John Hjorth

We can think and speculate away in any direction each of us personally want. What one gets from buying the original book from www.lulu.com [ Link ] is a survey of the central facts, that turned Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from being a turd to a company saturated with greatness : Survey of : 1. Float development 2. Cost of float development. [In the book, it's outside pagination, in the front.]

Max Olson [ CoBF member @maxprogram ] has recently released a new digital version of this book. Please visit this CoBF topic in the Berkshire Hathaway forum for further information.

I speculate that Mr. Buffett has never forgotten how his cooperation with the author of 'Snowball' turned out [the only book about Berkshire / Buffett that I own, that I've never finished reading [in the meaning : reading it from first page to the last], and likely never will]. Maybe Andrew Kilpatrick with his several and regularly editions of "Of permanent value"- 'regularly' at least untill the latest 2020 edition - may be the exception from that rule of thumb.

@KJP, That was very well said. When we hit February 1st 2024, that's one month from now -, - if nothing seuriously really starts to break somewhere before that date, we will have have had and experienced one the longest bull markets - 15 years! - in economic history, - if not the longest ever, with only short periods over those 15 years where cash in clear hindsight was to be preferred over the stock market.

Happy New Year!

After thinking a bit about it, this approach appears to me to generate good 'approximation towards and near perfection' for practical purposes.

~19%, with S&P500 at ~24%.

@dwy000, Years ago, I did spend many hours each year on such excercises, with what I would label immaterial differences to a straight IRR calculation as outcome. Pragmatism made me leave this activity for good, as immaterial. But YMMV, dependant on how stable [to which degree stable] your capital base is. Progress in our endavours to become richer aren't really measured in 0.1 percentages!

A place to start [, by Joel Stevens, [ @austinvalue ], our CoBF member @racemize ] : Austin Value Capital [writings : Writing - Measuring returns ]

KAL's Cartoon this week : To stay on top of this tooth issue, I highly recommend The Deluxe 5-stone System from Lansky Sharpeners as an ideal DIY-solution - based on personal experience, I have to say it works great! :

War is indeed ugly and meaningless from a humanitarian point from view. Very hard to belive that only one human being lost the life in this brutal Novocherkassk event. Morbid humor may be needed to survive : If what is seen at this photo seems look like a submarine conversion of Novocherkassk, I tend to disagree.

Tass [ December 26th 2023] : The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has put the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleshchuk on the wanted list [translated from Russian to English]. Message text translated to English : In short, Russian war logic, based on what is going on in Ukraine is not a war. Now isen't that just something very special. Anyway, I'm impressed. Merry Christmas.

Yesterday I ordered this book : , based on comments from Javier Pérez Álvarez, Edelweiss Capital Research, on Substack, and the description of the book on my preferred [Danish] bookstore www.saxo.com : This topic is actually rumbling in my head, and I hope to get a better structure on my thinking about it from reading the book.

The day to day operations of the Berkshire subsidiaries are the responsibilities of the CEOs of the respective Berkshire subsidiaries. The management [on strategic / board level] of what capital is already invested in Berkshire subsidiaries will continue to be of imperative importance and the root of future Berkshire growth going forward. -Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all CoBF members and families!

Now that you mention it, @Spekulatius, It's actually true. Food for thought.

For all of us from Apollo and from Blackstone, while especially for those of us with a sweet tooth for alts [ ] : Apollo : Youtube : Apollo Global Management : Apollo Presents: No New Toys Blackstone : Youtube - Blackstone : Blackstone’s 2023 Holiday Video: The Alternatives Era Enjoy!

Barron's turning extremely long term here : Berkshire now included third year in row!

Somehow, this topic, started, and so far, driven by @Saluki since September 2023, has skipped my attention, which @Saluki took the effort and time to gentle and polite to bring to my attention today, caused by this post of mine here in the books forum . [Thank you for that!] It is about the difference between Normative Economic Theory and Positive Economic Theory [I would personally call it 'Observable Economics'], vs. Practical Idealism, of which the latter is actually discussed a lot here on CoBF! -Michael Rothschilds book hereby also added to my wishlist.

@cash_incinerator, I added this book to my wishlist. Thank you for the recommendation. The angle of the book described in the narrative on Amazon [analogy between evolotionary biology and investing, competition, innovation, business cycles etc.] appears to me interesting, and in a way intuitively already laying in front of the right foot, however I don't recall ever to have read anything [papers or books] pursuing it further. - - - o 0 o - - - Also, Your little story about how you got your copy of the book is to me very important, because it tells a lot about the personality and mentality of Mr. Pabrai, where the small things and tokens matters, here giving you a book as an appreciation for and of your donation. - - - o 0 o - - - Also a belated welcome to CoBF!

It's Friday, so ...

Thanks @UK & @changegonnacome, If this Ukrainian situation ends up with Russia getting - Europes and NATOs - calling it 'blessing' would be a far fetch - perhaps the word 'acceptance' is more appropriate to use about such an outcome -, then I don't believe one iota that the man - and by that, Russia - will stop here and call it a day. This is for me personally based on my own personal layman judgement that this person suffers from a mental illness or from one or more severe personal disorders, so his behavioral patterns aren't rational in the ordinary sense, perhaps combined with psycopathy related to at least what he's actually doing to the Russian people and its future.

@Xerxes, Partly on topic, partly off topic: Thank you for sharing your view on things. - - - o 0 o - - - About the Danish mortgage model : Yes, You've understood the Danish mortgage model correctly. FinansDanmark : The traditional Danish mortgage model [also attached]. FinansDanmark - den-klassiske-realkreditmodel_uk_2021_final - 20231214.pdf

Greg [ @Gregmal], At this time, I'm plowing through - I think - eight, or so, books simultainiously, page by page. I seldom really in this excercise meet something really new, or in any other dimension thought provoking, related to investing, but then again - it actually happens. One of those eigth books in progress readingwise is : "What never changes in a changing world Same as ever Timeless lessons on risk, opportunity, and living a good life" by Morgan Housel. His definition of risk, ref. chapter 3, p. 15 is : "Risk Is What You Don't See" [ ] [How does that tie with such a discussion of risk here in this topic on CoBF?]

@formthirteen & @changegonnacome, Thanks. Let me here just express my deepest worries about how this is now supposed to play out going forward. It just demonstrates how nuts politics are from time to time. Why even engage and getting involved in this war in the first place, if you're not willing to complete and finish what you've already been up to? So many lifes lost [on both sides], in stead of just letting the unmentional man take what he wants in the first place, if this is the outcome? Where is consistency and perseverance? - - - o 0 o - - - Zelensky met with the Nordic countries in Oslo today, and he was on a one-to-one meeting with my PM Mette Frederiksen [dressed totally in black today [<- !!??]]. For Denmark, she commited ~1 USD B in war support, does not change much. Agreed, but still far from enough.