John Hjorth

I think I'll add here two organisations, that have been helpfull for me, in my [almost eternal] seek and gathering of objective and non-biased information about whatever, so for me to supoort a cause, that has been very helpfull for me over now many years : Associated Press [Yes, it's a non-profit organisation], WikiMedia Foundation [Some may get wrinkles around the nose, or even holding it, here. To me, it's always a great place to start, without taking anything in from there as chisled in stone]. Donated to them both this year. - - - o 0 o - - - Off topic : Friday I also engaged in a paid Reuters subscribtion for the future, untill eventually decided otherwise, - absolutely awesome [like for Accosiated Press] how much value I have got for free from that place over the recent years, but it's not a non-profit organisation.

@Spooky, It's certainly an interesting question, thank you for that. Personally, I'll try to swing by at Dataroma to take a look at what's there, from your proposed specific angle. It's pretty easy to do there, for those included there, because of the database stucture in the website data.

Police of Finland [December 29th 2024] : National Bureau of Investigation continues investigation into cable rupture. 'We're sorry, we were unaware of that we were dragging our anchor behind us.' Honestly, it's the joke of the year!

The respective accounting departments may triangulate and pinpoint differencies, and present them to the respective managements at debtor and creditor. Then Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller [<- he has started to look like something dragged in by the cat recently, btw.] and Moldova utility CEO must solve and settle this. It is a business issue. I woulden't be surprised at all by seeing this escalate in the beginning of January, because of interference by politicians. If somebody makes it a political issue, and thereby 'infect' and stall the solution process, it wont be solved in a satisfactory way for the Moldovan population, timely. Hostage taking has become general modus operandi in all this mess. Lets see, soon.

Thank you, @d29, Yeah, that, too. Reuters [December 28th 2024] : Russia says it will stop gas exports to Moldova from Jan 1 It reads like it's an accounting quarrel between Gazprom AR accounting department and Moldovian utility AP accounting department. Somebody - bookkeepers and bean counters - should really be at work here in the Hollidays exchanging papers and notes about account reconsiliations, and get to an agreement, or they should be fired with immediate effect coming Wednesday morning, if not solved and cleared at that time! A diff of USD 700.4 million! - - - o 0 o - - - I found this map of the European gas pipeline network yesterday - now try to look at how many gas pipelines go through Ukraine and Belarus into Europe! : entsog.eu [January 11th 2024, updated February 20th 2024] : System Capacity Map 2024 [Retrieved December 29th 2024].

Bloomberg - Markets, Commodities [December 27th 2024] : European Gas Faces a Raft of Challenges With Transit Deal Ending. Subheaders : Stockpiles are falling swiftly, volatility likely to persist EU will increasingly have to compete with Asia for LNG cargoes. -And then, today : Bloomberg - Politics [December 28th 2024] : Ukraine-Russia Gas Transit Deal At Critical Moment of Truth Subheaders : A deal allowing Russian gas to transit to EU ends on Dec. 31 Slovakia is stepping up pressure for flows to continue. - - - o 0 o - - - Please tell me, aren't there any grown-up and responsible persons in the room here? Only politicians with no real skin in the game [only their respective populations have that], certainly no business persons, not even politicians with a business mindset? -It's just 'head-shaking' ...

Then there is also the question, why someting may have become uninvestable, perhaps because of stupid local regulations - the US PFIC thingy makes absolutely no sense to me [I'm likely never going to understand it] - and in the meantime I enjoy the tax advanges by three Swedish investment holding companies : Investor AB, L. E. Lundbergföretagen AB, and Industrivärden AB .

Thank you, @Spekulatius, The investment case here with Italiamobiliare is actually interesting, so thank you for bringing it to the board. The point here is @Cod Liver Oil actually - at least to me, personally, has a point, about corporate governance cf. shareholder structure. Not much fun about eventually being dragged through the mud by a dominating and selfserving shareholder. Material change hapened recently, and that's also why this investment qualifies for its separate topic here on CofB&F. - - - o 0 o - - - Your last post here above would actually serve as a great starting post in a separate topic in the investment Ideas forum! Or, do you want me to start it? -So far I haven't, because the idea here on CofB&F is yours! I want to discuss! [, but not here in this topic ...].

This approach and style for posting answers replies to questions and openings for discussions is not my personal cup of tea, and I dare say : Not my personal style. If really not willing to discuss, why even mentioning the company in the first place here on CofB&F while buying. - - - o 0 o - - - Please forget my own post about it, above. I'm not going to spend more time on the company. Hint, if interested : Look at what I have emphasized above, also ref. @Cod Liver Oil.

