John Hjorth

This was one of the questions at the 2015 meeting. "Cash taxes versus reported taxes"; WEB said they'd much rather have the insurance float, here were his comments, The $60B in depreciation at BHE helps our customer, not us; It is not free equity to BRK It can be regulated away We don't borrow Not a hidden form of float Corp tax rates can change, that'll be a big change Not a big asset at all relative to float In answering another question, he said that the "pedal to the floor" investments in BHE is a competitive advantage versus other utilities. Because BHE is part of BH's tax return, it allows them more capacity to invest. Other utilities don't pay that much tax to avail tax credits. Here I'm not trying to argue with or question what Mr. Buffett said at the 2015 AGM, but it's much more complicated than just that [said the CPA]. What's complicated? The math or accounting? What WEB said was that they much prefer low or no cost cash in their hands to invest like the insurance float versus some smokey book asset like DTL. It seems the tax returns of BRK are complicated - mentioned is several shareholders letters within the last several years - thousands of pages mentioned several times - do you think this is all about the tax returns of BRK HQ? Answer: No! It's all about joint taxation.

This was one of the questions at the 2015 meeting. "Cash taxes versus reported taxes"; WEB said they'd much rather have the insurance float, here were his comments, The $60B in depreciation at BHE helps our customer, not us; It is not free equity to BRK It can be regulated away We don't borrow Not a hidden form of float Corp tax rates can change, that'll be a big change Not a big asset at all relative to float In answering another question, he said that the "pedal to the floor" investments in BHE is a competitive advantage versus other utilities. Because BHE is part of BH's tax return, it allows them more capacity to invest. Other utilities don't pay that much tax to avail tax credits. Here I'm not trying to argue with or question what Mr. Buffett said at the 2015 AGM, but it's much more complicated than just that [said the CPA].

krazeenyc, That's an outstanding result for 2015 with so much cash held during the year, perhaps the best risk adjusted return for 2015 described in this topic so far. Personally, I would very much appreciate - if possible for you - to read a bit more from you in this topic about your worries going forward at the moment. Thank you in advance.

To stay out of trouble, in every aspect of life, including investing, i.e.: No bagging of other broads than "she" - else I suppose I would wake up one morning from a forced anesthesia, and - most likely to my surprise - looking at an open can of mashed tomatoes, placed on the night table, with no tomatoes in the can, the can just containing my balls [most likely I would also conclude that she castrated me using the lid of the open can after getting rid of the mashed tomatoes, not using a scalpel], Buying more boring and dull stocks at reasonable prices for the purpose of a - hopefully - satisfactory return in the long run.

Minus 2.7 percent for me for 2015. This for all accounts of the family that I manage, on consolidated basis. In my personal accounts it was minus 3.6 percent. It's the family ["consolidated"] figure that matters to me personally, and I have voted according to that - not that it matters for the outcome of the poll as it is set up. Cash added during the year amounts 260.8% calculated on the basis of the opening balance on overall basis for all accounts, and cash at year end on overall basis is 35.6 percent, so there will be at lot for me to do in 2016 also - I expect to get my private life back in 4th quarter of 2016, at least to some extent. I actually like this as a second full time job, but there are other things in life that matters, too. The above figures need some fine tuning with regard to Danish withholding taxes on dividends from Danish stocks, however it won't move the needle. I will try to find time to prepare some files in EXCEL to upload in this topic for the purpose of doing calculations of ROIC for a given year, based on what I have already read from fellow board members in this topic.

Thank you to all contributors to this board for your posts i 2015, I hope for a prosperous investing year 2016 for all! I hope you all beat the crap out of your personal yardstick and benchmark in 2016 - whatever that might be! Happy investing in 2016!

Personally, I don't understand this, and honestly, I don't want to. Life is about making a positive difference that make sense - now or in the future-, to other human beings, near to your, or to other, [- or to your self - in the short term.]

Merry Christmas to all fellow board members, and thank you very much for sharing your views and thoughts in your posts during 2015! Also a special thank you to Sanjeev for keeping this board up running now for progressively many years, still allocating time and other ressources to keep this board up running and kicking, while still having gradually more and more other things to do and to take care of!

Really? - Please elaborate a bit, Jurgis. I don't believe I add value through my investing decisions. And it probably would be more useful to society if I spent more time on projects in my primary occupation rather than trying to get extra return by actively investing. I was trying to go this way this year already, but got sucked in into oil morass and some other interesting "opportunities". 8) Most likely I'll just dump most money into BRK/Fairfax/Malone and couple more "forever" holds. I've been going in this direction already. (And before we have religious argument that this is also "active" investing - yes, I know, next question 8) ). The counterargument to this is that putting money in BRK/Fairfax this year would have been even worse than my oil-dragged portfolio. :o But this is for 2015 results thread. 8) Peace. Thanks for your personal considerations, Jurgis. Peace & respect!

