John Hjorth

I had to look up what Lang & Schwartz is. At what listing are you getting Berskhire shares at that time of the day here in Europe, and outside NYSE, Valuehalla? Is it a separate "unofficial" listing in Germany? [i recall Dynamic talking about some secondary European Berkshire listing not so long ago.]

Somehow hilarious - two billionaire cheapskates! [ : - D ] I think it's about two - thee years ago, I personally left looking at Berkshire based on BV progress. With the soft buyback threshold abolished, or at least making it even softer [upwards <-?], it does not make much sense to me any longer. The future for Berkshire investors boils down to future earnings, future cash flows, & future capital allocation. I speculate we'll survive , no matter what.

Not actually today, but Wednesday this week, where there was a price peak during the day: "Legacy assets": MAERSK B.CPH [A. P. Møller - Mærsk A/S, ser. B], at DKK 9,000.00. My brother built a position gradually November 2014 - March 2015 at average cost at ~DKK 13,400/share, doubled down at ~DKK 8,600 in February 2016, sold half in November 2017 at ~DKK 10,400 based on my recommendation, just before he gave me trading power of attorney on his behalf. He's now out with a positive zero, because of dividends. I'm happy it's over now - the future for this company does not exactly appear to be bright.

What an amazing calculation!, globalfinancepartners, Thank you for digging up the info and doing the calculation. It's almost like Berkshire on an escalator ... - Apple being the escalator, that is. The concept of "meaningful position size" is being taken to the next level here.

Your're welcome, SwedishValue, and thank you for your kind words! [ : - ) ], - Please feel free just to call me John - we are not that formal here on CoBF [ : - ) ]. - - - o 0 o - - - alwaysinvert, I did not even know untill now that we're in the same boat here with Berkshire. Awesome blog post provided by you. Thank you for sharing it with us here on CoBF. Quite refreshing read, containing new line of thinking related to the "luxury problem" of Berkshire here on CoBF. - - - o 0 o - - - Personally, I do not rule out any alternative with regard to Berkshire capital allocation going forward. I'll respectfully submit here, that Mr. Buffett is not totally rational on this matter. alwaysinvert uses the term: Hasen't Mr. Buffet expressed, that there is no way, that he could defend standing in front of the shareholders at the AGM with USD 150 B on the Berkshire balance sheet in cash and T-bills? - He would actually have been in that particular situation right now, haden't he loaded up on Apple. In the balance between rational capital allocation and the reluctance of buying partners out, going forward, naturally rationality must prevail. When you deliberately seek to build a crowd of long term shareholders aligned with yourself, a side effect is lower liquidity in the stock. One can't get both simultaniously. Personally, I don't possess any particular feelings for the customers and fund managers at: Vanguard [9.24 % of out B] Blackrock [7.66 % of out B] State Street [6.25 % of out B] Just let them do their thing, and let Mr. Buffett do our thing. When Mr. Buffet was young, he was ringing doorbells in Omaha to pick up shares he considered cheap.

Here I'm reposting some basic Berkshire figures [from some of my earlier posts, updated with 2017 figures] - from a birds perspective - related to the topic, just to bring specific data into the discussion. I think they are handy to have here: Some numbers for the last ten years: Year - Cash YE [incl. T-Bills] - Equity YE [uSD M]: 2007 - 44,329 - 120,733 2008 - 25,539 - 109,267 2009 - 30,558 - 135,785 2010 - 38,227 - 162,934 2011 - 37,299 - 164,850 2012 - 46,992 - 187,647 2013 - 48,186 - 221,890 2014 - 60,033 - 240,170 2015 - 67,161 - 255,550 2016 - 86,370 - 282,070 2017 - 115,954 - 348,296 [2017 tax cut effect [net] +28,200] Average shares outstanding YE2007 : 1,545,751 [A eq.] Average shares outstanding YE2017 : 1,644,615 [A eq.] Cash flow from operating activities full years this century [uSD B]: 2000: 2.947 2001: 6.574 2002: 11.135 2003: 8.438 2004: 7.405 2005: 9.446 2006: 10.195 2007: 12.550 2008: 11.252 2009: 15.846 2010: 17.895 2011: 20.476 2012: 20.950 2013: 27.704 2014: 32.010 2015: 31.491 2016: 32.525 2017: 45.776 Total: 324.615 [<- ~USD 325 B!] Float YE 2000 : USD 27.9 B Float YE 2017: USD 114.0 B [increase in float is included in cash flow from operating activities.]

