John Hjorth

To this day I'm still wondering if the 2020 [green] Elephant Edititon was the last one from Mr. Kilpatric? From reading the CoBF board here during many years, I specifically remember a person posting here on CoBF by the name Marlin, at each new edition since I joined CoBF, and from posts other places here on CoBF [I think it was by Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] , actually I have gathered the perception that Marlin is one of those very rare and early Berkshire investors who have had a very joyfull - and lucrative - ride on the back of their Berkshire shares!? - Andrew Kilpatrick beeing another one of them!

This topic has to me personally recently derailed totally into a trainwreck. All this Nazi talk makes no sense to me. Would any of you posting in this topic blame a 1. or 2. order decendant of Adolf Hitler for Hitlers doings under WW2? -Or for that sake blaim it on any living person of German origin today? Come on - it makes no sense, and you all know it. In Europe, there are likely Nazis in every European country, even here in Denmark. Also, in an other dimension the whole discussion going on in this topic is or has become one-dimensional [,as in "Europe is Europe"]. I'm here talking about the separation of, and distinction of : 1. Europe [Russia west the Ural mountains is actually generally accepted as a part of Europe], 2. EU member [, or not] & 3. NATO member [, or not].

I did spend most of the day alone at home yesterday looking at the major six Canadian banks : RY - Royal Bank of Canada, TD - Toronto Dominion Bank, BNS - Bank of Nova Scotia, BMO - Bank of Montreal, CM - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, & NA - National Bank of Canada. Absolutely awesome experience, fantastic creatures, impressive last ten years development and ROE for them all, some better than others. A banking oligopoly. All built to last for the future. I like the picture of price / risk I see here, also based on what I have read in this topic.

Read this today : Brookfield - White Paper - May 10th 2023 [19 Minute Read] :Three Themes Creating Opportunities in Global Real Estate [Download available on the webpage and attached here]. - - - o 0 o - - - I think on overall basis that this whitepaper at the date of release had merit, and that it still has. I can't see anything else that there is a lot to do that may turn out lucrative all over the palette in any dimension you may prefer and choose, if proper preparation and analysis is carried out before investment decisions are made. Personally, I have no desire to become a landlord at this stage in life by doing direct RE investments - I consider myself too old for such stuff, besides that I don't want to. Actual and present existence too pleasant by now to have it spoiled by tennants calling about defunct plumming, defunct power etc. So I have been looking at listed real estate companies in many places and countries within the last few months, to avoid the operational part of such ownership, by basically paying somebody for that part, to not get involved directly in operational tasks. I think the key to make the right decisions here where we are now in markets is to understand at a deeper level the existing financing of each specific investment object of interest. Brookfield - White Paper - 20230510 - Three Themes in Real Estate May 2023_0 - 20230924.pdf

@scorpioncapital, Trying to answer all parts of your questions would quite a mouthful . Here I will just try to focus and zoom in a bit on European taxes. Wikipedia : Tax rates in Europe. So it should be very clear to you that the taxation of income is individual per nation, with national definitions how to calculate taxable income, including possible and legal deductions included in taxable income.

Russian Black Sea Fleet HQ in Sevastopol getting hammered yesterday. Wild, just wild.

YouTube - BBU 2023 Investor Day session replay. The Sagen presentation by Sagen CEO Stuart Levings starts at around the 20:10 mark. Personally, I perceive the expressions of expectations about what the future will bring by Mr. Levings to be in overall line with what - as in to a high degree similar to - what @Viking has expressed in this topic, while I'm very well aware that the expressions of boths gents are about the future with all what that brings with it, with regard to reservations etc.

I can't help to think, that what I and all other non-administrator members' perceptions of CoBF might be by now doesen't really matter as much as what the guy running the place [joint?] may think of it, most of the time it has not been needed to be a door bouncer, like in some bar, pub or Irish Inn! -But it has happened! I still remember some periods in time, where CoBF was a really unpleasant place to visit, because of the prevalence of bad posting manners among members, combined with primitivity and rudeness to the extremes. Most left by themselves, some got 'help' to do so. To me, the worst period was up to the last presidential election in USA, with trolls in here stirring the pot day in, day out, some even without even just one serious post in the Investment Ideas section of CoBF. Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] must really like us, as a whole! - to keep this thing going!

By the way, Joel [ @racemize ] has just updated his complilation of all existing Howard Marks memos. The compilation starting with the first memo of October 1990 is available for download via Austin Value Capitals Twitter account here . It's a neat and tiny thing, by now consisting of 1,632 pages. Thank you for it, Joel [ @racemize ].

Just to keep @Lucas blood pressure up! -This does not look good and is embarassing for Germany.

