John Hjorth

@Eldad, This topic was started December 18th 2013, when CoBF was running on a Simple Machines software platform. A few years ago, a conversion to the Invision software platform took place. I speculate this poll [the poll related to this topic] - and a lot of other polls - for all of us - unfortunately went south in that conversion, so this is a condition we can only circumvent by starting up a new topic about it with a [new] poll.

I've tried today to look around a bit for this book, inspired by what has been posted recently here on CoBF about charty activities and Charlie Mungers will, where Andrew Carnegie was a major philantropist. I ended up being severely confused, because I could find so many editions of the book, that I wasen't able to distinguish them from each other. I do not recall having had similar experience earlier with any book since my start of investing. And the price spread I experienced today of what I see as first hand books was huge. Any help, - if any available - is very much appreciated.

Reading up on this topic by reading it up backwards. Then met this sentence by @Viking again. It was like if I was hit by a club over the head. The shortest great advice about how to live your own life in way so that by giving it attention now and then gets and adds some kind of structure with regard to those aspects that are important to you personally of life, and if you are a family member, to your spouse / partner, and to your kids, if you have any. Things in life may not turn out as originally thought and intended, so you may end up a place not expected. In that case, recalibrate course and direction, but never loose course and direction.

Thank you to @yesman182 for elaborating, and thank you to @gfp for elaborating on the reply side. Personally, I consider this topic to be about the omitted position[s] [It could actually be more than one] in Berskhires latest 13F-HR, filed at SEC February 14th 2024, containing this message [in blue font] :

@yesman182, Where and when? - What do you mean?

Yeah, Wow, indeed, Monday I'll make sure to get appointments, to get checked, that : I'm not in need of new glasses for my hearing, & that I'm not in need of new hearing aids for my vision.

He must have had the Pope on the phone, who may want to sell. Next : The Vatican City.

Can you see the twinkle in the eyes of Mr. Buffett? He is as fresh as a sea eagle in a headwind - and that at the age 93! I sincerely hope his voice does not let him down under whole session. - And then, right now it's like his speeding up, after - slowly - warming up!

The CNBC page streaming the AGM is now on a countdown.

When I wrote here on CoBF about the Swedish Real Estate Crisis evolving last year, I felt confident both CAST and BALD already then were in deep trouble with regard to their financings looking forward. It seems both companies so far have steared clear of troubled and unsuccessful refinancings, triggering forced and uncontrolled massive assets sales, however it's not over yet. The effort here for my part is over time to build a modest basket of a portfolio of Scandinavian listed real estate companies with a low entry point, for the purpose of holding it for the long term.

Right now, @Spooky, I really can't come up with a central and gathering place as a goog place to read and study where and what NICO is in the total Berkshire over time and today. It's almost as a shadow and very private holding company that is likely the most important subsidiary of the public and listed holding company Berkshire Hathaway. In my early years I did spend enormous amounts of time studying all kinds of Berskhire-related stuff, all while also building the position, and NICO did pop up basically all over the place.

Started with small positions today in : BALB B.STO [Fastighetsbolaget Balder AB, ser. B, Göteborg, Sweden], & CAST.STO [Castellum AB, Stockholm, Sweden]. I may change my mind about them and sell them at any moment, thereby considering the buys of them errors.

It's a good one, @gfp, Or, 1. - like in posts above, where a dividend from Bershire is desparately needed for the shareholders, because Berskhire is underperforming, and the large positions in the portfolio desparately needs to be sold [AAPL, BAC, AXP, KO], while some seem to forget those positions are indeed financed by insurance float and also partly by basically massive, free and deferred taxes on giant unrealized capital gains. Talk of dividends of perhaps USD 250B or USD 100 B, while the insurance group as a whole at YE2023 has a max. dividend capacity of USD 31 B, and holding company cash and T-Bills at YE2023 is USD 22 B. Typically suggested by people who trade around quite a lot, and never tell anything about their own track record. 2. - 'Breaking' the whole thing 'up' by splitting it to atoms, to 'get the real values to surface', [likely by the use a particle accelerator at CERN to put the company in or something like that?]. Typically suggested by people who aren't aware of the central role of NICO in the group structure and all the implications of that and no understanding of the inner workings of insurance float.

