John Hjorth

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!]

This is a very good catch, gfp, Suddenly one has a perception of a very active quarter with regard to the Berkshire stock portfolio, the airlines got the boot/ax [ref. CorpRaider's last post [yes, we have to remember those disposals, too]] and now this material decline in [likely] banking exposure. Add to that, a reasonable share buyback at what I consider very good prices, ref. wabuffo's last post in this topic. In short, Mr. Buffett hasen't been spending all his office time during that last quarter on the couch, at the Coke dispenser in the office, or inhaling burgers! - - - o 0 o - - - With regard to WFC, I just looked up how long that investment relationship has lasted by now for Berkshire [, using the shareholders letters]. The first 5 million shares were visible there for the first time in the 1990 shareholder letter - That's 30 years by now! I wonder how much cash that investment must have thrown off / generated over the years? - It must be a lot! If Berkshire is indeed exiting WFC now, it's almost an emotional moment. Yes, we better stay open minded and just wait for the 13-F/HR, ref. gfp & CorpRaider.

Thanks, CorpRaider, - I think it must be evident to the reader, that I'm not a WFC shareholder directly! [ : - ) ]

Cost basis of stocks labelled :"Banks, insurance and finance" reduced by USD 9.255 B [uSD 40.149 B - USD 31.164 B] in the first six months of 2020. "Big Five" comment on p. 9 changed & "boiled down" to "Big Four" comment, WFC now omitted EOP 2020Q2 [, while it was a "Big Five" comment EOP 2020Q1]. Sales of stocks in 2020H1 at USD 15.743 B, ref. cash flow statement. I wonder if Mr. Buffett has been off-loading WFC aggressively in 2020Q2? ["Horse-change" to going really heavy on BAC from here?]

Here is my casual reading stuff for today, to get a more granular understanding of the states in USA, while I'm waiting for the Berkshire 2020H1 10-Q, expected within a couple of hours. [i think the description of Wyoming is the best. [ : - D]]

Curious where you've seen 'severity falling?' Awesome news if so. I'd read that it was unlikely for this virus to mutate/change too quickly (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01315-7) I meant "severity is falling" in regards to Portugal, as corroborated by this post: https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/coronavirus/msg425878/#msg425878 No comment on the virus's severity, I am certainly not qualified to opine on that. Ahh, gotcha. Thanks. I have been following things less closely recently. I do expect "severity" goes down in some sense - as we continue to figure out what works for treatments and hopefully get some vaccines going at some point Interesting exchange between LC & Casey, Now, please stop mentioning Denmark [in this topic] as one of the primary examples of "good pandemic counter measures" [simply because, it ain't [any longer]] : 1. Hot spot in Danish Crown meat processing plant in Ringsted, located about 50 km [or so] SW of Copenhagen, [spekulatius has posted about something similar going on in Germany recently], & 2. Things have started to go haywire [Corona-related] within the last few days in the second-largest city in Denmark : Aarhus. [in Jutland]. - - - o 0 o - - - To me, it's just "Dunning-Kruger in second power". People are just so unbelievable stupid in their behavior.

We'll know for sure tomorrow [at some time, depending where you are], right?

Thank you for sharing, Castanza, It's indeed important information.

In a way - in some dimensions - she was the diametrical opposite of her younger brother, but still a basically good person. "Retail philanthropist" here comes to mind. Imagine going through many letters every day from people in need, to reach an individual decision. RIP.

Castanza, It's actually great input! [ : - D] -We really need that in this topic, because of the existing ongoing hostility among members in this topic [, despite the content of this topic is actually gold, if one filters it]. -Please forget here about me and my needs for cooling ... - I'm almost the same age as Mike [boilermaker].

I think what Spekulatius posted here is true, with regard to Europe. It will eventually change over time, I think [about air condition in homes]. I'm working on it for my own household. I think some threshold got broken here back in 2016 [i simply got enough of the heat in June 2016]. I have been told that persons of high age simply gradually "shut down", loosing their feeling of thirst and hunger. It creates a mess when we have heat waves.

In that respect, USA isn't that much different from the rest of the world. [sorry to say - lunatics around just about everywhere, as of now & always] In a way, it comes with the paycheck.

[ ; - D ]

Please elaborate.

The latest WHO Sit Report looks absolutely terrible.

New Peter Lynch compilation [not an essay though, ref. the CoBF topic title ...] in the works from Joel here.

Thank you for today's neck exercise to the right!, Dalal.Holdings, [-And now a neck exercise to the left : [ ; - D]]

It all depends [ : - ) ] [on the local tax system].

Castanza, You are a naughty boy! [ ; - D ][Actually, you remind me a bit about myself ...]

Dude, he didn't let it rule his life? His wife left him and his kids talked about how distant he was growing up. I'm going to agree with Stahleyp here. If you read Snowball, it is very obvious that Buffet is a subpar father. Then there's the tidbit about how he would invite people to come visit and stay with him. When people show up with their family from out of town, he wouldn't spend anytime with him. He loves showing up his intellect, especially to females. Alice talks about how his wife got jealous because he was showing off his intellect on the private jet. Buffet was a klepto in his late teens. I think one of his sons had a bit of klepto streak during his teens. Peter Buffet gives talks about growing up a Buffet. I think he really always want to carve out his own niche for his own work and not that he's Warren Buffet's son. Bill Brewster has talked about this quite a bit on Toby's podcast. BG2008, Can't we let this go? I, for one is a person, that'll never finish reading the "Snowball" through [from start to finish.] [i suppose I never will]. In short, Mr. Buffett is [after all] a male human being - not some kind of [male] saint -, with all the implications related to that.