John Hjorth

@Castanza, What the heck is it with you today?

You are messing up your US miniscule voting right of yours related to NATO with the voting rights of other citizens of other nations in Europe. As I already said, this is not relevant for you. And please go somewhere else with this : "I spend tax dollars on it and it's not my business?". It does not matter, unless you decide to run for an office to become a politician, or unless you relocate to Europe for taxation etc. [, in the first case I'll stop reading your posts here on CoBF]. Please get real, and please stop posting stuff, that has no real merit.

@Castanza, I seldom participate in these discussions in this topic. I would just say here : You - as a US citizen - should not even have an opinion on that particular matter. It's simply none of your business, if you believe in true democracy.

This made me chuckle, Mike [ @cubsfan ], However, The seriousness of the matter still stands. I'll here publicly admit, that I am a citizen of a North European state, that did not carry out sufficient due diligence on the matter at hand in the first place. Today, I personally cringe about it, being unaware of what has been going on and building up for years. To me personally, it's actually and indeed very embarrassing.

I think it's called : "Respect for the elderly". I did not have it at younger age, I think it started to develop gradually when I turned the 40 mark, now quite some years ago. I recall specific episodes now adays from the past, where I today cringe over my own behavior back then, by showing lack of respect for the elderly. Basically, it is also about tolerance between generations in a society. Respect for those who have served their duty. - - - o 0 o - - - Perhaps it is also about I'm developing a certain entitlement while I'm getting older myself!

Reuters [May 11th 2023] : Britain moves first to supply Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles. Someone is about to get beaten up while being well into own territory.

What a weird kind of libido.

Youtube [May 5 2023] : Gabelli Interview Panel Adam Mead, Chris Bloomstran & Todd Finkle about Berkshire . For those who may not know, Adam is a CoBF member, username @TREVNI . Enjoy.

A few days before Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] started this topic, I read this : The Conversation [ May 3rd 2023] : Tiredness of life: the growing phenomenon in western society. After reading this topic, combined with the above mentioned article, it hit me : If the Berkshire board ever had asked Mr. Buffett to be excused and to leave office to enjoy his retirement, I feel pretty sure, he would have withered away and passed away in a quite short period of time. The feeling of having a purpose late in life and to stay active are imperatives for good living conditions and a good life in general at high age. I have never forgotten the last public interview Mr. Arnold Mærsk McKinney-Møller ever gave before he passed away in the spring af 2012, at age 96. Loosing his wife years earlier was a material nail to his coffin, he said. He also said, that on top of that he had gradually lost basically all his personal friends, who had passed away before him, so he felt poor! He was removed as chairman of the Board [I think it must have been before the merger of D/S af 1912 A/S with D/S Svendborg A/S to form the recent A. P. Møller-Mærsk A/S] because he messed up with his role as Chairman of the board on an AGM [nothing material of error I may add], after which the Board swiftly and fairly silently pressed him out of the board. I'm still thinking that this action by the board, taking away the last few reponsibilities and duties he still had left at APM HQ before that was the last nail to his coffin, making him sit home alone mostly all of his time. Mr. Buffett is still like an Energizer Bunny, considering his age, but he is not running on Duracell batteries, there must be a tiny nuclear power plant mounted on him somewhere!

Thank you, @Spekulatius! , As always, based on sincere interest in reading your thoughts and considerations. - - - o 0 o - - - @yesman182 mentioned SAP here, for that sake, it could be an ERP solution provided by Microsoft or some other company. Lots of external software companies making a business out of providing socalled "Add-on modules" for certain specific purposes, paid dearly, containing breaches of database integrity, by providing redundant database tables [, so one can actually run a database query more than one way, and get different results, depending on approach for the query]. I have seen this so many times in my earlier life.

I do not consider myself a Berkshire sleuth, but anyway - here goes for my guess : He has continued to reduce bank positions : C and BK, simply just because Mr. Buffett has been souring on banks as of late. I'm not in any way sure C is Buffett position, I may add. Comments from fellow CoBF members to that part would appreciated for my part, thank you. With gross additions during the first quarter of 2023 of USD 2,873 B and gross sales of USD 12,283, net disposals of USD 9,410, it is to me a bit puzzling. Soon, we'll see. - - - o 0 o - - - Furthermore, I'm puzzled by the comments above about the positions in OXY and Chevron, but stay un-opinionated on the matter, while still thinking "Berkshire in a ressource investment for the long term?" You gents may eventually end up being right.

@Spekulatius, Please fullfill your post above by editing it, thank you.

@Dinar, Now we're at it, I'll personally add Jeffrey Gundlach [, who also seem consistently to do well in this space]. @Viking, cool, rational and laid back - as always - is a fan of his. Now try to find a fairly recent photo of Mr. Gundlach on the net, then at least try to dig up - say, a five year old photo of Mr. Gundlach for comparison. If you have done this comparative excercise, you'll acknowledge that return in this space has a price.