@ValueArb, You appear to disregard or forget, that large parts of the stock portfolio is owned inside the insurance part of Berkshre, that the insurance group is subject to regulation on it's capital levels, thereby introcing dividend restrictions. I'm not even sure a dividend of USD 250 B or USD 100 B is possible / feasible.

We will - our memories will - sort this garbage out, suppress, compress and delete this part of a nice day. True and cardholding Berkaholics have proper countermeasures installed in case of such events. - - - o 0 o - - - Especially for those of you who have chosen to attend physically, I wish you an awesome time in Omaha!

All those F-16 fighters donated last last year to Ukraine by several allies, where the heck are they, and what are they doing? - Accumulating dust somewhere in a hangar?

@Irv72, If it's OK to send airplanes, drones, tanks and all other kinds of military hardware etc. - plus ammunition - as contributions to the warfare of Ukraines fight against Russia, what is then the problem with providing funds to Ukraine for hiring of an army of mercenaries?

Greg [ @Gregmal ], At least here, and I think in the majority of European contries the concept of the right of being Conscientious objector is instated, and also here in Denmark combined with the duty of Alternative civilian service. I don't think the right of being a conscientous objector here is in any way conditional to the countrys state of war or non war, which as I see things must be a balance between the conflict of the countrys needs and the freedom[s] of the individual citizens in the country.

Agreed. +1

From the local duck ond : Danish Ministry of Defence - Ongoing operations : Danish military support for Ukraine. Please try to expand the expandable '+'s a bit down in the article in the gray area. - - - o 0 o - - - Meanwhile take a look at this : Danish Ministry of Defence : The Danish Government proposes to fast-track key investments in defence and security. - - - o 0 o - - - So we [tiny Denmark] have been giving so much stuff and hardware to Ukraine, that in reality, we [tiny Denmark] aren't any longer capable of defending our selves, given the present circumstances and conditions. [<- ?] Wise. [<- ?]

Reuters - European Markets [April 27th 2024] : Russian think tank warns of stagnating industrial output, investment. I have posted about it before, - here, we go again : There is no way for Russia to avoid negative first order and up to xth order negative side effect on the Russian Economy by suddenly [and as done] reallocating a futher large part of public funds to running Russia as a war economy. The hostages and victims in this game will be the children in the population [Russias future], the elderly part of the population, and those for who life in general have giving them lemons, perhaps already starting by taking part in the ovarial lottery. It's sad and frustrating to think about.

Luca [ @Luca ], You definitely need to open a new topic in the COBF Books forum about this book.

Yeah, the concept 'company limited liability' is indeed a complicated legal matter. The legal basis is the legal form for the actual legal entity in mention, and what may furthermore be stated in the articles of association and bylaws of the legal entity. Also, some creditors may be capped one way or an other, [i.e. 'non recource' certain pledged asset[s]]. If a creditor may want to excercise some kind of economic responsibility for the obligations of the legal entity against the legal entitys owners, the creditor has to establish a causuality between the creditors receivable and the owners responsibity and actual actions. This isen't - in general - trivial by any means.

Bloomberg - Politics [April 26th 2024] : Sweden Ramps Up Defense Spending Goal to 2.6%, Past NATO Target, & Bloomberg - Politics [April 24th 2024] : Global Military Spending Tops $2 Trillion for First Time as Europe Boosts Defenses.[1] - - - o 0 o - - - Something is actually happening and going on, Mike [ @cubsfan ] et. al. As with everything related to Politics, things take time, and is subject to a lot of inertia. - Personally, I'm feeling confident, the general European sentiment about actual political support for the war of Ukraine against Russia now gradually is changing from 'empty / hollow' talk to real action. Btw : How is it even possible to talk while [dam'n] thumb sucking?! _______ [1] I have today without luck tried to verify the data in the article on the NATO webpage.

Yeah, The US justice system in operation and at its finest. Something to think about here.