I totally agree with Mike [ @cubsfan ], Absolutely stunning and impressive, what the Pabrai family has built up and is running in the Dakshana Foundation, to contribute to upwards social mobility for young Indian citizens, whose families are without the means to finance their childrens post elementary school education.

Thank you for the inspiration here to @Spekulatius and @Masterofnone, The above exchange actually made me recall that my late father was donating every year to MSF. I will pick it up and grab the baton on it, starting this calendar year.

@Spekulatius & @Cod Liver Oil , I have looked at Italmobiliare more than shortly here in the Hollidays, and that excercise caused my interest, too. If we already are three persons here on CofB&F interested in discussing the company, to me personally, that must be sufficient basis for starting a new and separate topic about the company in the Investment Ideas forum. I hope you'll do it, @Spekulatius, - no need for some chrome-plated write-up, perhaps just a short explanation of what the company does and is engaged in, combined with your thoughts, perhaps just set up as bullet points. That'll do.

A stint of fun on the backdrop of a calamity, from LinkedIn : Translation to English from Danish : That comment about ''so-called military analysts' talk about overheating' was almost killing me, while reading the LinkedIn post - hint, hint to talking heads like Anders Puck Nielsen and others, to stay away of the turf of [perhaps not so productive] macro economists! And that new economic model called RUST is just good humor.

err.ee [ December 26th 2024] : Communications cables between Estonia and Finland disrupted, services online. The website err.ee is the website of Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) - Estonian Public Broadcasting. This is about three more cables than the two cables mentioned above by @Spekulatius. While services are still up, there must exist some kind of redundancy is the setup of the damaged connections [fall-back backup lines]. What is all this now? Random?, conincidence?

I just cut the skin in stribes on the roast pork for Christmas evening dinner! One of the few jobs I have in the kitchen every year, otherwise it's : 'Get out my way!, and why do you stand there, nosy, and asking all those questions!' [<- , same every year!]. - - - o 0 o - - - Santa has taken off from home on his Tour around the World this year! Google Santa Tracker Right now he is somewhere around Tonga, a bit East to New Caledonia! - - - o 0 o - - - Merry Christmas to all of you, my fellow CofB&F members, and your families!

Yes, @Spekulatius, But it is also about storage of energy [, or should I write 'lack of storage', and how that will evolve over time in future], which complicates things further. In fact, it's damn complicated, there are so many moving parts. Interesting discussion with all involved here, btw., I appreciate it, thank you.

@Dalal.Holdings, Thank you for the elaboration. I likely misread the priority and weigthing of the content of your post, and gave the comments from Norwegian Energy Minister too much focus in my own post. You are right about the components and basic structure of the Norwegian energy system. https://www.nve.no/energi/energisystem/kraftproduksjon/ : Sub specification and split of thermal power : https://www.nve.no/energi/energisystem/termisk-energi/termisk-kraft/ Please note natural gas is only 259, and oil lumped together with other sources of capacity is only at 12 in the whole picture of things of 40,077. As far as I know Norway only has three power plants of size than run on either oil or gas, of which one is mothballed. The Norwegian Energy minister wasen't even talking Norways own book here, ref. the above, because when there is a combination no wind and low water levels in their reservoirs at the hydro power plants [by drought], Norway is in need the connections to other countries in the connnected energy system. So pPure spin, based on situational populism. So it is actually also a bit mind provoking to think about that Norway by its own choices and decisions hasen't covered it's own butt by what it itself is actually swimming in to such degree that they are exporting loads of it. And then holding their nose with regard to investing in O&G companies in their 'tiny' common and shared piggybank and generally mostly self driving Teslas by now, if they one, they just buy the damn thing, because they are well-of! https://www.nbim.no/ - - - o 0 o - - - I agree with you, that the German energy policy and German energy system is more or less broken, because was has been decided about nuclear power and what has happened to import of of Russian gas. As a note, when we here in Denmark are swimming in renewable energy from wind, Germany is cutting the cord / shutting the connection to Denmark! What is it? Are there some place a complete idiot in a decision maker position, who doesen't understand his job? - No, the southbound German grid to industrial Germany isen't calibrated / built out to carry this load of transport, so to shut the connection is needed to avoid a collapse of the whole system, the collapse causing outages. Then the price go negative on power [naturally only the price on raw power, not the total price of power] here in Denmark, and I guess Norway isen't complaining then either! -And it's happening regularly, but not often.

