John Hjorth

It's interesting topics that you bring up here, Jurgis. I suggest you just do the respective topic splits by starting new topics.

KinAlberta, We discussed on the 6th of August in this topic.

Saturday I spent some hours trying to find out, if SAN had some exposure against Italian banks and/or Italy in general, basicly to no avail, because the needed specifications and notes in the financial statements about the off balance sheet items were not there specified by country. One thing that caught my attention during that work was that SAN has a separate section desribing reputational risk. To me, Mr. Donegan is adding reputational risk to the whole BRK system, if things mentioned in the Bloomberg article are true. If things mentioned in the Bloomberg article are true, and his is not changing behavior going forward after PCP becoming a part of BRK, and I just don't like it. A couple of questions here to my fellow board members participating in this topic: 1. What is the overall perception of the credibility of Blomberg as a source? - I was [also] surprised [but not shocked] by Bloomberg taking on hard BRK - so hard - with this article. 2. What do you think might be the reaction [group internally] by Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger, ref. Mr. Buffetts speaking in interviews and shareholder letters about "the middle of the road"? [Mr. Donegan is not just "some" BRK sub employeé, he is the CEO of a fairly big - and thereby important BRK sub.] My basis for this line of thinking is my local conditions. I live in a zero tolerance society with regard to violence and threats. One of the situations described in the article is embraced in the Danish civil criminal code, and the penalty bracket goes from a fine to 2 years in jail [threat of serious physical violence against another person - most likely doing this sort of thing in front of wittnesses for the second time will result in an so called "insta-verdict", meaning going directly from the court room to the box to get sunshine in stribes, without getting the opportunity to settle your stuff and kissing your partner/spouse/kids goodbye for so or so long time]. Third question about the situation that I'm focusing on in the Bloomberg article: 3. What does US State or Federal civil criminal code say about punishment for threat of serious physical violence? Any input from fellow board members on those three questions would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

How many posters does it take to change a light bulb in cyberspace? 1 to successfully change the light bulb and to post to the message board that the light bulb has been changed. 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently or more efficiently. 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs. 27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs. 53 to flame the spell checkers. 156 to write to the board administrator complaining about the light bulb discussion and its inappropriateness to this message board. 41 to correct spelling in the spelling/grammar flames. 109 to post that this board is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a more appropriate location. 203 to demand that posts about changing light bulbs be stopped or deleted! "We are here to talk about widgets!" 111 to defend the posting to this board, saying that, "We all use light bulbs & therefore the posts ARE relevant to this board." 306 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brands of light bulbs work best for these technique, and what brands are faulty. 102 to flame those whose suggestions/techniques differ from their own. 204 to flame the flamers claiming that "We are all entitled to our own opinions!" 112 to post that "some posters seem to be AGAINST certain brands of light bulbs, no matter how they work in different situations or in different lamps. "Sometimes, it's the lamp's fault, not the bulb, so don't always blame the bulb." 193 to post that they are "offended by posters who seem to gleefully slam others favorite brands of light bulbs." 42 to post that "It isn't nice to say mean things about certain brand names. After all, CEOs of big manufacturing companies are people too & have feelings." 99 to post urgent messages begging everyone to calm down and be peaceful & respectful. 112 to post in the discussion that the discussion is stupid. 83 to post that posters enjoying the discussion should ignore confrontational posters & those who are not interested in light bulbs can post somewhere else. 27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs. 14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and to post corrected URLs. 3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this discussion. 33 to review all posts to date, then quote them, including all headers & footers. 12 to post to the board that they are quitting because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy. 19 to complain that their posts disappeared. 4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ. 1 to propose new lite.bulb message board for those who want to continue the light bulb discussion. 47 to say that this is just what this board was meant for, leave the discussion here. 8 to post their opinions on the controversy long after most of the light bulb fuss has died down. 10 to post that the discussion is none of their business because they came too late to add anything relevant. 4 to post that they are new and would like some background info on the light bulb brouhaha. 409 to post that they don't really want to know. It's all too silly to go into, but welcome to the board! 143 votes for a lite.bulb message board. 38 votes proclaiming the advantages in using vintage light bulbs. 409 to protest that there is "NO NEED to start up the discussion AGAIN!! PLEASE STOP THE MADNESS!" 1 to challenge all those posters who claim to want to end it once and for all to "IGNORE any future posts on this topic. Then, those disgruntled troublemakers who can't just LET THIS GO, will eventually give up." 1048 post promises to drop the light bulb debate.