At least its a lot more tax efficient, but on the other hand the 500 original companies of the S&P500 outperformed the index (and when you equal weight at the start even more). So maybe its a good idea to build an index yourself with >100 companies. It shouldn`t be too hard to exclude the crappy businesses. On the other hand you are back to active investing then. Maybe do it like Buffet and make buy once sell never decisions, that should be even better. My goals for 2016 are 1) hold my weight 2) make more friends 3) stop trading options, OTC, microcaps and illiquid stocks and stop making stupid short term trades. (the last one was already on last years list, if someone has an idea to force myself to not do it, its welcome.) The only thing I can think of is explicitly restricting yourself. Ban yourself from selling a stock within a year. You'll think harder before you make a purchase. (of course artificial restrictions like this also have a price, but it's probably quite minor). I really admire you honest post, frommi. Not trying to patronize you here, but I would add : Get fully invested at a time when you are in the right state of mind for doing it, and cancel all margin, in case you have any. Personally - within the last 3 - 4 years - I have become aware, that somewhere in my brain - I don't know where - I have a built-in speculator, ready to take on the track record of Warren Buffet in his early years, even by using margin or cash not available for the purpose of stock investing, soo selfconfident and hungry, just ready about every day to commit the "perfect" [ and dumb] hubris. Adding family money to the equation [thereby over time changing managed money to 8x at the moment, and it will grow over time to about the double of that] have helped a lot to keep this little guy in a short leash. Reading about the GS margin call of Micheal Pearson recently in the VRX topic has also helped to keep this little guy in control. I haven't yet found a name for this little guy. Perhaps I will just call him Micheal.

Really? - Please elaborate a bit, Jurgis.

Elon Musk is an outstanding human being. However investing alongside with him is another matter.

Two souls, one thought! Personally I consider this investment a bridgehead to the Greek P/C insurance market for Fairfax. It's all about capital allocation. Let's see what Fairfax actually can do with this thing.

Personally I think the comments from Warren Buffett about the prospects oil companies should not be understood as a short term consideration [the low oil price at the moment], but more in the light of the long term prospects of oil companies. Warren Buffett has approved investments of approx. USD 15 B in wind and solar in recent years in Berkshire Hathaway Energy, as an alternate energy investment.

Basicly +1 to what Jurgis posted. Personally, I believe many investors underestimate what Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Ted Weschler & Tod Combs [in combination, including "synergy", by internal discussion, sparring and exchange of ideas and assesments] can and will do for BRK shareholders going forward, based on the [still] huge cash inflows, expected to continue [expected by me] going forward, despite non stellar results this year. Spekulatius, perhaps you will get it @ 120, perhaps you will stand on the sideline forever.

Personally, I don't expect a rise in the "soft" buy back level anytime soon. A lot of liquidity has been earmarked towards the proposed PCP deal. A part of the liquidity at group level is abroad US, subject to a tax haircut, if transferred to BRK HQ or other BRK US entity. However, I would love a positive surprise.

Mostly once a day, after 3:30 pm when both the European and the NA markets are open [my local time]. Not because I'm a buyer or a seller every day, just to get some kind of perception of what's going on in the market - day by day.

I ordered a yellow "backup" copy of the BRK Shareholder Letters at lulu.com a few days ago, and yesterday I got shipment confirmation. It will fit well to the blue and black copies that I already have. http://www.lulu.com/shop/warren-buffett/berkshire-hathaway-letters-to-shareholders/hardcover/product-22445483.html Thank you for your work with this, Max! :)

Bought more BRK.B today.

SwimmingNaked, The topic is already here : http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/std-(san)-banco-santander/ - Let's go there for further "talk". :-)

"The businesses it [bRK] owns is worth more than its [bRK's] market price"

Bought more SAN yesterday.

Left to me I'm always having Max Olsons' [board member : valuemax] blue BRK Letters to Shareholders 1965-2012 and the similar 50 year hardcover edition 1965-2014, together with the partnership letters on print. I have read rumours about a special partnership letter which have never surfaced on the web... - Is it about BRK, salad oil & AMX or what? - Who knows? - if it exists? - Back to William Ackman!

Wrong to reserve your judgement of Bill Ackman [i.e. in the VRX topic]: Certainly not as long it's based on conclusions [that might be subjective] based on facts. Such judgements are certainly of relevance related to the expected behavior of the four major hedge funds positions. A lot of the "boo-ing" is coming from the cheap seats : I'm not sure at all if this is a fact. Not many board members have posted their postions in VRX. How can you say he's a snake oil sales man: In my opinion and to my judgement, few board members have done this in this VRX investment situation. Everybody knows he's a hedge fund manager with a material position in VRX for the fund.

+1!