Mentioned here in all modesty : Perhaps North America actually could learn something from us Danes about a good solution to this by studying the The Danish Mortgage Model. [Download Link] and attached. As likely all interested in studying this phenomen with rises in interest rates, and the effects of it, may know it's quite bad in Sweden, too, at the moment. When I try to explain to Swedish investors why we don't have a real estate havoc by now here in Denmark, and links to this paper, most of them simply can't grasp the concept of interest rates locked in for 30 years on a mortgage. Finans Danmark - den-klassiske-realkreditmodel_uk_2021_final - 20230922.pdf

At The Brookfield Listed Affiates Investor Day running right now, there was in the presentation of BBU a presentation of Sagen [www.sagen.ca ] by it CEO. [BBU is a part owner of Sagen]. That presentation was especially and also with focus on the expectations for the near future for Sagen about morgage default insurance in the Canadian residential real estate market, so to me certainly relevant to this topic, and I found it interesting. I suppose a video of the session will be made available on the Brookfild website tomorrow.

Thank you all for your posts containing your personal considerations, It's a fascinating discussion going on in this topic by now. Please continue - I hope you will. Where do you consider the big Canadian banks to be situated in this actual situation for Canada?

How about speed on your connection? How is your experience of that? -Thank you in advance.

Mike [ @cubsfan], I can personally assure you, it is!, at least here, locally.

I think my point here would be, let just Putin attack Sweden [ALSO not a NATO member] tomorrow. Because It doesen't matter to anything, anyway, right? It's simply not how things work around here. [And I can assure you, he wouldn't even dare.]

No it's not. What matters is this below [, and all here on CoBF know it, and by the way, all here on CoBF also know, that you also know it] :

Star Link website. I've never visited the website before a few days ago, but I have naturally followed the project on distance during the years via other sources. Visiting the first time, I got to the page - like you likely do also : "Order Starlink". Tried to type actual address in "Service Address" also, followed by pressing the "Order" button. No sweat! : Even experienced autofill on this households relatively obscure address on the border between this city called Odense and its rural surroundings, the city being the third largest city in Denmark in the middle of nowhere [and tiny], to the west from Copenhagen, located at the center of the Danish island called Funen. You may perhaps know the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen better. This is the city, where he was born. Price Danish option "Own" [lowest configuration] : DKK 485.00/mo for service and DKK 3,400.00 for hardware. Price Danish option "Rent" [lowest configuration] : DKK 485.00/mo for service, DKK 112.00/mo for hardware rental & DKK 370.00 activation charge. [DKK 7 ~ USD 1]. - - - o 0 o - - - I would like to read here whatever thoughts, experiences etc. my fellow CoBF board members might have and would want to share in this topic with us all. Thank you very much in advance.

Be careful with what you are posting, @Luca! If you were mentioning the name you would likely be at risk for being called severely biased, based on your personal misogyny. It's great to a place to steam out here, right!?

I coulden't have phrased it better than @no_free_lunch above. Also : Wikipedia : Ukraine - Declaration of Independence. Please also here note which countries were among the first three contries to recognize this on December 2nd 1991 : Poland, Canada and ? ... Russia!.

I'm reading Roger Lowenstein : "When genius failed" about the rise and fall of Long-Term Capital Management as leisure reading by now. I have to say it's awesome! From the very start of Chapter 1 with the title : 'Meriwether' : - It fits this situation perfectly, too! Once you have spent as much as just a few dollars as a state or institution on supporting Ukraine in this situation, you are beyond the point of no return, you are bound and forced to continue to average in on the situation. It's not like Asterix in Britain at tea time : Youtube : Asterix in Britain: it's tea time!. - - - o 0 o - - - Quite evident to me that it feels worrying, disturbing and upsetting for members of CoBF to think about this!

Who do you think this real estate situation in Canada combined with the interest rate increases evetually is going be a pitty for, @Viking [and others, too] ?

The above is not correct. Wikipedia : 2022 Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage.

More detail about what happened to the submarine under the attack on the Sevastopol shipyard. Reads and looks like it's toast & scrap worthy. Please see especially contents of tweet #2 in the thread. It has really taken a beating.

Investigations and reports were carried out by Denmark and Sweden, because the explosions took place in the Baltic waters of these two specific countries. Russia asked for permission to participate in these activities, which was turned down and denied. What was brought forward and released by the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen was that this was indeed sabotage, but he woulden't get into specifics about who was under suspicion, and reports made classified. Reason for this as mentioned by @Luca above. [Pretty un-Danish approach, likely an approach chosen under pressure from allies, I speculate, all with a very "fishy" odor to me personally. Personally to me also, we all have a right to know what this actually was, as a part of the whole picture of what has been going on.] There is no doubt this was sabotage. The Guardian [October 18th 2022] : Nord Stream 1: first underwater images reveal devastating damage