longinvestor, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrulcIBe3Z0 , at about the 04:12:00 mark and then some minutes going forward, about the buyback scheme at place right now. The first part of this is right, including the last part of the sentence in the article is not right [in the meaning "not said"/"misleading"/"lack of precision in written reporting by a journalist"], though Mr. Buffet states that he follows this relationship between market price of the stock and book value closely. There are a lot of shades in the statement from Mr. Buffett made on this question at the AGM that are worth noting. To me the built in qualifications in the statements af the AGM is about that what potential investment opportunities Mr. Buffett has on his desk at that particular moment when the market price is about 1.2 X BV, as an alternative investment opportunity to share buybacks, and that we will never know. Personally, after listening carefully to the above mentioned slip of the video, I - sucjectively - consider the BRK buy back scheme - at least a bit - more "firm" than "soft" without here trying to quantify it in one way or another. And I like that, going forward with this investment. longinvestor, thank you for bringing my personal attention to this BRK issue/topic.

Looking at the investments, Deere & Davita look possibilities. Davita would let Ted W bring one home. To me, this sounds like an educated guess. Let's see what the future brings. Personally, I like sitting here with the ears laid back and the arms crossed on the chest, just waiting to get surprised what will be the next move, even making money on this when I'm at sleep - in the long run.

With a market cap north of USD 200 B right now, ex. acquisition premium, that would require quite some leverage.

I agree with alwaysinvert here. My own experience is that English language is the common denominator in Scandinavian international business [both internal and external, written and oral, except peer to peer communication between two persons with same mother tounge]. [Last year in the spring I was stressed due to the workload, overworked and very worried about the potential consequenses of the situation in the near future - just dire straits. One morning in that period she said to me: "John, you have started talking while at sleep again..." Me: "What did I say?" She: "It was just fragments, I did not get it all, but it was work related, I could hear... - the really weird part for me was that it was in English!". [Not weird at all for me, because I had noticed that I had started thinking in English, the outcome of my thoughts getting expressed in English, searching for the Danish expressions and terms while speaking, applying shortcuts using English expressions and terms in a whole mess because of those beeing more immediate available in my brain, thereby derailing my Danish language.] http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-students-learning-english-in-europe.html

Bought more Novo Nordisk A/S B [uS ADR: NVO]. It tanked about 10% today under wild trade upon the release of 2016 Q2 reporting this morning. A lot of retail investors was picking it up. 17.4 million shares shifted hand today, total turnover in this stock at Masdaq OMX CPH was DKK 5.851 B.

Mateo, Basicly, I will describe LUND B as a combination of a real estate company and a "Mini Investor AB". I like what I see, but I have a hard time to find a meaningful method to calculate a value of the real estate part of the company. I have been looking at other listed real estate companies based in Sweden for some kind of comparison, but I simply don't understand those market valuations. I bought it in the February downturn this year, it's only a 2% position for my family and I for now, for the above reason. I need to do more work on it before - basicly the whimp here [me] just has the hand a bit on the cookplate with this. Here is a link to an article about the company and the family behind LUND. It's in swedish language, but it will be possible for you to read it using the translate feature in Chrome, though some shades of the colour will be hard to catch for you because the translation feature is far from perfect: Fredrik Lundberg building his empire bit by bit[/me]

Fellow board members actively participating in this topic, Please read this straight out, no sarcasm, humor or anything else intended: As a board member living in the Northern Europe it is very educational to read this topic every day, no matter your political orientation and what opinion or argument you post. To me, this topic measures the pulse in USA of what is going on the political scene, discussed in a so-so orderly manner - it is about politics, right? - among intelligent persons. - I have never ever experienced that possible on any message board so far! H/T to you! [Even Sanjeev posted in the "Ohh Wilbur" topic the other day that he did not consider this possible, right?] Thank you, and and keep your posts coming - I learn a lot!

mateo999, Thank you for bringing this topic up. Based on what is already suggested, I will add : Norway: Norwegian Finans Holding ASA [NOFI.OS] [This sucker & money machine has produced about 69% gain for investors this year - allwaysinvert has posted about it in the Protector topic]. The company is located just outside Oslo. Sweden : Investor AB [ INVE A.STOCK & INVE B.STOCK] HQ is in downtown Stockholm. L E Lundbergföretagen AB [LUND B.STOCK] HQ is in downtown Stockholm. - - - o 0 o - - - Good luck - and enjoy the trip!

