John Hjorth

Bloomberg [August 29th 2023] : Putin Agrees to Visit China in First Trip Since Arrest Warrant. How difficult is this? - The culprit at the center of all this has already himself lost his greatest privilege : His freedom. In that respect and lens, the whole mess by now appears absolutely meaningless.

This is exactly why those with real skin in the game here - the NATO allies in Europe - really can't afford not to ramp up support for the war effort. If you already have said 'A', you simply must say 'B' here [to continue] [, or saying 'A' would be in vain, [and somebody [the people of your country] would take you on and calling your *BS* in the first place]. - - - o 0 o - - - In that respect, we are already beyond the point of no return in this situation. Lingering does not work on, nor solve, anything. To do what has to be done, to end this thing, is what matters. Everybody knows it, but really nobody [, or few ] approaches this issue from that angle, by now. There is only the alternative : To ramp further up, to make an end of this.

Kicking in a tiny footnote here. This must be the first time I have been made aware of the existence of this book! - at least I think so! Anyone here on CoBF being lucky enough to own a specimen? Found this in the 2010 Letter [issued in 2011] mentioning the book : Also, then found this! - - - o 0 o - - - Now this "must have" urge starts kicking in at me!

@A Humble Man, You need to spend more time here on CoBF to understand what is really going on here at CoBF. Compilations / finds / scrapes / and funds AUMs, managing partners aren't really our concerns. Here at CoBF, we are DYI - generating our returns, over time, by ourselves, in cooperation on the board. To me, - sorry to say - you have somehow managed to come and enter the wrong adress. I'm sorry to say so.

It's mystery to me, how nobody told the uber-oligarch Vladimir Potanin to dye his eyes browes too, or is this - [also] - about a wig?

And now this from Ramsan Kadyrov . Let this inflated moonface just try. Such a train wreck of a human being. His final day will come, too.

A tweet by Anton Gerashchenko supporting the view of @Spekulatius

This is news from TASS, redistributed by other MSM. I want to see it from Reuters, before I will apply any weight to this. So much *BS* about this person posted everywhere.

Reuters [ August 20th 2023, 4:08 PM +2 GMT] : Netherlands, Denmark commit to delivering F16s to Ukraine. The total F-16s from Denmark is 19, 5 ETA Ukraine year end 2023, rest over 2024 and 2025.

@SafetyinNumbers, From the Markel Topic in the Investment Ideas forum a few years ago : and Just to elaborate on the basis return calculations in the considerations above, where cost of float in period n isen't 1-CRn.

@Luca, I hope you both enjoy your stay and that you have a good time in Copenhagen!

Hi @Luca, I'm sorry for missing your post a couple day as ago, ref. above [, too!]. The suggestions and recommendations from @frankhkii and @Gamecock-YT are actually very good. For a weekend stay this coming weekend I would suggest you to simply hedge the weather bringing practical foootwear and a raincoat for you both, so you can give the weather a finger, if needed to, in stead of getting more or less grounded because of it. The weather for Copenhagen at www.dmi.dk looks fairly good for the weekend. But the Danish weather gods have been quite moody in general this year. If the weather gods are with you, a visit in Nyhavn is [almost] statutory, I would say. Personally, I have also developed over time a soft spot for the area around Skt. Annæ Plads and down to the waterfront, including the area around the outer end to the water of Nyhavn, after Hotel 71 Nyhavn, direction Skuespilhuset, ... It like an oasis to me, when the weather is good! Rosenborg is also a great place to visit - fantastic garden - so relaxing to stay there! If you want to hang out a bit for your self - pretty much in private with something to drink [soft / not soft], I would recommend a waterhole at Kultorvet or at Gråbrødre Torv! - The food at the restaurants at Gråbrødre Torv appear to be fairly good, too. Enjoy!

@Saluki, Thank you for sharing! ... somehow I missed it at the time when you posted it! But, yes, - you got it exactly right! Such a small, modest - but still very nice - office building, housing one of the worlds largest investors! Absolutely not something like the new JPMorgan Chase Headquarter tower / skyscraper under construction these days on Manhattan. Your wife and you seem from the photo to have hit Banktorvet [English : 'The Bank Square'], Oslo, on a very nice day!

Yes, Mike [ @cubsfan ] and @mcliu, Yes, several European partnerships to deliver this and that [frigates, patrolships etc.] have been formed, with those generating higher GDPs in the European countries involved! How do one measure the costs related to a certain specific warfare activity? Not only the US military complex, whole worlds military complex exist based on having its trunks [elephant ones!] dipped deep and permanent into defence budgets of individual states all around the world. The mayors in the cities where HII [Huntington Ingalls] has ship / sub building activities are little interested in stopping all US global involvement in warfare, as the mayor of Wolfsburg, Germany is in management consultants running lean projects at Volkswagen AG.

