John Hjorth

Yes, there was actually a lot of talk about Amazon. It appear that both Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger admires Mr. Bezos for his accomplishments with building Amazon to what it is today, from scratch.

I'm a spring rabbit compared to Mr. Munger - I almost also fel asleep under the formal part of the AGM - it's just soo boring. Or perhaps Mr. Munger was taking an overview of his spillings of crums? Those two men really enjoy each others company - there is so much ping-pong interaction between them. Furthermore, I think the line of questions was actually very good this year. There was shed light on quite some topics related to Berkshire, that are not in general discussed.

Jurgis, It was a discussion about AI and it's consequenses for society and business - Yes, they were discussing it intensely - but: Who doesn't? : - )

I've been following the whole thing via Yahoo on this side of the Atlantic Ocean since it started. It's great experience! - like last year. Both Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger are in top notch shape - If you listen and view it, you can feel, that they love pulling this thing off! When they talk about PE, they are almost like from Muppet's. - - - o 0 o - - - If your Chrome is not working, you most likely just need to update it manually [i had that problem earlier today before the session]. I'm using Chrome for following this thing.

BPCAP, Please look up the The Berkshire 2016 10-K, p.94, where it is explained. [it's quite complicated stuff - yes! ....]

It's described on p.17 in the 2017 Q1 Report, including the accounting treatment in detail. So the AIG deal also explains the jump in insurance premiums in the quarter.

I've got the exact same perception - please also look at the cash flow statement and the insurance gross income - I haven't had the time dive into it - It looks almost unbelievable. - Will do tomorrow.

Thanks Uccmal, It was meant that way, actually! :-) On a more serious note, that particular topic here on CoBF is actually a gem - nothing less. You have mentioned earlier, that all the communication among board members back in those days was actually still here, so I looked it up - simply by looking up your board profile, and thereby your posts - it was quite easy to find within a few minutes. To me, it is actually this boards long term memory. It's very important to me personally. As I have posted earlier on this board, at that time I was a long term morgage bond investor doing absolutely no work related to investing using leverage [deferred taxes, in stead of paying down my debt] ending up messing up my underpants dearly in the process. I was not anywhere loosing my shirt after I lost my job, but I could calculate with reasonale precision when in the future I would end in the sewer, if I did not get a new steady working income. The rest of my life I'll never forget how I felt in that period. Talk about blaiming yourself, calling yourself stupid ... - I really did, when I recognised where I had brought myself to. Personally, I do not ever want to mess up my own underpants again for some prospect profit - quick or long term. Personally, I think - perhaps - some board members on here are understating the importance of the issue in topic here, because it has been general backwinds on the bicycle path since February 2009 - with some bumbs along the way. Not anything near a major correction, or even a severe downturn - what ever might cause such - be it a lightning correction of a certain size based on instant change in investor sentiment, lemmings, algos, or whatever - or caused by outside the market circumstances. [lemmings are the primary issue in this topic - I think much can be extrapolated from that situation to other market downturns, ref. the content of the 2009 topic on here, that I linked to]. - - - o 0 o - - - Some local news, topic related - you can read it, if you use the translation feature in Chrome: From my broker: From my broker: Invest in the whole world - now free of fees with Nordnet Markets. Danske Bank: Danske Bank rejects tax challenges with regard to the investor's reply to MobilePay. That new initiative from Danske Bank is called June. It went from beta to live production environment 4th May 2017 - yesterday. It's Danske Bank's latest move to do something with the approx. DKK 831 B sitting asleep for Danish households - with no or little interest - in Danish banks - Not only for Danske Bank's customers - but for all. You don't have to be a customer at Danske Bank to get this product. It's a front for Danske Bank's own ETFs, trying to pick up all those billions of DKK asleep at other banks, with the aim to rip off 0.8 per cent per year of the capital invested in this thing. It's all based on ETFs. - - - o 0 o - - - This will be the next big Danske Bank scandal - there have been many during the years - It's just soo lame.

Berkshire 2017 1st quarter report is out now. Cartoon figures as always, lately ... - Enjoy!

Awesome interview! - Mr. Buffett is now at the age of 86 - still sharp as a razor - even in situations with headwinds. [i wonder if we will see Amazon in the Berkshire portfolio in due course?] - - - o 0 o - - - Kicking in a footnote here: globalfinancepartners, You are doing a great job for us all here at CoBF taking the time to guide other board members to interesting things! - Tirelessly and consistently - It is very much appreciated! Thank you!, - and have a nice weekend.

"Ordinary" AGM Press Release of yesterday, including streaming info.

Congrats on the family extension, Paarslaars! :-) It's a life changing experience, and yes, also expensive. And there are opportunity costs also! Your investment return going forward in the short term will likely be affected in a negative way - just ask Paul [boardmember stanleyp]! - - - o 0 o - - - Added to SCHO.CPH today, up from ~5% to ~7%.

Welcome to CoBF Nebraska!

LongHaul, You just made a day of mine below average to a day well above average! lol - You could be Danish! Your points still stand. - So +1.

+1 , the bet was a calamity, this article is simply even worse - it's a marketing disaster for a manager of OPM - plain and simple.

CHTR Pretty much all Liberties (LSXMA/SIRI/LBTYA/LILA) GM Airlines I am sure I am missing some more... http://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=brk Care to comment? 8) Not trying to pull the mic out of Dynamic's hands here, but Mr. Buffett loves leverage - it's the paint he has used on his brush to paint the picture he has called Berkshire. Preferences [ranked]: 1. Insurance float 2. Deferred taxes to Uncle Sam 3. Stable bank customer deposits carrying no or low interest 4. Berkshire notes - with no covenants.

