John Hjorth

Charlie [ @Charlie ], Off topic : How did you do that post above with double embedded, two level quoting? I've personally nener figured that out since migration to latest board software platform here on CofB&F. Perhaps in a separate topic in the forum support form?

@73 Reds, I think things are actually material different here up in Northern Europe in pretty cosy, tiny Denmark compared to USA, but that may perhaps be a cognitive bias, because I've consistently removed such characters with such opinions and attitudes from my personal sphere. Never had time for such. That said, I've been caught 'dearly' in racial prejudice some years ago myself, Christ, I'll never forget it, I was so embarrased about how dumb I was then, it's actually a funny story, and in the end I ended up getting a new friend! I'll share it later today in this topic.

I'm shocked, stunned, by the stories shared here by @Spekulatius and Charlie [ @dealraker ].

I love this kind of basic IRL shared experiences with tariffs shared here by @changegonnacome here on CofB&F. There exists no better lesson. What it long term will bring to USA and its foreign trading partners is nothing but no good, simply, and just dumb. It's actually foreign trading macro economics 1-0-1 for those who have been taught in such stuff. [I have.]

Greg [ @Gregmal ], What is this 'thing' going on with you here about Brookfield, really about? We actually have a separate topic here on CofB&F for 'Brookfield bashing'!, outside this politics topic! - And a separate topic for Brookfield related stuff. They are hardworking business men and women, - suits! - capitalists and opportunistic investors all over the world, where there are opportunities at a given point in time - eager for more! Delivering keys back on something that simply turrned out to be a mistake is not questionable behavior, when the concept of 'non-recourse' is not only by law existing, but also applied in a loan agreement. Then there was this 'take under' thingy with some more or less obscure shipping limited partnership, Bermuda listed and mispriced to the downside like hell, orginally of Norwegian origin, petition marketed, adressed to Brookfield, among other places here on CofB&F, also on X, to gather signatures against Brookfield taking it over/under here on CofB&F by professional money managers, feeling hurt and this 'taking under' thingy by Brookfield getting under their skin! Guy Spier was one of them on X, with quite some green [client money] in the game. It turned out be nothing - at all! - illegal about that. Bruce Flatt has not even AFAIK at any time commented on it, despite it's about Brookfields reputation. So, a nothing burger! -Still we experience a professional, but appalled and with hurt feelings CofB&F member, initiating a 'Brookfield bashing' topic here on CofB&F! Terms and conditions for engaging in something, you know? -Get used to it, or get out! - We simply can't win them all! What do you really mean by posting 'Biden and long Brookfield complex'? What do you really mean by posting 'looser mentality' here above in this topic?

Sure, and the Norwegians are in general good, nice and plesant people in all respects, to interact with. I haven't ever experienced any issues. There exists enormous differencies between North and South Norway. However I've never been up north myself. Norway is actually 'vertically' [on a map] vast, up North sharing borders with Russia, actually, however not that long distance. - - - o 0 o - - - However, it is still a political socialist nation, despite it's filthy rich. Many highly successful business persons have left the country, moving south, to avoid the Norwegian Wealth tax, where basis for calculation, on top of income tax, is what you have, - every year.

The posts in this topic now seems to me to escalate again, after a period relatively calme and balanced. What has Brookfield to do with this?

This may be correct, @Spekulatius, However, the Norwegian parlament [called 'Stortinget'] has approved and adopted - across all Norwegian political parties - an overall investment mandate for NBIM, setting percentage limits on overall assets classes I think it's 70 percent for listed stock investments by now, beside that there are also investments in bonds, corporate bonds, investments in private equity funds and real estate. The real estate portfolio of NBIM is geographically scattered all over the world, certain parts of it is really awesome forever buy and hold, never sell stuff. Think about owning large parts of Regent Street, London in partnership with the British Crown Estate [ https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/]. Especially, I have tried to find out, if NBIM is a Brookfield client, so far to no avail and fruitless efforts. As far as I know, pretty much all the capital allocation activitties are delegated to assets managers working at at a fee by agreed asset management agreements and contracts, I think it is 27 asset managers by now, and overall rebalancing on and inside, the overall investment mandate set by Stortinget is done and carried out by the NBIM HQ in Oslo, overall pushing large amounts of capital around to be in compliance with the political decisions. The whole setup of NBIM appears totally crazy and inefficient to me, but it appears to be working, NBIM beating its wordwide benchmark consistently over many years, not by much, but still some, and I haven't been able to figure out why it is so, because it simply should not be so. Socialist capitalism when it's best. If one downloads their actual listed wordwide company portfolio, available at ones fingertips on NBIMs website for download, one gets a huge Excel file, containing a bit less than 10 K listed companies scattered all over the world, with market values in NOK and USD respectively, home country, sectors, ownership percentages for each of all the companies, relative to total percentages of total company voting rights. I have personally used it several times as a starting point, to look up companies in different sectors in different countries, doing some sorting by market cap sorting, next putting on some contry filters and sector filters, providing answers to like i.e. 'What listed Swedish Real Estate companies does NBIM own, and how much?' Also, NBIM is not allowed to invest in any Norwegian listed companies, to avoid overheating the Norwegian stock market and bubble creation. I doubt you can find any tobacco stocks in there, now for long time ditched, O&G getting kicked out from there, too, however not totally sure if you can find any defense contractors in there. - - - o 0 o - - - In fact, I haven't really been able to figure out, what Nicolai Tangen is actually doing for his huge paycheck at NBIM, other than pendling to and from work, smiling, on his electrical scooter and maintaining his podcast. - It must ne the worlds best job!

