John Hjorth

Please keep them coming, BPCAP, We all live with the FSAs [more or less political independent], which make sure, that banks aren't charitable institutions, but banks.

I just want to say that you are a good person, sleepydragon.

Cigarbutt, I hope that you've "cooled down" - a bit - on a [hopefully] good night's sleep, while at the same time, you never "hit the roof" or "go ballistic" based on something posted here on CoBF [, to the contrary to me, - now and then].

Poor Dynamic! [ : - ) ], -It becomes harder and harder to keep the Berkshire portfolio updated. At least it keeps Dynamic away from trading!

Wirtschafts Woche [August 27th 2020] : Warren Buffett – die Bilanz des Gurus. Instead of bugging Spekulatius with a question on here about what "kleinanleger" translates to in English, I looked it up myself, and got a bit surprised, likely because I thought it meant "wimp" or something like that! [ : - D]

Sanjeev & Writser, I'm not even searching - desperately - for DooDiligence's hurt feelings report once uploaded here on CoBF! [ : - ) ] I've always found Writser's investment style fascinating. I suppose you guys are much more transactional in your investment style than me, which I think is perhaps somewhat related to taxes [i'm taxed on everything I do - no four letter abbreviation tax free account type available for poor me!]. I also consider Writser's comment "non-a$$hole", because it's actually a good explanation of Writser's modus operandi. Have a nice weekend to you both! [ : - ) ]

Let me here just say: Geez, I'm really tired of this topic, because I do not [basically] consider it investment related. [However just about everything allowed for discussion in the "General Discussion" forum]. Edit : Perhaps "the issue at hand" is that I haven't been "attacked" by anyone one here on CoBF for some time now? [To keep me sharp!][ ; - D ]

Absolutely. I think even inadvertently I realized the need for this when Casey posted on "the next FANGs". It can have different meanings or angles to look at depending on how you look at them. IE next already establishment large cap turning into mega T-cap. Simple a moat and long runway. A revolutionary or disruptive technology. In its simplest form I'd suppose the FANG premise is merely a gargantuan wealthy creating machine. This can be influenced by many different things, events, or circumstances, some perhaps we've seen before, others maybe we have yet to see. Thank you, Greg, And btw, certainly an interesting topic! My request about omitting names was based on that to make a killing on something like the FANGs of the future, to me personally, there are conditions that needs fulfilment in the first place: 1. One need to pinpoint the company before it IPOs [after which one buy it in the IPO]. Thus the "no names" request from me [, because you can't buy it right now, unless one have sufficient capital to participate privately in some VC adventure before that], 2. Likely, it requires certain specific professional skills to actually see the potential, the moat and the long runway [circle of competence], in reality only possessed by few persons.

Thank you for sharing, Spekulatius, Stay humble to the game.

Greg, Is it OK with you to widen up the topic a bit and post thoughts without actually mentioning names, thereby also adding to the topic a slightly different angle?

Of course there are many variables, but still, it's a data point that doesn't help support the approach. Also, since about May, many European peer states are just as open than Sweden. Schools for example opened in late April or May in Germany and Denmark. I don’t know about France though. One of the issue that caused the recent outbreak was travel during the summer. There were issue with crowds in Mallorca (around the infamous Schinkenstrasse etc) and contact tracing showed 25% of thr confirmed cases due to travel and the real number is likely much higher. On the same note, I think father day and 4th of July likely caused the recent surge in the surge that seems to be ebbing no. I expect another surge when schools reopen and on thanksgiving. @Castanza- the protests certainly didn’t help, but most protests were in blue states and that’s not where the surge happened. So, I don’t think the protests were the main reason for the surge. With regard to tiny Denmark, what Spekulatius here posted, is true, here, locally. The whole situation here in Denmark is somewhat "messy & blended" : Outbreak recently in a meat processing plant [owned by Danish Crown] in Ringsted, about 50 km to the west from Copenhagen [it seems to be under control now, though], "Messy" situation in the second-largest city in Denmark, called Aarhus, located in Jutland, Pretty high infection numbers per capita in some municipalities around Copenhagen. - - - o 0 o - - - - Countermeasures disclosed to the Danish population today : Compulsory use of face masks for all citizens using any kind of publicly available transportation. [busses, trains, leight-rails, taxis etc.], starting next Saturday.