It may also be related to time of the year about news in general : Danish : Wikipedia : Agurketid [Danish 'Agurketid' translated to English : Cucumber time, German : Saurgurkenzeit [ ], English : Wikipedia : Silly Season. - - - o 0 o - - - But with that said, yes , the silence around the war has become almost resounding recently ... , perhaps MSM grabbing for straws, or making things up, to fill the pages.

I think these kinds of generalizations are at best to no avail, at worst cognitive bias creating and bias generating. - - - o 0 o - - - The political systems across European countries on surface may appear alike [democracies], but are far from that with regard to actual modus operandi. Everywhere - also in the USA - there are people who start yelling "Tax, tax tax!" , when they "see" some company being in the good part of their individual cycle. ["See", because they don't really read financial reports from any company, but read headlines in MSM as a basis for their doings and yelling]. I have personally seen Danish left wing [and right wing] politicians being cruzified by diligent journalists doing their job well with the mic turned on and TV-camera runnning in interviews about Danish tax legislation, where you are left behind with the clear impression that they have no clue what so ever what's going in their own tax returns, nor able to explain just the basic mechanics in the tax calculations for a couple with kids, a home, morgages and two cars and a couple of 401-Ks. But they still have an opnion on about every everything in it, while in reality they don't have a clue. And it gets even worse, when the discussion turns to corporation taxation. Stupidity and ignorance is present everywhere! - - - o 0 o - - - Putting a nationality label on a well performing listed large cap is to me in most cases a serious mistake, and makes no sense in todays globalized world. Berkshire Hathaway is for most American, but many of the companies in the listed portfolio are international megacaps [think Apple], [but parent co. based In Omaha, Nebraska], Fairfax Financial Holdings is not a Canadian company [, the functional currency is not even CAD, but USD,] most of the activity takes place outside Canada, [but HQ based in Toronto, Canada], Markel Corporation is an international insurance group, too, not an american, based on activity, [ but HQ based in Richmond, Virginia], LVMH is not a French luxury conglomerate, but basically a global company with most of its activity outside France [, but HQ based in Paris, France], If one just think of Banco Santander as "Spanish bank" just 5 minutes of yours the last annual report for it will drag you out that bias [, and headquartered in Santander, Spain], I think that Novo Nordisk has less than 1 percent of it sales in Denmark [, but headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark], Atlas Copco is headquartered in Nacka [a part of Stockholm], Sweden, and you can do business with it here :

Ridiculous / hilarious assertion! [So much *BS* everywhere about this calamity!]

I think we should be asked to guess the language for how to type and read the topic title : "¿ Guess this Chart ?" too! [I've seen it before, can't really recall in which context!]

Thank you for elaborating, @Viking, Makes lot of sense, based on what you want to achieve with it.

@Viking, Thank you for what is to me a gem! -Yes, it's contextual, but still a quite comprehensive write-up on an Insurance company, that is actually quite complicated. One question here for both Lars [ @Viking ] and Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] : I suppose it's intentional, that non-CoBF members [so called CoBF guests] can download the attached file in the starting post of this topic, right? [Actually, that is not an obviousness to me personally.]

Yes, fairly uneventful, except what has already been mentioned by @gfp and @Libs. Uneventful may perhaps by some persons be considered a bit boring, but that has nothing to do with unsatisfactory. The numbers calculated by you, @backtothebeach looks right to me, thank you for sharing them. With the minimum liquidity requirements for the insurance operations of USD 30 B related to claims, the group still has an aqusition capacity just north of USB 100 B, which continues to appear mind boggling and hard to relate to. It is unparalled strength.

Personally, I think the odd [odd to you] fact here may be, that you gents @Gregmal, @Xerxes & @ValueArb are all right, but none of you need to feel embarrassed or to keep your heads low about this friggin' mess. We European citizens simply need to get our act together and participate in an orderly manner to resolve this issue, whatever it takes. If we fail, it's unfortunately on you to assist cleaning up this mess, because It's eventually and basically about your way of life, too.

@LC, Yeah, likely the rerating of Fairfax shares [both places] may now be a work in progress. - I won't be surprised to see more of the same short term going forward. A bit amazing taking into consideration that the Fairfax forum here on CoBF has been accessible and and readable for CoBF guests / non-CoBF members all the time. I bet perhaps @Vikings fairly new X account may be a part of the full explanation [some may call it 'the culprit' !], too!

If you are a pet lover and owns a doggo [ref. below] and NOT a cat, please thank your God for not being owned by a cat : Happy Friday, & Enjoy the weekend

@whatstheofficerproblem, Have you thought about what Mr. Buffett thinks about the work and reporting of Fitch? [He does not care - at all.]