DooDiligence, I'm guessing and speculating here, so - I'll give a shot: There is a story somewhere on here from Sanjeev a few years back, that the board got a bit overheated in some topic. Some board members started a fist fight using their keyboards [politics, taxes, some election? lol]. Sanjeev had to step in to avoid a nuclear melt down of the board [lol again]. Sanjeev then wrote, that Eric got angry and left the board, most likely also deleting his account in anger. Sanjeev asked Eric to come back, which Eric did. When someone on here deletes his account, his posts stay on board - no big holes in topics by that. And the deleted users accounts board handle goes from the member user group to the guest user group. CoBF is set up, so that guests can't post. The point here is that the board handle is taken in eternity, also for deleted accounts. [i.e. There will never on this board be any other DooDiligence than you]. I guess that: ericopoly is Eric posting before he got angry. ERICOPOLY is Eric posting after he came back. - - - o 0 o - - - I'll get a good laugh out this guess, if it actually turns out to be right.

I'm not in one or the other camp here. Personally, in reality, I think all fellow board members so far active in this topic - in principle - actually agree. It's all about personal judgement about how will this play out going forward, and at the same time everybodys front screen is foggy, and personal judgements about opportunity costs, ref. Uccmals post including those considerations. Yesterday, I actually found a piece - at least in my opinion - worth a read - if your thoughts are circling this issue/topic: That piece is called "Capitulation": I will just here lay out with the cons of this piece: 1. You can't buy it in physical form anywhere - It's existence is only digital - at least as far as I know - I might be wrong about that, however. The pros: 2. You don't need it in physical form, [because you have already access to it, ref. below]. 3. It's free - for you. 4. Yoy can do with it whatever you like - absolutely no strings attached. You can read it and disagree with it - thereby ditching it, you can ignore it, or you can read it, and try to - somehow - swollow and absorb it. It's all up to yourself. [Great - right?!] 5. It's actually just now right in front of your nose. 6. It's a great read, if you do your very best. 7. It's "publishing on demand" - no lead time between the authors thinking and writing the stuff, and publishing - meaning absolutely no hindsight bias in the situation - there is a time stamp on everything. 8. It's a product of team work among fellows in the same situation - basically - so it contains shades of perceptions of the situation - thereby increasing its value. Warning: 9. It requires a fair amount of work to digest this thing the right way, based on situational awareness. Teaser: Long story short: - It's just great stuff - You find it here .

It's not totally clear for me scrutinising the table of content, compared with a page in the book describing some of the newest editions of the book. The former editions are described as having themes. It's not obvious to me, that some of those former themes are actually still there in the 2017 edition. Mr. Kilpatricks e-mail adress is actually in the book. I will write to him and hope for a reply, and eventually get back about his response here, if I get one. Personally, I think he could on running basis sell much more copies of former editions, if he wanted to, and if there are ommisions in new editions compared to the last. Then he should just use www.lulu.com, like Max on here with the Berkshire Shareholder Letter compilations. Perhaps he can't do or don't want that because of his agreement with his publisher. - - - o 0 o - - - This book is simply my new blanket!

I understand, Liberty, There is always a risk participating in building a biography of you, if you at the same time try to be protective towards your dear ones and the biography also covers your own interactions in the past with your dear ones. Perhaps this is both about his relation to his late mother and his first marriage. I hope the book will tell me something about it. Thanks.

Thanks, Liberty, Yes, I got the impression, that the book was so, by reading the earlier posts in this topic. It also seems evident from the content of this topic, that Alice Schroeder - and Mr. Buffet himself - actually have put a lot of Kjoules into the book. What a bummer ... To get turned down by Carol Loomis on a book with his active participation, and then ending with being disappointed with the outcome of the cooperation on a book with Mrs. Schroeder.

Don't worry too much about this going forward, DooDiligence. Last night I had the opportunity to read the 2067 Berkhire Shareholder Letter. I get the impression, that there is basically no conference calls left to listen to, only one set of 10Qs and 10Ks and Annual Report to read yearly. Only people at that time in future reading history books about business know about the concept of conference calls. Same goes with the concept of guidances. That year - 2067 - Berkshire acquires the Vatican State - so from then on the Pope is officially a renter - reporting directly to Mr. Buffett. However there will still be black and white smoke when Buffett appoints a new Pope, I suppose. The principle of delegation of repsonsibility to the CEOs at the subs is fully intact. The material change between now and 2067 is that at one point in time in future, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger had an important telephone conversation on the topic : "succession", because they were so fed up with answerering questions about that topic from reporters, that they made a quick decision to get cloned - a dozen clones each.

I'm bumping this topic up, because it is definitely worth it, in my humble opinion. I received my copy of the 2017 Edition a few days ago, and I just have to say - already - after having read only a few pages - that this book - for long term Berkshire investors - like mentioned now more than 5 years ago in this topic by Sanjeev - is a "must have" thing. It's an overwhelming experience for me reading this book. It's not just "a book" in its ordinary and normal meaning. It's a screen shot of a long term ongoing book project, based on sincere interest and dedication from Mr. Kilpatrick - almost bordering to some kind of obsession - in a positve way. Most likely it will be autumn before I have finished reading this gem. Thank you to marlin, longinvestor and Sanjeev for guiding me in the direction of this book.

I just ordered the book, and I look forward to the read. I hope to learn something from it. I have been looking at this Scandinavian bank for several monhts now, without holding it directly - so far.

I ordered the book yesterday, and I look forward for the read of it.