John Hjorth

@Luke, It's not in any way fruitful, nor constructive, here, to try to manuduce anyone, - including me -,about personal circles of competence, which I am for my part very well aware of, and attentive to. Were you in kindergarden or elementary school the first time I here on CoBF had an exchange with James [ @james22 ] here on CoBF about Berkshire ? [Back then, James was an oil bug working his a** of in the middle east, steadyly accumulating Berkshire shares, I'm confident James is doing well in his retirement by now in the US, alone because of that fact. Being somewhat humble is a great hedge against appearing like a fool 'afterwards' /' in retrospect', I would say. And now we are it, Luke [ @Luke ] : The best is yet for you to come! [But you don't know it yet, and perhaps you don't understand it by now : 'An existence [ a beeing, a life] without clients!' It's just so great! The second boss I had in my work life after university once said to me : 'John, remember, that if we did not have all those cumbersome clients, we would have absolutely no problems! - None, what so ever! - But [- and here is the catch - ] we would also be on public welfare, and we would immedially default on our unpaid *booze* bills at <omitted>, right?'

I took delivery of Brett's [ @Bretts ] book a few days ago. I'm reading it in the nights and early mornings, where I can't sleep atm. I haven't finished reading it yet. To be totally honest, I think it contains claims / assertions, that related to Mr. Buffett [Warren Buffett, the young guy, back in the beginning and the early days, pre Berkshire] may seem provocative. Investing back then in net-nets was simply put - hard, cumbersome - actual work. The book portraits a young man, who in his early innings was overall successful, but also did not not experienced everything he touched as investment successes [please read : headwinds and bummers], to enjoy as his platform later in life, when his approach to investing changed, because of AUM. I read it as Mr. Buffett wasen't a 'savant', 'natural talent' or a person 'wired to generate alpha' [from birth]. It [the extraordinary returns] all came from [hard, sometimes cumbersome] work and due diligence, and an intellectual framework evolved over time, combined with a personality, that if you are right, [based on reason] nothing can stop you, being it an incompetent, high paid CEO, or a chairman, with an outdated world view , and likely also a lot of shares. The message to me personally from the book is 'Investing can be learned', and thereby also - by inverting - 'Investing can be taught'. To me, personally, that's something really special.

James [ @james22 ], Take it easy. Over the years [- now actually many years!, James], I've always enjoyed reading your posts here on CoBF. And I still do, while I'm personally not able to comprehend your posts about cryptocurrencies. And that's on me, not you.

I've never thought of things that way, but to me, it's true.

Thank you, @Xerxes , Important, to remember, so one's mind doesen't stray too much away from reality.

This is somehow funny.

Then i's beyond me then, how you're posting this here , @Longnose .

The answer to that question is the same as the answer for any other sector., when the question is asked.

Amazon : Buffett's Early Investments: A new investigation into the decades when Warren Buffett earned his best returns - Brett Gardner.

@Brett, I've been suffering from sleep problems lately the first part of the nights, unfortunately, now, for a long time, the first part of the nights understood relatively, as I'm a 'severe' 'night owl', so this is likely early morning to others! In those periods I've been reading your book since it landed here.. Here, certainly!, not to be misunderstood. Food for thought in approiate doses -, one night, one dose [here meant as : One chapter, one investment, one thesis] at a time, in proper doses. Your book - at least to me - many places - rocks and challenges the concept of 'Buffett being an [god almighty] 'investment savant'[, while he has personally always been the first one admit to mistakes], while it's now totally clear to me, that it has all been hard work for many decades, also in the early years, to get to very top.

No, @Xerxes, Those headlines were misleading. That call was from Zelenskyj, and the phone was handed over to Musk, so Zelenskyj could thank Musk for making Starlink available to Ukraine for warfare purposes.

It quickly spread like some bush fire to all other news media, citing Washington Post [, not normal procedure for Reuters and AP, I would say]. I already before I went to bed late last night thought this could be false information, because it does not comply with Putins personality as I percieve it. If Trump said so, it would contain a hardly hidden threat against Putin '... already material US military presence in Europe ...' - Nobody threats Putin, only Putin has the privilege of threating others, according to Putin's World View, and his view of Great Mother Russia! Or he [Putin] was actually told so by Trump, and is now in denial, because he is furious about he was threatened, and thereby loosing face to realities. Add to that material personal sactions and an international arrest order. Putin is insulted and offended like some sentitive bitch over that. - - - o 0 o - - - Here, such a thing is called a 'New Paper Duck'! [, meaning when one 'duck' says 'quack', we better say 'quack' too, to not fall behind in the news stream, in stead of doing independently verification].