A tiny bit about Norway : There are shades, details and nuances to everything. In the goldbelly.com topic here on CofB&F I told a little story from a task I was on in Oslo in december 2011, It must have been Saturday before noon, because shops in Oslo were open. The Lady of the House had come up to me from home, after a week with a heavy work load, we had been on Aker Brygge for lunch in a restaurant there, having a very good time, on our way up to Karl Johan Gate for browsing and snooping up the sentiment and soul of the city, perhaps getting a drink or beer somewhere later. It was near the City Hall, a huge, ugly, monstrous building, to this day I speculate about what drugs the architect must have been on while designing the darn building. It was very cold, I think about minus something one-digit Celcius, and strong winds coming in over the city from open water. Snow laying around everywhere. I had four layers of clothes on my body, outside my North Face two layer jacket, beanie and jacket hood up, lined leather gloves, winther boots, jeans inside and outside my wind and water proof North Face trousers. Outside a department store, directly on the ground sat a young woman, nothing under her, clearly not a Norwegian jente from her skin colour to judge and dark brown eyes, likely in the early 30's or late 20's. In front of her on the ground was an empty McD plastic cup, likely a few coins in there, so it wasen't just blowing away. She was clearly begging for money. Her eyes were empty, just staring down on the McD cup. Everybody on the street was just passing by her, most not even looking at her at all. I stopped, while the Lady of the House continued walking, then figuring out that I wasen't at her side any longer, looking back, and comming back to me. I simply froze by the sight of this young woman.. I adressed her, first trying in Danish - Norwegians can understand Danish and visa versa - then in English. No response, she diden't even look up at me. It became clear to me, she was stoned, very. I said nothing. The Lady of the House then said : 'John, you don't even think about it. You don't dare spoil our prolonged weekend here with this.' I considered calling the police, so she could get help, I diden't have the phone number, I diden't even get my act together to just ask one the passing persons to call the police, saying to the Lady of the House, 'We can't just leave her sitting there, she doesen't even have a jacket or coat on.She's frezzing to death." We left. I was pretty mute the rest of the day, shocked by the experience. Here in Denmark, it is criminalized if you leave a person in deparate need for help. This was in the capitol of filthy rich Norway in early winther 2011/12. The filthy rich Norway hasen't become poorer since. - - - o 0 o - - - Homelessnes is extremely low in both Norway and Denmark. People who aren't able to manage their monthy and modest social welfare here in Denmark, creating further social expenses for the municipality are made subject of enforced netting, meaning their rent support and part of their welfare money after tax, that goes to rent and utilities, simply never reaches their bank accounts, it is withheld, and then the municipality pays the rent and utilites for them. It's simply being put under forced administration, so they have place to stay. If they have been thrown out of, evicted from their appartment, because of all kinds breaches of the house order, bothering the neighbours, i.e. running around naked in the staircase etc., all that kind of extreme and surrealistic sh*t, vandalism on the appartment, the municipality rehouses them in residential buildings owned by the municipality. I suppose you can imagine how such a place looks, not a penny ever spent of maintenance by the municipality. Only those in such 'transit' between homes are homeless here in Denmark. On cold nights the police has as ordinary task to circulate the city late evening and look for them and pick them up, and put them on a hostel if fit for that, other wise put them in hospital or the detension over night. The police know them well, because it's always the same person gallery, and the same places they're turning in outside for the night, ie. on the metal grids over the venlation shafts releasing warm air from the air circulation system at our local news joint on the other side of the street at the central railway station. - - - o 0 o - - - Now fast forward to second half of Sunday August 2012. I was on a follow-up task the same place, same prolonged weekend procedure. On that Sunday, we were sitting outside a cafe just next to the hotel, under a parasol at at cafe table, with a view to the Oslo harbour and the Opera building, built in the water. The weather was absolutely wonderfull, no