To me, you appear here to be too kind here, @dealraker. With all respect for @TwoCitiesCapital as such, who has compounded consistently over longer periods of time in gold and bonds? The argument posted above is invalid, unless you're a trader. Which brings up the next question : Show us a long term really successful trader, or even better more than one.

For good reason, a lot of discussions has been going on about the banking sector here on CoBF, especially about the recent US regional banking developments, certain US banks and the Swiss CS/UBS calamity unfolding. I may have mentioned John Maxfield here on CoBF before - today, I would like to share some of his work with you, because I personally appreciate it, as a guy with a sweet tooth [some may call it a fatal attraction] for banks as investments. [To make a full confession, I think I should add insurance companies and various holding companies in conglomerates]. Here we go : Youtube - John Maxfield [May 3rd 2023] : Maxfield on Banks Periodization . This is from a banking seminar hosted by Mr. Maxfield short time ago. I like to read his stuff on Twitter and what I can read on his Substack [the part of it, that I'm able to read without a paid subscription, that is]. He isen't trying to provide / sell investment ideas related to US banking, he is simply providing a reference and overall framework about how to think about and look at US banking over time, that I'm not aware anyone else has been trying to do. Please feel free to call Mr. Maxfield a US banking historian - because I think he is. Within the first minute of the video it's cut to the bone : The US banking sector is a war of attrition, and has always been through its history. Through 22 K mergers and 17 K failures, US banking now consists of approx. 4.8 K banks. [Please see at 00:52 mark in the video]. USA does not need 4.8 K banks to have a functional and efficient banking system. Small banks will likely continue to be weeded out, if they don't have a local or regional moat [, whatever that may turn out to be], or if they do dumb things. The winners long term are to me the banks with actual satisfactory capital levels, that have proved to have - over time - consistently non-stupid management.

And by the way : Congrats to my fellow board member who actually managed to get a question pass the quality, relevance and interest filter put in place by Becky Quick and thereby given priority to be asked. That was very well deserved, I would say. For those who may be nosy about it, it was the question about the economic effects for Berkshires about changes in the US tax code, which actually caused Mr. Buffett to elaborate on the matter at length. Just great stuff, triggered by a high quality question. At approx. 6:16:00 of the full CNBC video on Youtube, 7:44:00 long.

I actually heard the same as what @ValueMaven posted, meaning 500-600, again meaning 10 x dreadful, wich equals totally dreadful.

@sleepydragon, This! And it goes goes for both geriatric gents! It's amazing to experience. Last year, Mr. Buffett seemed a bit slow / tired [?] while starting out, then later got warmed up. This year : Full throttle from first minute! Inspired by what has been posted above about Mr. Buffett : A career of rolling! ... spanning from *rolling* cigarbutts to *rolling* billions of T-bills.

@Dynamic, Thank you very much for your posts above and all the detailed information in them, - much, much better to read your stuff above than reading any transcript , or whatever. Christ, what a soap rant it must have been to experience. Lunatics, perhaps even with personality disorders, are about everywhere. - - - o 0 o - - - I hope you have enjoyed your stay in USA with your wife so far.

I stopped viewing and listening to the streaming of the AGM at the end of the afternoon section of the Q&A session, where there was a planned break of one hour before commencing the formal business part of the annual shareholders meeting according the agenda in the relased proxy statement filing available on EDGAR. This morning I tried to find the streaming of the formal part of the meeting, finding out, thats it's not public available. While I certainly understand the position of likely a lot of attending shareholders, management and board being totally fed up with the formal shareholder meeting being more or less high jacked by evrironmentalists and the likes getting the word promoting own personal ESG related agenda by having submitted ESG related proposals, that from a voting perspective have absolutely no chance to carry through with a majority of "FOR" votes as voting outcome, I still find this decision questionable, because I am as a non-participating shareholder without access to the voting results, at least by now [here, it's 13:15 Sunday afternoon rigth now]. I suppose a transcript of the meeting at least will be released soon, or perhaps also a 8-K filing next week. Or has something skipped my attention here?

Yes, conspicuous and in a way appalling.

Finally, there was a question about the american banking system, US regional banking in particular, and Mr. Buffett started - before saying anything - by flipping table name tags on the podium like this [ ] :

Agreed @gfp, I'm pretty sure he follows just about everything that may be going on with US T-bills, and that's certainly for a reason of being a material buyer.

Listening to and viewing the Berkshire AGM today online is is just an awesome experience! The Chairman and the first chairman seem to be in their sweet spot, full of energy, and sharp as ever! The two other and newest chairmen blending in at times - depending on questions asked - gives the whole AGM a more specific dimension on quite some issues, that matters a lot for the future! -It's just great!

Thanks, @Charlie, I'm now leaving TV, after experiencing the first ever horse carriage [búilt in 2012] with airkingdition, causing me to, overcringe, so I end up in cramps. It's hard for me to live without Twitter these days, because of the wild things going on in the Swedish RE carnage these days. US regional banking these days is a walk in the park compared to that. I will get better in about two hours, where I will get access to the BRK 2023Q1 10-Q [at 14:00 my local time].