John Hjorth

Thank you, @Xerxes, Yeah, it may make sense for GS. I speculate we'll see before US market market opens tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I'll take a look at my Nordic/Scandinavian bank positions If there is something that may have skipped my attention about securities on the balance sheets.

True and correct, @vinod1, Thank you for reminding us while we speculate away. And add to the list provided by @mike_3772 the Obama administration prohibiting JPM from growing it's branch network and at the same gagging the bank from telling anyone about it.

It's just me being soo moderate and polite, @Sweet. Btw, saw some place today, that Janet Yellen has commented, something is in the works [naturally], but she did not bring specifics forward. I read earlier today on Wikipedia about what happened with and around Leman Brothers September '08 to refresh memory, especially about that Saturday meeting at the office of Timothy Geitner with all the bank CEOs of importance. It stroke me, that Jamie Dimon must be the only person still around at that level in US banking - hopefully his long memory is intact and matters.

Further entertainment, here by Nassim Taleb on Twitter [, whoose behavior on Twitter in general - paribus ceteris - I consider semi-jerky]: https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1634677096927641607?s=20

This tweet nearly killed me.

I just grabbed the SIVB 2022 10-K to look at bit on it. From the balance sheet on p. 95: Held-to-maturity securities: YE 2022 : Book value : USD 91.321 B Fair value : USD 76.169 B [, thereby diff. USD 15.152] YE 2021 : Book value : USD 98.195 B Fair value : USD 97.227 B Equity : YE 2022 : USD 16.004 B YE2021 : USD 16.236 B Unqualified audit opinion on the 10-K dated February 23, 2023. The bank passed away on March 9, 2023. Just great! I imagine someone is at the office right now working on stuffing the corps of this into the throat of the CEO of a large bank, ref. @Dalal.Holdings above, - the same style as some produce foie gras!

Awesome, @longlake95! - Others : More!

Hi Jeff [ @DooDiligence], Here we go - enjoy - and enjoy your weekend!: Jeff Beck - Nissun Dorma - on guitar, Sharon Corr & Jeff Beck : Mna Na Herean.

@Gregmal, - Never thought - ever - I should see this posted by you. [Please don't take it too seriously! ]

Marshall Plan . You have to help your worst enemy to get on the feet again, when the clash is over. You may not love to do so, but for macro economists it's plain and pure, almost simple, ... logics and macroeconomics on the rim, - no feelings involved whatsoever. To me, no doubt USA here did the right thing after WWII. - - - o 0 o - - - I have interviewed my - now late - father, who passed away august last year at the age of 96 - about how he was perceiving his own whole life, talking with him many, many hours during the last decade or so, I would say tirelessly, trying to grasp and understand how he has perceived his living conditions back then - later in life with my mother - and how living conditions have evolved during the years. He was post WWII an officer in the the Danish army, in a brigade controlling how things evolved post WWII in the German population, in a part of Germany, Hamburg and north bound, out of of Itzehoe, located NE of Hamburg. Not one word about that was I during all those years with him with talks about his past able to get out of him about that part of his life. When asked about it, he simpy turned his face in another direction than me at every occurrence.fter WWII. Today, I think of it as PTSD of his, to which I never got any help. - - - - o 0 o - - - We have to love our former worst enemy, when the dust settles, to get along.

This has hit the news here in Denmark,too, today. If it is so, I consider it mega ballsy and at the same time mega destcructive.

Thank you for bringing all shades and details on the matter to the table here, @gfp. It's appreciated much, as always.

I did check up on the BHE ownership. It's actually owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the parent, and has been since control was obtained over it in 1999. The documentation for it is in the the attachments to the BHE 2022 10-K on SEC website.

@whatstheofficerproblem, I consider you lucky not to have gotten into such professional and work environment.

Quotes from the MKL topic in "Investment Ideas" forum of posts by Sanjeev [ @Parsad], @dealraker & @Viking, for further discussion separately : This future break-up scenerio for Berkshire has pooped popped up regularly here on CoBF within the last decade - now four or five times during that period, I think. I do not recall ever to have seen anyone taking a serious stab at analyzing such a scenario and trying generate some written reflections - the closest thing has been a piece by Ravi Nagarajan [The Rational Walk] within the last three years or so, based on the share class structure. - @Viking considers it super interesting to follow. I would say ditto, but like a nightmare, or like seing "Cliffhanger" on a large screen, while you're suffering severely from acrofobia! Anyone?