clouds, the sun shining 'gerade', 25 degrees C, warming quite calme Oslo city, not much going on anywhere. Then the servant approached us for taking our order - a young guy, with a huge smile!. I noticed he was adressing us in Danish. I asked him if he was Danish. He confirmed, based on that he assumed we were Danish, too, because he had heard us chat. I asked him if he had Carlsberg Classic as draught beer. He confirmed two large glasses of Carlsberg. I suggested him to grab a glass for himself on my account and invited him to sit a bit with us, the place was not busy at all at that time, and I would like to chat a bit with him. He kindly refused both, saying there was no alcohol on duty here, and 'we don't mingle with customers that way'. Off he went for tapping our beers, came back and served them. After that stayed standing at the table, adressing me 'You wanted a chat me?', I shot from the hip 'What's your story? Why is it a young Danish guy is swinging beers over the desk in the afternoon on a sunny Sunday at a cafe in Oslo?' He chewed a bit on the question, thinking about how to respond, then he responded 'Love, that now has passsed.' So he added he was living alone in a rented appartment in Oslo, 'when I'm working here'. Then I asked 'What do you mean by 'when I'm working here'?' It turned out, that he had left Denmark for following a Norwegian jente, who had finished her studies at the Architect School in Århus, Denmark, she had moved to Norway to start her career as architect in Oslo 'at home', from the reduction in his smile at saying that, I figured out I was chatting with a young guy with a huge smile and a broken heart, me adding no further questions to that. Then he added, that he was full time at the cafe during the summer, and that he had a rented appartment in Århus, studying to bcore an architect too, pendling from Oslo to Århus once a week for two days, the rest of the time outside vacation closure periods at the architect school, studing on distance the rest the time, when not working at the cafe. I got totally flabbergasted, stunned dropping my jaw, after chewing a bit on that information, then asking him, I really coulden't help it, 'How much do you make per year here, working this way?' The reply came proptly 'XXX [three digit number, in the upper end, close to four digits] k NOK, including tips!'- so no sweat here, I don't even have any student loans!' - I was simply floored by then, thinking about what is it really I'm doing myself - this guy earns more than me,me working my butt off every work day, doing lots of overtime, - thinking 'John, you're really an idiot, wasting your time!', all while chatting in Oslo at a beatiful spot with a view on a sunny, warm Sunday in August with a smart bartender. - - - o 0 o - - - Here in Denmark, we were then chugging along slowly, gradually recovering after GFC at that time. - - - o 0 o - - - Norway is 'Tesla land', one of the bigggest countries in the world, measured by market penetration, and then yet, in NBIM [www.nbim.no] they are holding their nose and dumping oil and gas stocks all over the world as 'black' and 'dirty', all while they them selves continue drilling lots of holes in the seabed after oil and gas like crazy. And the coffers at NBIM continue to get filled up with a special oil tax of 50 percent points, on top of normal Norwegian corporation tax by law only applicable to Equinor, of which the Norwegian state owns 66 percent. The Norwegian politicians can't lay their hards on that tax income and do dumb things with it, it's segregated from the state budget and transferred to NBIM on yearly basis. Double standards and distilled, pure hypocracy at state level. Absolutely no sweat, because it works well, - very well. No wonder, Nicolai Tangen is always smiling, whether he is on his electric scooter to and from work, or not. - - - o 0 o - - - Some stats here : Total value of the content of the coffers at NBIM right now : It is wiggling around, day and night in and out. Population statitics from Worldometer : So, thus, every newborn baby popped / squeezed out by now, is partner and co-owner of NBIM by : [NOK 21,053,815,888,848 x [1 / [5,639,126 +1]] ~ NOK 3,733,523.981, so every newborn is by default born millionaire in NOK! - and still growing! - - - o 0 o - - - I read a couple of Norwegian news outlets webpages from time to time, however not totally regularly. They have societal discussions about what shall they do when nobody up there any longer need to work, and what are the societal implications of that? They talk about going back to fishing, when the Norwegian oil and gas venture is over, naturally, that's what they did before! What else should they do? What.a.place. - - - o 0 o - - - Envy? - - - o 0 o - - - </ End tiny bit>