Is there something to deduct & learn from those books about the correlations between returns, size & libido? - In that case, I'll buy them right away! [ : - ) ]

Personally, I must admit for this year, that - so far - I've failed with regard to reading activity [too much IRL stuff to handle]. But Saluki's post, combined the post by VersaillesinNY now has me turned on.

Liberty's post triggers me to ask a question: Doesn't a digital public ID exist for US citizens?

Jurgis, I think you forgot to add [, ref. the Russian context here] "... and go on summer vacation trecking in "the Russian [now, for some years "untouched" & left alone] national park" called "Tjernobyl"."

Heck, here we go : AAPL closing price EOP 2020Q2 : 364.80 [source : Yahoo! Finance] AAPL shares held EOP 2020Q1 by Berkshire : 245,155,566 [source : Dataroma] AAPL shares reported by NEAM EOP 2020Q1 :1,452,250 + 3,578 [= 1,455,828] [source : NEAM 13-F/HR EOP 2020Q1] Total : 246,611,394 Calculated market value EOP 2020Q2 : 246,611,394 * 364.80 = 89,963,836,531. "Big Four" comment states "$ 91.5 billion". So there was added to the position during 2020Q2?? [ 0_0 ] -Did I get it right?

With regard to the AAPL position, has anyone of my fellow board members tried to tie the value in the "Big Four" statement to the last known share count for AAPL shares held by Berkshire? [bRK plus NEAM numbers [, if any]].

Very nice to see you back, Valuehalla! [ : - ) ]

Xerxes, I must admit, that at first glance, I was personally stunned, too. But I quickly regained posture about it. It's honest accounting, because the destruction of value here is real. Edit: Yes, reversal of impairment losses on goodwill is prohibited, ref. IAS 36.124.

FWIW, the speed of testing seems to vary a lot from state to state. In MA, my wife went to a testing station and got the results back in less than 24h. There are also CVS rapid test stations around that are even quicker. Yeah, it's a mess because there's no federal leadership and resources to help places that fall behind or get the right incentives and guidelines uniformly. I'm hearing about a lot of places where it takes 10-14 days to get a result. By the time you get a "negative" result, you've had time to get infected, and you think you're negative (oh, I'm feeling bad, but it can't be COVID..) so you're even more dangerous because you may not quarantine even when feeling some symptoms.. Pretty amazing read, to say the least. Everything can be turned into a "problem", if one wants to [in the in casu situation]. *Shaking head* [Are those citizens awaiting their test outcomes not aware about what to do while waiting for test results?]

Greg, As already posted by me in this topic, your line of thinking is very interesting to me, and makes sense, to me. - Thank you!

ValueMaven, How the heck does that math add up? - You seem - at least to me - to be cherry-picking on the asset side & liabilities side of the group balance sheet here.

To me, this post by Greg takes the palms as the CoBF post of today. To me, it's mind provoking, actually. I have to go back and listen to the 2020 AGM video again. Talk to me about getting [or being] mind fucked with regard to Berkshire share buybacks. Back then, I should have been ridiculed here on CoBF for my sharing of huge Excel spreadsheats, hitting the bulls eye for the first quarter, after which just about everything collapsed! .... LOLz!

I just rechecked my Berkshire WFC share numbers posted here on CoBF today in this topic : Number of WFC shares YE1990 : 5,000,000 [source : Max Olson, "Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders 1965 - 2014", p. 275 [introduction signed by our fellow board member Max March 3rd 2015], & Number of WFC shares YE1989 : 0 [zero] [same source, p. 253.] There may be explanations for this [, ref. the source], but which explanation is the right one?

Easier to ask than doing the actual work, ValueMaven, - Please show us your numbers! [ ; - ) ] [, or I'll do it for you!]