@Spekulatius, I'm not going to listen to what this person has to say about Russias internal affairs and the economic status and reality for Russia. All that comes from him in those regards is spin, propaganda and lies, to keep his ignorant, stupid and naive citizens in check, in coorporation with his socalled oligarch 'friends'. The Russian population will have to pay a sky high price, when all this eventually is over and his is gone forever. It's a flawed aproach to try to listen to him to get an understanding of what is going on, if you ask me. What matters is what he actually does. And that's not always obvious in the first place, disguised with an artificial beard, blue sunglasses, a hat and a beige long coat - all KGB-style. Cheat, or be cheated, that's the mans game. Unfortunately, one has to admit that he is pretty good at his game, i.e. red lines and all that. All short term. Long term, he's already toast. The only thing that works against such a person is to let him eat his own cooking, plain and simple.

Yeah, @Xerxes, Yet, the further interest rate hike did not happen : Associated Press - News [December 20th 2024] : Russia’s central bank holds off on interest rate hike amid friction between inflation, war spending.

What does people here on CofB&F think about this? :

I appreciate the share here, @Spekulatius, I have no clue here, actually. - - - o 0 o - - - I'm following Reuters and Associated Press - about daily - as my primary sources as basis for posting in this topic, with the intent to try not to post stuff not verified the generally acknowledged and accepted way by professional journalism occupied at news media. But no doubt, that social media now has become an important online source of instant news. The hard question is what of it is fake and false.

@Dalal.Holdings, For what ever reason I'm not able to quote the above post of yours, so it's also containing your quotes from the Financial Times article. So if our fellow board members want, really want, to understand what your post is about in detail, they will have to revisit it to read your actual quotes. For the convenience of others, here is a screen shot of your full post : I take issue with your line of posting here, actually, because you quote socalled sources [to me personally, more or less consciously, or perhaps unconsciously, so to various degrees, depending on the specific content of your actual posts by and from you]. Where is your skeptisism and critical attitude towards your sources when posting in this topic? You obviously do not possess sufficient knowledge about the energy systems in the Nordics, how they operate, and how they interact and cooperate. Otherwise you woulden't have posted as you did above. To me, the fact here is that somebody at Financial Times with absolutely no basic knowledge and understanding of the Nordic energy system grabbed a political headline in Norway from some Norwegian News Media, and 'brewed' a piece, a 'story' on it at Financial Times. And then you brought it in to CofB&F, at par, as if if it was a true and fair view of the situation. I'm pretty sure this [the above] approach is not your modus operandi for information gathering while managing OPM. - - - o 0 o - - - Have you ever heard of Nord Pool ? We actually have an energy exchange among us Nordic countries. 'Exchange' here not meant as 'in 'exchange money for a good, or physical, tangible item', but 'exchange' as in 'stock exchange', a place where buyers and sellers, producers of energy can meet to trade and agree on prices in an open and to all market participants, visible and transperant, way. What do you think would happen [here, to Norway, in that respect], to this exchange, if Norway cut the line to Denmark? Are you a proponent of protectionism? Or of trade and cooperation? How does this Norwegian political stuff and nonsence from a leftist make you think that Norwegian energy policy is smart? Norway is by now known as 'Tesla-land'. The country and its citizens are incredible rich, and the country has the highest EV penetration of all countries. Every newborn is popped as a tripple millionaire in NOK by birth, reducing future tax burden, because of that. They [Equinor] drill like hell in the Norwegian part of the continental shelf to get it look like a Swiss chease [for the purpose to sell oil and gas, and to tax Equinor separately, and extra]], and then they are 'green', driving Teslas, and throwing out all other oil majors and all kinds of other stuff from the Government Pension Fund Global [ www.nbim.no ] and everything is obviously fine, or is it really? Where is Norway getting its energy from, when those water reservoires needs to be filled, or when there is drought in Norway? - - - o 0 o - - - So what you here actually have dragged in here at CofB&F, is really Norwegian, leftist and political spin and yelling on a given energy price situation, that happens from time to time, from a Norwegian leftist dumb head, who is politically elected, but have no clue of the matter at hand. - - - o 0 o - - - Here is a website, that for you may perhaps be useful for an interactive overview of the Nordic energy system : EnergiNet : The energy system right now It's pretty cool, right?

I hope you here were alluding and referring to Mr. Trumps post on Truth Social recently after his meeting with the longshore mens association about automation etc., @Spekulatius .

@bargainman, The way the chart is structured, to three coherent areas, including California would add a fourth region, instead of the three already colored on the map. Statistics, you know : 'Play with it, untill it shows what you want it to show'.

Me too - there is nothing like adding a bit to an initial position being in the hole.