Holy-moly! How did I in this topic by now end up with more foes than before, by sincere and honest discussons?

If you really think the above quoted from you is a fair comment from here, in this topic, you're naturally welcome to post so. No comments really needed for my part here about that. I really have no idea why you're dragging the NVO topic into this. Again, why is it that you aren't willing here to tell us all here at CofB&F about what you're up to here? - Now trying to deflect this stuff into something NVO related? Do you consider CofB&F members naive? - I can assure you they aren't! If you don't want to share your motives for how you've been posting in this topic, that is absolutely up to you. But at least please be honest, sincere here, by posting what you want. so it's clear for all here on CofB&F, where you are, and what you really think. I don't give one whit to you actively posting in this topic, when you aren't available, really, for talks, discussions, here on CofB&F, as a manager of OPM. Honestly, what do you really think about your fellow CofB&F members? : 'Something for nothing, chicks for free' for you here?

@buylowersellhigh, What has 'muliple compression' with anything to do, if one is really investing for the long term?

Thank you, Jeff [ @DooDiligence ] ! Very helpful, as always!

@Dalal.Holdings, To me personally, you've got me totally wrong, as towards my personality. And what is it really with you, when asked skeptical and critical questions about your motives for posting along the lines like you do in this topic so far, till now, combined with information about who and what you really are, and doing for a living, you're consciously evasive replying? -Why won't you here on CofB&F stand by who and what you are? I haven't doxxed you, but something posted on here has long ago lead me to that information, -My God, I've even read one of your LP letters, despite I'm not a hacker! If you can't stand that heat by actually answering, then this place is likely not for you. That said, I sincerely can't remember reporting you, if I actually have. By now, I don't even recall any time to have read that it was so. No way to check for me on this software platform if I have done so. Personally, I don't report, unless I meet trivial, simple, appaling, primitive, rude community behavior, not called for. To me, not your game - at all. In case you've been reported and banned, and you disagree, please get in contact with our board owner and administrator by e-mail, Jeff [ @DooDiligence] has provided such hurt feelings report on here, if you're banned, you naturally can't access it here, but it must be laying around somewhere on the Internet, laying around somewhere, made available for you by a search. - - - o 0 o - - - If you can't or won't explain, then that's up to you!

Awesome! - That is a very good catch, @Munger_Disciple , Again, thank you for sharing it here on CofB&F! -And yes, soon, with the 13-F/HR soon to come, we'll see what it is about.

Where do you get that from in the 10-Q,? and how?, @Munger_Disciple?, Thank you in advance.

Wow, that was a really fast reply! , @Dalal.Holdings, As far as I read, about 3 minutes response time. Peter, -I actually know for a fact that 'Peter' is your first name, and your last name may appear evident from your board handle here on CofB&F, I'll likely never use it - 'Peter' - again here on CofB&F adressing you, all while it must be evident here on CofB&F, that I'm not even partly shielded in that respect, posting under the name that is on my birth certificate, everyone able find to find me, sue me, whatever, if capable and really wanting to do such things. So, so far, it hasen't happened, please don't call me 'buddy', because I'm not that by my own yardstick related to you, and you already know it. Your three minutes argumention above about nobody complaining about when Europeans and Canadians talk about America is simply not true, and you actually already know it, I'm sure! : It's already included and contained in the 'Politics' topic in the 'General Discussion' forum here on CofB&F, and basically about the question of rule of law and inhabitants rights, division of duties, checks and balances. No need to elaborate here, really, I think. -So what you're actually telling - trying to telling me me above -, is that in reality it's OK to post all kinds of political stuff here on CofB&F about politically based and set business conditions in Europe, including other political, non-business-related stuff here on CofB&F, related to Europe. Seriously, you must be trying to be kidding me here. Please tell me why special rules here on CofB&F should apply to you and your behavior here on CofB&F in this topic. Consider yourself hereby called. - - - o 0 o - - - The above however does not change the fact that there exists - like everywhere on our common, shared planet - challenges to handle and to overcome for Europe, that are worthy separate discussion in a topic here on CofB&F. The point is your posts in this this topic becomes political, by that they are by already provided documentation biased, severely biased, or lacking in many instances proper sources for documentation and at basis lacking in many instances sources, they are 'just' 'cut-and-paste' from from somewhere, leaving no basis for the scrutinity of others than you. Sincere, but unbiased, not sufficiently documented, posts, based on the comments above, and may however provide merit for the existence of this topic. - - - o 0 o - - - If you continue this line of posting in this topic, I'll likely and simply report your posts in this topic, just proposing this topic merged into the already existing CofB&F political drain and sewer, where political posts belong, so you're there able to continue what have you done here so far, what ever that may be, diluted, and with no real attention. That said, I also don't care any lomger about the reasons, incentives and motives for your postings in this topic. 3 minutes responses lead time tells sufficiently already.

