John Hjorth

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!

Well, in my opinion, if one really wants to learn to invest - one can't say I am going to pick some stocks and then forget about them for the next 10 years. He explicitly said the following: "Do you think these companies are worthy of holding for a decade or two? I don't want to switch/monitor them all the time." Unfortunately, buy and hold does not mean buy and forget. If you really want to buy and forget, then a low cost index fund is a reasonably good choice that is as good as (or better than) anything else. If I want to learn to invest, then that's a separate thread. I would not start by trying to pick winners I can hold for a decade and be unwilling to monitor them. Isn't it? +1 My post was based on - for me - Adams assumed ability and willingnes to allocate time and mental Kjoules to that part of the 20%. Adams basic assumptions for the question in this topic might be different. Piece.

This is likely reality, perhaps not. In Adams starting post in this topic Adam talked about rebalancing between the positions in the future. That might bring a material difference in ROIC in the long run going forward [positive if done right, or negative if not done right]. One of the opportunity costs of not doing what Adam is contemplating [ i.e. by investing in a low cost index fund, as the alternative to Adams proposal] is that you never learn to invest, thereby not learning a lot, most of all about yourself by taking on some risks, and by the personal process of developing your own investment style over time. [ In the topic on this board "Ask Kraven AHA!" Kraven talks a lot about this].

Added more BRK.B & SAN. Started small positions in LUND B.ST [L E Lundberg Företagen AB ser. B, Sweden] PROTCT.OS [Protector Forsikring ASA, Norway][There is a topic about this company in the Investment Ideas forum] SCHO.CPH [schouw & Co. A/S, Denmark].

Maybe this thingy on Bloomberg? http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-08-27/read-and-think-like-mr-dot-buffett

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-could-be-bankrupt-within-five-years-imf-predicts-a6706821.html A "coronation party" at the cost of USD 32B! [My immediate thought was of a lot of good food, booze and new fine clothes to all, but I found out by reading somewhere else it was about giving 2 months extra salary to all public employees etc.] Extraordinary dividend from Saudi Arabia Inc. to all! Really makes sense - better pay the extraordinary dividend while there is still some cash there... So much for traditions in a different culture.

Thanks, I'll take a closer look at IB.

Yes, I also perceive the market to be fragmented. Here in Denmark the major Danish banks seem to be dominating. I use Nordnet Bank AB, Danish Branch, and I'm - also, like you - quite happy with it. But I feel I suffer from lack of access to markets [only access to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, USA and Canada]. www.deziro.com should be based on income from advertising only, not income from fees. As far as I understand, it should be a special branch of www.degiro.eu. I'll just wait and see what it brings.

From the IBKR - Interactive Brokers topic in the Investments Ideas forum: Perhaps time to start a separate topic about European brokers on this board - if any fellow European board members are interested in discussion and experience sharing. Especially for frommi: Which brokers/banks do you have experience with? Just some interim input here: Today I signed up for joining the queue at www.deziro.com .

An - at least to me - interesting article about Berskshire deferred taxes from SA: http://seekingalpha.com/article/2428045-how-buffett-is-changing-the-future-of-berkshires-float-from-insurance-to-uncle-sam [i haven't tried to verify any info in the article.]

Personally I see the following reason for the disconnect - more reasons may exist: The drag on CAGR from the laggards : From owners manual, paragraph 11, especially from "We are also very reluctant..." and onwards: "You should be fully aware of one attitude Charlie and I share that hurts our financial performance: Regardless of price, we have no interest at all in selling any good businesses that Berkshire owns. We are also very reluctant to sell sub-par businesses as long as we expect them to generate at least some cash and as long as we feel good about their managers and labor relations. We hope not to repeat the capital-allocation mistakes that led us into such sub-par businesses. And we react with great caution to suggestions that our poor businesses can be restored to satisfactory profitability by major capital expenditures. (The projections will be dazzling and the advocates sincere, but, in the end, major additional investment in aterrible industry usually is about as rewarding as struggling in quicksand.) Nevertheless, gin rummy managerial behavior (discard your least promising business at each turn) is not our style. We would rather have our overall results penalized a bit than engage in that kind of behavior."

Add to that deferred taxes as per 1H2015 approx. USD 62.7 B. [Nature of the deferred taxes is different from the nature of insurance float, but also basicly low/zero cost leverage]. Insurance float as per 1H2015 USD 85.1 B. Sum of deferred taxes and insurance float as per 1H2015 approx. USD 147.8 B, relative to shareholders' equity as per 1H2015 USD 246.0 B, [ie. sum of insurance float and deferred taxes relative to shareholders' equity approx. 60%].

BRK.B, SAN & INVEa.ST [investor AB, ser. A shares, NASDAQ OMX Stockholm].