John Hjorth

... That's great questions, SwedishValue, We need to keep an eye on the development in the daily volume for the next three months, where we'll find out by facts presented to us in the 2018Q3 Q-10, if Berkshire has actually been buying back during the quarter. I've made some calculations today based on NYSE realized price & volume data for BRK.A & BRK.B, grabbed today on the NYSE website for the period since the announcement of the new, adjusted buyback policy on July 17th 2018 till and with August 29th 2018 [yesterday]. [Attached.] The calculations actually surprised me, taking basis in 20 percent of volume, as suggested by alwaysinvert [max. 25 percent of average daily volume, ref. post by Dynamic]: Calculated yearly buyback volume, based on 20 percent of volume, based on realized volumes the period August 1st - August 29th 2018: BRK.A : USD 3.8 B BRK.B : USD 41.3 B Total BRK : USD 45.1 B - - - o 0 o - - - That's materially more than yearly Berkshire cash flow from operations, and will by that actually be able to make a sensible dent in cash and T-Bills positions going forward, If given sufficent time to work, & If there is will, decisiveness & conviction at Mr. Buffett & Mr. Munger to actually do it [, based on intrisic value considerations]. Berkshire_Hathaway_-_Some_buyback_calculations_-_20180830.xlsx

Yes & yes! I had exactly the same perception of Mr. Buffetts shape - actually the most important thing to experience today for me!

I think you don't read my post according to my sincere intentions, alwaysinvert, My post was meant the way, that Mr. Buffett actually does not want to reduce the overall level of cash & T-bills, based on ruling market conditions as is right now [and for quite some time], while at the same time trying to give some particular investors a fair way out their Berkshire investment [alive, or dead]. So, in short, I consider your reply based on what you want, not what Mr. Buffett wants to do going forward. Rest assured, that this fact has been incredible hard to live with for me, too, with the wide swings in the USD compared to my own functional currency. Personally, I would never hold cash in USD [i actually can at my broker], and I would personally never invest directly in US T-bills. [My actual risk free deposit interest rate is 0.9%, with no currency risk.]

Perhaps it's more simple. Perhaps Mr. Buffett is still standing with the bat over his shoulder, ready to pitch, - and this is about some of the early Berkshire investors still alive, who have made a killing, by holding on for so many years - perhaps now in the hundreds of millions, or billions of USD. Think Occam's razor, Think about none of us are getting younger, day by day, Think about last time for such transaction was almost six years ago [in that particular historical context], Think about the actual phrasing almost six years ago [again, in that particular historical context]:

I consider the guess by aws as qualified, because of the time span between start points in time of disclosure the two separate interviews. Personally, I think it's fair to say, that Mr. Buffett has a preference for being interviewed by Ms. Quick.

88 was right the first time. He's also going to be on Bloomberg at 11:30am tomorrow, pre-taped I guess. aws, Desk test: When you have just turned one year old, you have actually had two birthdays: The day of your birth, and the day when you turn the sharp corner of becoming one year old, on your way into the unknown territory of "your next year". - And so on for number of birthdays for every year, implying X+1 birthdays for every X years of age. [ ; - ) ]

CNBC Interview of Mr. Buffett by Ms. Quick at Thursday August 30th 2018, 11:00 AM ET [Mr. Buffetts 88 89th birthday].

From the Tesla topic: They need a new manager for their product design team. Yes, that is one ugly car! You couldn't do worse if you tried to design an ugly car. Edit: It make the Bolt look sexy! It's Russian Retro from the '70s! - I suppose Western car collectors would get emotional, and begin crying & buying, if it ever hits production environment, a bit like pet lovers resqueing mistreated pets from a sinister & gruesome future. I speculate the reporter David Booth got it wrong here. To me it looks like the result of Garfield chasing the Tesla the way he was taught by Odie.

Second sell order for PNDORA.CPH [1/2 of the rest of the position, at 390] just filled.

At first sight it perhaps reads hilarious. But one actually have to take answers to such open questions seriously from the person replying. The answer represent the replying persons perception and personal, honest & upright opinion on the matter at hand. That persons "truth". It's all about personal & individual priorities.

rb, Cigarbutt answered your question. +1 from me on that. It's enjoyable to read your posts saturated with car passion, by the way. [ : - ) ]

Thank you for sharing, writser, A kick in the balls from a dead man to a man still alive [from a business perspective]. Most likely Mr. Singer and his henchman do not give a dam about it. It's just considered necessary collateral damage [considered to die/go away, over time], based on how one do business, to get ahead.