Awesome post, and very concerning! - But likely you and I are now here in this topic destined to be diagnosed here on CofB&F with TDS.

This is to me wrong, with regard to the reasons why, meaning flawed reasoning, related to being in and part of the Euro-zone or not, having Euro as functional currency, or not, maintaining own country specific, local, functional currency. The reasons as to why Norway, Switzerland and Poland are thriving, are individually and compared to each other individually very different, and the common denominator as to explaining how having own functional currency has something to do with these countries thrivning appears in your post to be non-existent. I dare allege here it's actually a false positive denominator for explaining why they're triving. - - - o 0 o - - - It has for a long time now personally been bugging me, that you appear to be sloppy with precisely and specifically providing your sources for stats etc. provided, shared and posted in this topic. I personally haven't been able to figure out your motives, agenda and incentives for posting what you do post in this topic. As far as I've understood, you're a money manager, operatiing of New York City, USA. Not many prospective clients around here on CofB&F - we're mostly personal and private stock pickers! -What is your agenda, consistently keeping this topic alive and ongoing?

It for sure is, @Hsmpanl, and thanks @gfp, The net financial position of Berkshire Hathaway, the parent, was actually by a Berkshire Hathaway yardstick, YE2023 close to zero [Cash and cash equivalents USD 5.566 bllion +[plus] Short-term investments in U.S. Teasurybills USD 16.140 million -[minus] Notes payable and other borrowings USD 18,781 million =[equals] USD 2.925 million. The corresponding number at YE2024, calculated similar way, is USD 74.951 million. - - - o 0 o - - - Then we have to remember that Berkshire Hathaway Finance Company [, or is it 'Corporation'?][BHFC]. - the internal bank at group level - is quarantied by Berkshire Hathaway, the parent. Berkshire Hathaway 2025Q3 10-Q, p. 19 : - - - o 0 o - - - Reminds me a bit of Fairfax Financial Holdings having parent company cash etc. in a separate line in the group balance sheet, signalling Holding company level strength, agility, flexibility and ability to act if new opportunities show themselves.

No worries @Munger_Disciple, It does not harm to get - here, four different - approaches to the same thing, it's ensures everone reading the topic are on the same frequency about this. - - - o 0 o - - - In elementary school, when my math teacher was standing in the classroom with the back against his mathematics sprouts, writing with his piece of chalk of the blackboard, wiggling with his butt, repeating something, he was mutterering to us : 'Repetition is the path to learning'. [Needless to say, everyone was studying the movements of his butt instead af reading what he was writing. ]

Good catch, @aws!, From the frontpage of the 2025Q3 10-Q : From the frontpage of the 2025Q2 10-Q : For the A, 523,010 - 519,193 = 3,817, For the B, 1,378,545,639 - 1,372,820,139 = 5,725,500, and 3,817 x 1,500 = 5,725,500, which I like @aws think is equal to QED, I personally can't come up with other IRL explanation than that provided by @aws.

And all kinds of new media reports about Berkshires earnings now or down, even from sites like SA, as like for I don't now for how many years! [also, ref. above] It's likely never coming to an end ... - I simply don't read them anymore, I read here, unless if there is somebody here on CofB&F mentioning something anywhere worthy spending time on for some specific reason. - - - o 0 o - - - Insurance float now at USD 176 B and still growing, up USD 5 since YE2024.

Q : Is the old man actually doing something for his salary by now? A : Cash flow statement first nine months : So, rolling 413 billion USD of T-bills, net buying further 31 billion USD, gross buying for 444 billion USD in nine months, up quite some compared to P/Y period!

Berkshire Hathaway - Press Release [October 29th 2025] : Information Regarding Third Quarter Earnings Release - - - o 0 o - - - If the Bloomberg story above mentioned by @Hektor is correct, this will be the penultimate Berkshire Hathaway reporting with Warren Buffett as Chairman. If that is really a fact, it feels strange to think about, or will there from time to time be a Berkshire related or personal quip from Mr. Buffett via the Berkshire Hathaway website, apart from tthe Thanksgiving Letter this mentioned above in @Munger_Disciples post. -I'm pretty confident he'll not go full throttle Substack, Seeking Alpha, LinkedIn, X, <something unmentionable here>, Politico, Medium or Reddit!