Information.dk [August 2nd 2018]: "The cooling water has become too hot: The heatwave now hits the nuclear power plants in Europe".

"He's the one who gives his body as the weapon for the war and without him all this killing can't go on." - Donovan - Universal soldier How’s that analysis work when there is a draft? Well the draft complicates matters severely ... Draft is one of the biggest crimes against freedom. Do you know the song "and the band played Waltzing Matilda" by Eric Bogle? One of the saddest songs ever written imo. I still say try to desert when drafted if at all possible but I realize that's very difficult to do while keeping yourself safe. Nation states truly are savages in such situations. About draft - without the intention to derail the topic -, here in Denmark we have had the legal choice of opting for denial of military service since 1917.

Liberty, If you read the tweet by Mr. Browder, that you linked to earlier in this topic, it contains: [My emphasis here.] Mr. Browder uses the Russian website press release as source, and by logic, you don't see any basis in that press release as basis for Mr. Browder's tweet, for the part that I've emphasized. So, my question here is: What is this? 1. Mr. Browder takes the public Russian statement for more than what it is, by quoting it incorrectly in his tweet, thereby elaborating on it, with no real basis?, or 2. Mr. Browder takes the public Russian statement as par, but is in possesion of further information, which he includes in his tweet, without adressing source? In short: Who are those public US officials, that are involved in this new [<-?] case, mentioned in the aforementioned tweet by Mr. Browder, not mentioned in the Russian Press Release?

Liberty, I already know all that posted by you in your last post here. What I actually want to discuss with you is what's going on right now, understood as facts now [now = today]. I could start it out? [i still think the discussion is relevant for the book and has merit here in Books forum.]

It's difficult in fellowship to analyze and discuss facts [as presented to us] based on your approach, Liberty. I'll just let it go.

Liberty, Please try to press on the "Union Jack" button in that article linked to by Mr. Browder in that particular tweet, and please try to consider how he can tweet like he has done in that particular tweet based on this:

Bay Street vs Wall Street according to growth investors, and some other stuff.

Sure. Follow your dreams, relentlessly, and do your own work.

globalfinancepartners, No, I can't. But you and bizaro could create it! - The topic at hand here is certainly worth separate discussion! [ : - ) ]

Please be nice, and honestly, please give me a break here. tol1 asked a question out in the open. If you have nothing specificific & construtive to add, why does that make you post something like the replies that tol1 has got here so far here in this topic?

We have a separate topic in the Berkshire forum for this discussion, gents.

+1.. not a brutal run up at all given how wide the discount is karthikpm, Well, yes - that's relative to your BRK position size. To me, short term, the game has changed for Berkshire stock. Based on the announcement last evening US time, an invasion is now going on by day traders [perhaps some them with huge intraday limits], speculators & lemmings. [i don't think the shorts are here.] Please take a look at the trading in B share today. Take advantage of the volatility, or just buckle up for the next period.

Inside my head, I still have the B share at USD 250 intrinsic value, based on the last three Semper Augustus Letters, plus about ~USD 30 B of discount to the float, based on considerations made here on CoBF by rb, not included in the Semper Augustus Letters. So, pretty brutal run-up today, but still cheap to me.

Daniel, Several CoBF board members haven't considered Berkshire fairly valued recently, and have been adding to their positions.

Thank you for sharing, Munger_Disciple! -The most important announcement of them all.

longinvestor, Yes, "Holy smokes", and you're certainly forgiven. Nobody here on CoBF did see this coming. Going forward toward to August 4th will certainly be an interesting ride for Berkshire investors.

I like your line of thinking, no_free_lunch. Edit: No!, I dont. Please give me the mother of all corrections before August 4th!

It simply reads too good to be true. There is no announcement on the Berkshire website yet [as of now]. Maybe it'll be there tomorrow. I need to see it there, before I believe this, actually.

What do you like about VOD, Lance?, Also a question for you here. - Good to see you back here on CoBF. [ : - ) ]