Thanks for posting the link to this article, globalfinancepartners. I'm not trying to start some kind of heated discussion here about the content of the article, but I must say that I'm shocked by the picture painted of this Berkshire CEO at some places in the article.

Hasn't Buffett stated in the past that he doesn't participate in auctions? Is this a new practice for him, or has he bought companies via auction in the past? I personally can't recall any off the top of my head. Yes it's mentioned in the aqusition criteria section of the shareholder letter every year. Wasen't there a similar situation a few years back, where Ajit Jain on behalf of Berkshire Re placed a bid [one final bid] on a listed reinsurance company [Transocean Re or something like that was the name of the company, if I remember correctly].

Thank you Hawks.

What to me makes sense is real estate investment based on making money holding the real estate in the long run, not [trying to] flip it in the short run. EBVAT/S compared to price/S are the crucial paramenters for me, combined with an overall assesment of what you are buying into [quality]. The financing is part of that equation.

What a year its been for this thread. The COBF giveth and the COBF taketh away. What matters isen't what happened to/at this topic, but what happened to/at Theranos. Gio has explained him self earlier in this topic.

Bought more BRK.B and NVO [uS ADR, I bought the Danish share listed on Copenhagen Stock Exchange] on 1st July. I'm now very near 20% in BRK in all accounts for the family, and I won't go above 20% for now, and NVO is now about 14%, maybe I will go above 15%, but not sure at the moment. Still adding cash every month for stock investments, and still at 20% cash. I will continue buying month by month unless we hit a recession.

Buffett Applies to Fed to Build Wells Fargo Stake Beyond 10% http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-01/buffett-applies-to-fed-to-expand-wells-fargo-holding-beyond-10

I feel like we're already starting to see the turn in the cycle. Santander is already pullling out of the deep subprime space, cost of ABS funding has gone up ~100bps over the last year (to ~3.5% today), many of the small lenders (many started by PE in the last 4 years to chase yield) are shutting down or slowing. Go Financial, Dealer Funding, and a few others have closed in the last month. Also channel checks with dealers are suggesting the same as well. I'd highly suggest taking a look at CACC and their shareholder letters if you're interested in this space. I think they're well positioned to take share as this cycle turns. AccentricInv, Please elaborate your comments on SAN at a specific level [in this topic, or in the SAN topic in the investment ideas forum]. Thank you.

Please accept my apology for posting outside the scope of the topic scope here, Dough. Please delete the quote of my post in your commenting to my post, now deleted, to retain the tone and the scope of this topic. Sorry to all by not doing my homework of reading the topic title properly.

Post deleted, based on comment from Dough.

Bought quite a lot of SAN, which is down approx. 20% today.

Up until the the 16th of June, the Leave campaign had been steadily gathering momentum and at that point the vote looked to be on a knife edge. However, that day the British MP, Jo Cox was murdered by an anti-EU extremist. That was a turning point that in my opinion was decisive. Campaigning by both sides was suspended, and the wind was taken out of the sails of the Leave campaign. The fact that it was a Leave extremist that murdered the MP left a serious taint on the Leave campaign - undecided/swing voters almost certainly will jump to the Remain side because of it. With the momentum gone and only two days remaining, there is no time for the Leave vote to recapture the initiative. Remain is all but a done deal. I question how significant the murder was (especially because while the man was clearly an extremist, he also has a long history of mental illness). I think we were always going to vote remain (sadly). I've been watching this far too closely. I agree, that this murder should have no bearing upon the result whatsoever, but yet it has. Look at Sterling, look at the FTSE for the last week. Since the murder, both have strengthened significantly since the event. The same happened a few weeks back when Boris made his gaffe about the bendy bananas and the comparison of the EU to a Nazi super-state. Sterling and the FTSE went on a huge tear on the back of that as the Leave campaign faltered. It's not remotely logical, I know, but I think the swing voters will always shy away from the controversial and choose a safe option. I have exactly the same perception from what I have been reading the last few days. Furthermore, I have read a lot from Scandinavian sources about the reliability of the Brexit/Bremain polls beeing biased, i.e. excluding/given biased weight in the poll compared to the total population of voters of Scotland and Wales, which regions of UK are known to be pro EU.

Thanks for a comforting post from another European fellow board member, writser. My mindset is on overall basis like yours. I had the opportunity to pick up a good chunk of SAN at 4.00 a few days ago, but I was thumbsucking at that time. Now have it as an order at 4.00 in the market expiring the day before the vote. Let's just see how this plays out.