@jbwent63, About LEGO, yes, 25% is foundation owned, but the rest 75% is owned by Kirbi A/S, the privately held investment vehicle [no foundation involvement], which then again is owned by Mr. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and his three kids [1/4 each, in a pool]. Separate website, Annual Reports available here, certainly not in any way shappy. Kirki A/S is managed by Søren Thorup Christensen, former CFO of A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S and Danish CPA [, like me]. Mr. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen left Billund, Jutland, [the home of LEGO] years ago to to live on a mansion on a pensinsula called Hindsholm on the north-east part of Funen, where I live in the major city of Funen, called Odense, located centrally on island. He has been "giving" back large areas of land belonging to the mansion by leaving it alone instead of growing crops. He is also heavily involved in horse breeding. Junior [Thomas] has been bulding a great and awsome golf resort named Great Northern - [from an economic perspective , simly what appears to be a black hole] - at the town of Kerteminde, about 16 kms from here to the east, south of where his father lives.

@Castanza, Here you go : Wallenberg - History [Lower part of the webpage]. It's a fascinating story about the industrialization of Sweden, starting in the 1850s, by a very entrepeneurial family, amassing enourmous wealth already in the beginning of the last century. The Wallenberg family considers themselves industrialists [more than investors], and philantrophists. None of the Wallenberg family members are on any list of wealthy persons, the net worth is encapsuled in now - I think - 16 foundations in total - under family control. All family members generally lay low in the public space. My family and I have owned INVE A for almost a decade now - good ride, seldom material and serious bad news, easy to hold & doing nothing, but still to watch & follow. Too boring for some people, who prefer investing in high-flyers, of which some can't fly, or whatever. Like investing in Berkshire, Investor is the place to learn that investing by compounding is the mere concept of waiting. Compounding made easy by outsourcing, combined with special & attractive tax treatment of Swedish investment holding companies. Be aware of US PFIC status [mentioned by @Jurgis years ago] - I have had no personal interest in pursuing the correct answer to that question].

As mentioned by @Spekulatius, Atlas Copco is indeed for a material part owned - and thereby for practical purposes controlled - by Swedish Investor AB, listed investment vehicle of the Wallenberg family [FAM AB being the private vehicle]. Atlas Copco constitutes a material part of Investors NAV, and thereby a cornerstone in the Wallenberg Sphere, together with similar ownership positions in ABB, AstraZeneca & SEB. Just for fun is attached is the Annual Report for the period from the date of foundation of Investor 16th October 1916 to 31st December 1917 containing a specification of the shareholdings at YE 1917. You'll at page 3 see two companies mentioned named "Kopparberg" and one named "Atlas Diesel" - predecessors to Atlas Copco. I would be surprised, if Jacob Wallenberg [Investors working chairman] and Mr. Buffett did not know eachother, because they are basically in the same business - you could call Investor AB Swedens Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 1917-investor-arsredovisning.pdf

Thank you for sharing, @bizaro86, It reads almost unbearable to me, but YMMV.

Take a look at Nordic financial institutions. Some of them are turning into money machines in this interest rate environment [, and some don't, as always], after they have been in the doghouse and under extreme regulation for a long time by the respective national FSAs ["No - don't kiss that customer!"] in the years since the GFC.

Added to BN [using proceeds from sale of all BAM shares today and basically all available liquidity]. So, back to being fully invested again.

Sold all BAM shares today [all out], to buy BN using the proceeds + liquidity].

AJG seems to be a shameless tax speculator [, said the the guy who is a reasonable happy camper in a company obtaining USD 2.187 B for 2022 in tax credits related to power production by wind and investments in affordable housing].

To be strictly precise, the dividends from BNSF are not going to Berkshire [the parent], but to National Indemnity [NICO], which is the owner of BNSF.

Somehow this post by @dealraker hit a nerve by me. Suddenly it hit me - like a cub over my head - how convient investing in Berkshire actually is for the long term. [Please read : How convenient I am!] Investing in conglomerates provide you the opportunity to participate in "creative destruction", ref. Joseph Schlumpeter [and ref. the mentioning in the shareholder letter], while also providing you with option - when things goes wrong & south [perhaps dearly] with a certain investment in the conglomerate, which again provides the opportunity to claim here : "I'm not the dork here, the CEO [of the conglomerate] is." [unless one decide to fire that CEO by offloading the position, that is].