomstran obviously prefers the strength of Berkshires oufit and setup compared to that of Fairfax. SAI 2023 Client Letter, p. 125 : I have no idea of his level of insight to or interest in Fairfax, all stated while I think what has been going on at Fairfax might have skipped the attention of the general investment community, while the pocket and odd corner of that called CoBF might be a strong exemption to that.

@Luke, I do not disagree with you, nor am I trying to change your mind, but I try to stay a bit more openminded and forthcoming towards reasoning and arguments from persons with other approaches or stances than mine, that is like a hardcore anal cheapskate attitude towards fees and commisions of all kinds! [To get the notes, you have to collect and hoard the coins!]

@Luke , Somewhere else, - in the 'BerKshire / Buffett - General News' topic, a short time ago Charlie [ @dealraker ] mentioned his personal considerations in that respect, that to me actually might make some sense, while I still think [speculate] the majority of the members of CoBF are on a personal level wired totally different than that [ Link ] : All stated by me based on that I don't know anything about Semper Augustus' modus operandi of client services and handling except from knowing the contents of the public available client letters. Client services and handling may contain things we aren't aware of.

@Luke , The man, who raised me professionally, he had a saying, that only came from him under verbal overflow, when he was frustrated about something : 'John, please remember, if we did not have all these clients, we would not have any problems at all!' [<- Huh?, try to think about it!]. He passed away much too early, twelve years ago [his heart decided to call it a day], three years into his retirement, he never really got to enjoy the good times without demanding work and with enough money in his purse and on his bank account. Think Munger about billing clients when he was practising law. One have to be mentally wired in a very special way to have fun chasing the combination of AUM and returns, in stead of returns alone, I think. To this day I still think that Buffett using Berkshire as a permanent capital vehicle to buy NICO was not a mistake. I would argue, that the world does not necessarily fall apart, if we don't have any of these light blue things : Ferrari, car colour matching sports shoes, pool. But each to their own, of course.

Yeah, @charlieruane , For my part, Monish Pabrai is in his very own separate and individiual leage here, but for me based on personal and subjective evaluations and assessments about his motives and actions about and why he is doing what. He has been giving up basically about everything he earns - and have done so for many years now, by giving it to Dakshana Foundation. And I would say say, with tremendous success, simply keep the ball rolling and creating opportunities for young people with a technical background, who want to proceed and succeed in life. He is simply the catalyst to make good things happpen, for other people than himself, which is amazing. Nobody can paint a picture to something similar about Mr. Bloomstran or Mr. Spier, compared to Mr. Paprai's doings so far.

Hereby personally bought at par .

I'll give you that, @charlieruane, it appears true. However Mr. Spier is also - like Mr. Bloomstran - one of those money managers, who charge fees against limited partners for doing nothing with a material position in Berkshire, in stead of politely asking those limited partners buying Berkshire directly themselves for own personal account for their personal very best [EOP 2024H1 : ~29 %, USD 75.563 M]. [It's to me so unbelieable [and material] easy money, that it should not be considered a service of value at all]. I have a hard time understanding somebody may be so dumb with material sums of capital without even thinking about it, but that may just be me. Anyway, it does not dress Mr. Bloomstran, nor Mr. Spier, well, despite each to their own, and that none of us are set on this this planet to solve all its problems.

Charlie [ @dealraker ], Detailed information about fees are actually for everyone to study on the last page of the latest Client Letter. There appear to be after fee-performance available. The funny thing about it is I get so much data thrown my way from the page, that I'm not even sure I understand it correctly. To me, it looks like a CAGR 1 percent fee drag included in net performance compared to gross, however I'm not sure of it. Berkshire cost of delegation of capital allocation [including access to non-listed investments, you can't buy your self in the market] : Holdco costs 2023 : USD 244 M. Average equity 2023 : USD [[473,424 M + USD 561,273]/2] = USD 517,349 M, meaning, thus : HoldCo costs at : 244 / 517,349 ~ 0,05 %. Why on earth are people representing and owning Berkshire shares for a market value at EOP 2024H1 of USD 175 M [174,809,000, to be exact] [Semper Augustus's position [A + B] , as per Dataroma] paying USD 1.75 M [1 %] in fees [in aggregate] in stead of buying and holding the damn thing themselves?

Posted by Charlie [ @dealraker ] in the 'Berkshire/Buffett - General News' topic today, related to Semper Augustus and Chris Bloomstran separately from Berkshire, thus by copying and pasting grabbed and continued here : Link to Charlies post. Based on that, I looked at Dataroma : That does not exactly look like fun, being ~38% down from EOP 2024H1 to to date on a at then ~10 % position in this general market. 'We can't win them all' and 'There are no called strikes in this game' and all that. 'Itch to act' [as alternative to 'just' being promotional]?

@Xerxes, Yes, that's actually valid points. If his points were formulated and phrased in a more polite and balanced way, his response might have had a chance for getting printed. And with regard to your quote above from the tweet post [<- Google is my friend] on X, there is just to say that bying the index compared to buying Berkshire are two totally different investments, plain and simple, which is also the very reason and cause for the eternal onging discussion of it, ref. Mr. Bloomstrans use of 'better'. Its all about subjective [personal] perceived judgements about expected returns and assumed risks forward looking. I personally think his points are correct, ref. his great and voluminous work publised during the years [, which I actually really appreciate, and I am thankful for free access to it], but the form in this situation reminds me of that of a very protective terrier.

Yeah, YouTube : (Explained) The Things You Own End Up Owning You... - Especially, like in the first comment : 'Don't buy shit. Steal it!' [Which is actually what we aim at ... ]

SWR explained, thanks for bringing this concept into the discussion, James [ @james22 ].

Yeah, it's really bad, but such excessive and extremely long term investment horizons, such as 30 days, aren't really of relevance while investing in the Mag7, at least we should be careful with such, right? Mind you, also, that Gretha Tunberg got arrested today. Add to that, crane flies are now all over the place. So, proceed with extreme caution is certainly advised.

@Luke , Please add source by editing to your last post above for the readers understanding of content and context, thank you.

Thank you, @UK , I'm sorry for bothering you with these questions twice ... - your factual replies adds up - by logic - to a great extent to what you have posted in this topic - at least to me, that is.

Scribbles by Schumpeter on The Economist yesterday : The Economist - Business [September 3rd 2024] : Has Warren Buffett lost his touch? Assessing Berkshire Hathaway’s recent performance. And [naturally and of course, I'm tempted to express], a bit later, 'da man from St. Louis, who ain't hard to find' [and who has nitpicked [dressed in boxing gloves] Berkshires track record from front, from behind, in the left ear and last the right ear] almost explodes on X with a call to all subscribers of The Economist to cancel their subscriptions! Damn, it's good entertainment! - Also the cartoon above [Likely a KAL thingy] ! - - - o 0 o - - - The Berkshire track record is what it is, and has already been nitpicked in all aspects and nuances - over and over again. That horse has alreday been beaten to death, I would say.