Thank you for shedding some light on Uber for the large North American and European metropoles, rb, I was actually thinking about London conditions myself. Somehow, I'm thinking about Uber as a competitor to taxi businesses - the difference between Uber and "real" car sharing / pooling being the driver: Uber: A chauffeur - "real" car sharing / pooling: You're the driver. - - - o 0 o - - - Some local anecdotal Uber stuff here: Uber got thrown out of Denmark - last year, I think. Here, taxi businesses are regulated businesses, where taxi permits are managed by the municipalities. The number of permits in a city are basically based on judgements about demand. Uber was operating here without such permits. It ended with huge fines in a limited number of trial cases for taxi business activity without permit, fines based on income from the activity for each Uber driver. Then the Danish IRS got interested, and started up audits on some of those Uber drivers. A high pertage haden't declared anything about that income in their tax returns - then the Danish IRS got really interested, and took them all out for audit! - - - o 0 o - - - Here is a "real" Danish car sharing / pooling project/business : Green Mobility A/S. It got listed on NasdaQ First North Copenhagen last year, actually. It's operating in Copenhagen, Frederiksberg and Gentofte municipalities, with 400 Renault Zoes, and is getting traction, from what I have read. The company has got Copenhagen Municipality and the real estate company Jeudan A/S [JDAN.CPH] as customers, among others. It's rolling out now in Oslo. The ambitious business plan is to break even in Copenhagen by 2019 and to be present in 20 major European cities by 2021. From the miniscule I have read about it, it's based on cooperation with German E.ON, which has provided the charging infrastructure [and most likely also is the vendor of the 100% renewable energy - thus "Green" in the company name etc.]. Not investable by now for persons here on CoBF [start up], I think, but the perspective is interesting and has some appeal to me. It will certainly be interesting to follow going forward. - - - o 0 o - - - Are there something similar going on / in the works other places?

One thing is Uber, another thing is car pooling / car sharing - what are your thoughts, gents?: Bloomberg - Hyperdrive - By Stefan Nicola & Elisabeth Behrmann [August 17th 2018]: 'Peak Car' and the End of an Industry - In Germany - The birthplace of the modern automobile - carmakers are anticipating the day when people stop owning cars. [Article outlined here.]

Ref. Cigarbutt's post, perhaps it has to do with regulations about by law mandatory inspections of cars here in EU after four years, then every second year. [Rules may vary by country - this is minimum inspection frequency for an EU country]. [Danish] Traffic Agency: Periodical [car] inspection. It is about a focused effort to reduce risk of car accidents caused by cars out of shape with from security perspective dangerous delayed maintenance. If you don't comply with inspection deadlines, you're fined. If the car does not pass inspection, you have to take the car off the road and deliver back license plates, and if you don't do that either, a warrant for the car goes out to the police. - - - o 0 o - - - I have no knowledge about how such things are regulated in Northern America, thus my use of "perhaps" in first sentence.

Why even go out of a tangent posting wise - as an investor - about football [ref. the topic title], when Juventus is owned by EXOR, not FCAU? - You have to read Johan's post the right way.

Just to shed some light on what rb is talking about, here is a recent analysis of automakers: The Nordnet Blog - Thorleif Jackson [July 17th 2018]: Who is the winner in the auto industry?. And Mr. Jacksons personal preferences: The Nordnet Blog - Thorleif Jackson [July 17th 2018]: My favorite stocks in the auto industry. [One day, I'll perhaps elaborate a bit about Mr. Jackson and about what he's doing.]

That makes sense, alwaysinvert. Not so long ago, longinvestor posted something along like "The market now has to vote, instead of Omaha setting the price" [after which Omaha will decide to buyback, or not].

I'm thinking in line with longinvestor. I think the logical step would be the chairman and the three vice chairmen on the stage next spring. Reduces workload on the two oldest of the four men during the whole day. Still no interviews with Mr. Buffet since July 17th ["Buyback policy change" announcement date]?

Conglomerate investing is like starting mingling and merging toes with another person relatively late in life. You have to take the whole package, or pass.

Perhaps Mr. Buffet needed some cash to hand over more capital to manage by Mr. Combs & Mr. Weshler [and woulden't reduce overall level of cash & T-Bills]? - I'm just speculating here. This "Here are USD X B to manage your own way, but don't buy "my" stocks" can create some odd situations.

Added to MKL, FFH.TO, LUND B.STO [L. E. Lundbergföretagen AB, ser. B] & INDU C.STO [industrivärden AB, ser. C] during the day today.

First [lowest] sell order for PNDORA.CPH [of 1/3, at 370] just filled.

Yes, indeed, a very nice FFH trailer/teaser/bird perspective write-up by Ben Comston, chrispy, Thank you for sharing it.

. Personally, I think this speach by Mr. Browder is much better than most of the other speaches held by him, because he in this speach is [much] more specific about the technical details in what was going on in Russia post USSR dissolution from an investment angle, likely because of the audience, so I suppose my fellow CoBF board members might think that, too. - - - o 0 o - - - Where do I get this book as hardcover, & new [, & in English] at a reasonable price [scalping seems to be going on on Amazon]? -I can't find it! Any help much appreciated, thank you. - Perhaps the solution is to kindly ask Mr. Browder to do a reprint of the hardcover version?