A new YouTube video by Anders Puck Nielsen : YouTube - Anders Puck Nielsen [November 7th 2024] : What will Trump's victory mean for Ukraine? I think this analysis is fairly good, without being too speculative, because of our general lack of tangible information about it, and the same time I hear some considerations not contained in what I have read on and in Mainstream Media about it. Personally, I think Mr. Nielsen is missing one important and material point here though. The assymmetry in an evetual negotiation situation : Both The mediator [Donald Trump] and one of the warring parties [Volodymyr Zelenskyj] care and worry about collateral damages, while the latter combattant [Vladimir Putin] does not [give a damn about such].

NVO [!->]?[<-!]. Likely, -not much 'steady she goes' over this frothy rodeo bull to sit on.

Thank you for sharing, Charlie [ @dealraker ], For a Northern European citizen like me, this is really a shocking read. It - simply put - reads - to me - as if your society is gradually, but surely, falling apart. [This does not constitute a personal expression of that I personally think that I live a place, where there are no problems and challenges, - because there are a lot of things and lots of places with space for improvements, also here.]

@Saluki, Perhaps the question is also what that would to do with your personal perception of the experience in the first place. [Going at vacation while physically staying at home?] I'm not sure I in any way understand the concept.

Yes, @73 Reds, Start doing the following : 1. Deduct from the 'cash' USD 40 billion as liquidity reserve for the whole insurance group never to get in any kind of trouble, 2. Not all the 'cash' is actually cash, it's a combination of cash and T-Bills, the T-Bills actually generating 'something' by now, where 'something' > 'nothing' 'earlier', 3. One could argue, that of the 'cash', a part of it, according to latest float information from Berkshire stated to USD 174 billion EOP 2024Q3, is financed by float, and, if one is still whining about the Berkshire cash, 4. The Berkshire cash is what provides you staying power in this non-zero-sum game, if financial armageddon resurfaces on our planet, or if you make serious mistakes with - for you - serious money - in other investments. - - - o 0 o - - - That's actually not that bad, at all.

The way things formally are structured about transfer of presidential power in USA, Trump is actually cut-off from doing anything till after his second Inauguration Day on 20th January 2025. In this actual context, when talk is about losses of lives [on both sides], there is unfortunately a long time to that date. It is already happening as we post. And it's not going to be 2 per cent defence spending budgets going forward to keep up with and to reality, it's going to get to more - much more, and stay to at that higher level! [3 - 4 per cent, perhaps certain places even higher.] Soon this discussion about European NATO contributions will be muted by NATO stats. - At least It's now locally here clear to the Danes it's absolutely needed to be so. And a lot of stuff on that front is actually in the works here by now. I.e. about naval shipbuilding in the mold.

You beat me to it, @Sweet!, , It's actually interesting stuff, I would say, at interim. Its proposal does not exclude Ukraine from joining NATO in all eternity, but for an extended period. That would make sense, at least to me personally, the same way that there will be no short-cuts available for Ukraine to join EU because of existing governmental issues in the incumbent administration [corruption etc.] The paper referred to in the article also attached here. America_First,_Russia,___Ukraine_ - 20241108.pdf

Thank you, @Sweet , I'll try to dig it up and post a link to it here as well, if I find it. - - - o 0 o - - - Edit : Here we go : Reuters - United States US Elections Donald Trump [June 25th 2024] : Exclusive: Trump handed plan to halt US military aid to Kyiv unless it talks peace with Moscow

Reuters - Europe - Ukraine and Russia at War [November 8th 2024] : Putin is ready to talk to Trump but his Ukraine demands are unchanged, Kremlin says. I wonder what will happen when these two goats [, not to be confused with GOATs, here rams] butt heads in the near future. Will Trumps approach for 'big rocket man' be similar to that applied against 'little rocket man'? [<- Now perhaps that turned out reading at least bit funny, if one has hit Friday mood and sentiment, but that was unintentional here.]

Hi Bret [ @Brett ], My copy of the book arrived in good shape at its new home here in Denmark today. I personally think it would be customary to let you open and start a topic in the Books forum here on CoBF for and about the book.

Today, I received the physical [hardcover] Danish Edition of the book. Based on all the photos in the book, I'm quite confident, I actually it got waayy below Danske Bank production costs , based on all the photos included in the edition. My price : DKK 165.00 + p&p DKK 52.00.

That wall, it has hit,[<- ], is just awesome !

@Dalal.Holdings, Why do you continue to refer to this Italian, socalist politician about what Europe urgently need to act on? The Danish defence budget is in the Danish state budget, to be aproved by the Danish parliament, called 'Folketinget'. 'Up yours, Draghi!'