John Hjorth

KAL cartoon [July 6th 2023] in The Economist. [Perhaps needless to say, but I like it [ ], especially on a day where there will be a solution for a roadmap for Swedens NATO membership, and thereby for the NATO members in Northern Europe in the Baltics and Nordics.]

@MMM20, I think, you'd better be careful such presumptions about the implications of such assumptions for an insurer - not much is static in that space of business for such a period. That does not change the fact that FFH looks really compellng right now.

I wish you good luck with it all, @RedLion! It reads interesting, with a lot of potential! Thank you for sharing.

Bloomberg [July 10th 2023] : Erdogan Links Sweden’s NATO Entry to Turkey’s EU Bid. The man is an intellectual pygmy. The legal framework for EU has nothing to do with the legal framework for NATO.

@RedLion, Are you simply shiftning a part of your invested capital to another [non-listed] asset class, or are you buying a new home? If it's the last alternative, congratulations!

Just some educational info here [without the intent to appear condecending towards fellow board members posting in this topic, or for that matter any CoBF member] : North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Press Release [July 7th 2023] : Defence Expenditures of NATO Countries (2014-2023). Full document in PDF with data tables and charts. Whose war is it : The war belongs Russia and Ukraine. Whose problem is the war? : To me, it's primairily a problem held and owned by Europe, because the war is going on in Europe and destabilizes Europe in a material way. ['Europe' here includes both Russia and Ukraine.] In the end it's an issue for every state in the western world, where societal values are based on democracy and freedom. I have no problem with understanding the stances of @cubsfan and @Castanza about USAs participation in the financing of the war. As a Dane, I'm actually embarrased by the Danish part of the data in the above mentioned material.

Please just give it a go. There is nothing as entertaining as a good libel trial, especially when your opponent is deceased. Up it Up!

"Russian National Interest" in casu? - Please give me a break. The man is runnning and ruling the country for his own personal benefit.

It's pretty striking to me, I would say, that not Browder, nor Kasparov, nor Khodorkovsky has much tangible to add here. Perhaps it's time to just settle with the Winston Churchil quote above posted by @Xerxes, and to shrug.

Add to that a priori low expectations, and you have a recipe for good life, if one combines it with living below or at your means. None of us need to be the next Warren Buffett to do good. - - - o 0 o - - - Perhaps one day, I'll tell the story about *F* here on CoBF [*F* will stay anonymous, unless he may chose to register here on CoBF.]

To get this calculation right pre tax, you have to include withheld dividend taxes as withdrawals to the calculation. Counterintutitive, but so it is.

Great one, @Xerxes!, What do you do to take down a man who takes him self too seriously? You troll him and pull pranks on him, so he looses face. Twitter : Phillips O'Brien : Ukrainians openly trolling Russian navy . Twitter : How to pull a prank, saying "Who owns whose a**" [Normally, this phenomen is about cats, not dogs.]

Two weeks today since what I have called the coup d'état. Still no *real* [tangible / solid] information about what's going on inside Russia. I'm puzzled.

It would be nice to getting back to sharing facts.

Bloomberg [July 6th 2023] : Russia Gas Giant Warns of Sanctions Risk for Ukraine Energy Firm. This has the potential to turn really bad - for both Europe and Russia. I have mentioned the gas pipelines in Ukraine before upstream in this topic and their importance, everyone seem to skip or disregard this matter / issue. Gazprom PJSC CEO Alexei Miller has for long now looked like something dragged inside the house by the cat, when he has been seen in videos. I think nobody envies him his job. Really bad, when international trade gets messed up with geopolitics. Personally I speculate that this could evolve and escalate into something worse than last autumn and winter in the European gas markets.

ICPA - Eurojust. Now, just wait patiently and see how this initiative is going to play out.

Has anybody seen any tangible / solid information about the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin recently [in the last week]?

Ian Fleming did not know, that what he was "inventing" - making up and thinking up with the use of his imagination and fantasy in 1961 while finishing the manus to Thunderball introducing SPECTRE would end up later to become quite similar to the playbook of Wagner PMC. All, from Russia with love. A tapeworm, but the logo is clearly an Octopus. It's deeply concerning.

Awesome, thank you for sharing, @Spekulatius, Purpose plausible deniability, and in this week we've got videos on Twitter, where Putin is putting numbers on the "chef" activities, and PMC activities, drowned somewhere in the Russian state budget. I only find it a bit amusing, because I've not been contributing to it. The man is simply loosing it.

@gfp, Damn good humor! If I had a like button to press, I'd press on it!

@Saluki, I have to say, you're just my kind guy! Yes, it could be a lot worse, including "Wein, weib und gesang", also ref. Charles Mungers comments about leverage, liquor and ladies. I think it's called being a bookworm.

@Xerxes, I curse you [J/K], now I need to buy that book, too! - - - o 0 o - - - Since the war started last year I have been wondering what has happened to that enormous combination of a gas station and construction work in progress called Gazprom and its financing, because there is a lot [many billions of USD] of western financing on the ongoing pipeline constructions. Are these debt obligations being served or what?

There is already a strong reaction from the Baltic states related to the presence of Russian nuclear warheads in Belarus, combined with information of the presence of Jevgenij Prigozjin in Belarus, too. It's for sure concerning.

I ordered the 7th Edition a few days ago, based on what I have read about it on Twitter and Substack.

Thank you, @gfp, I looked it up after your post confimed the connection : Wikipedia : J. B. Pritzker & Wikipedia : Pritzker family. I personally think there's a lot of truth to that speech. It seems impossible to build a civilized society based on law and order by the use of simple and primitive cruelty, suppressing basic human rights, especially if the population does not care about it, and let everything pass, ref. above. Christ, what a Hellhole Russia has become.