John Hjorth

You need to keep in mind the context of this action from Mr. Buffett. This was about a recreacional house. What was his net worth at time? Back to now: Please read from page 34 and onwards.

It's actually good with some humor on the board at these market levels! : - )

That to me crosses every line; ethical, fairness, whatever. To think this book would pass off as a biography of sorts, of a person who is still living is insane. While she makes money off of it, the only reason for the money being made is the name "Buffett" in the title! Shameful. I was happy to watch the other movie about his life. Thank you, longinvestor. +1. Exactly: plain shameful. I know there are lot a good persons on this board, one can actually sense it, after reading the board over the years. It's comforting, that you step up. Ms. Schroeder was actually one of the very few persons at the time of the publishing of the book, that knew all details of those events, and also knew what this did to Mr. Buffett at that time. I can imagine what it would do to him reading book, thereby experiencing the whole thing again, and at the same time knowing, that now this would be available to all, who would pay for the book. Mr. Buffets mourning at that time is the mere confirmation that he married the right person for him. The personal feeling of the loss is the positive confirmation of, that the person has lost something very valuable to the person, here the end of a relationship to a person very near and dear. Mourning is a process of inverting. The Golden Rule comes to mind here. I sure understand that Mr. Buffett has put Ms. Schroeder on ice. If I had known that I would read such kind of stuff in the book, I would have got it at the local library, and delivered it back after reading. That's sure.

I have now read some of the chapters in this book in the weekend. I've been "jumping around" in the book, because I think every chapter can be read separately, as a "separate, tiny book/story". Ms. Schroeder is to me a very good writer. She goes much more in depth on some stories & themes about Berkshire and Mr. Buffett, that I have read about before, but not for me other places described in such depth before. Naturally this is the outcome of having direct access to the man that the book is about. - - - o 0 o - - - On a more personal - and thereby subjective - note from me [perhaps this has some cultural dimension also, I don't know]: To me, this book contains information about some events involving Mr. Buffett's first wife and what happened to her in her last years before her death, that to me do not belong in a book - not even a biography - about Mr. Buffett. Those descriptions - I have duly noted - are mostly without notes and sources [elsewhere, the book is filled with a lot of notes and sources], and I was thinking while readin it: "How did Ms. Schroeder get this information?" - and more important: "Why did she publish it as it as written in the book?".

Just to give some perspective to the post by WneverLOOSE. From the 2015Q1 interim report : So, as WneverLoose wrote, this will not move the needle as such for Berkshire, but certainly for the Van Tuyl aquisition, this might be considered something material, that has skipped the attention of the involved parties. - - - o 0 o - - - It's beyond my comprehention, why there in Texas is legal protection of car dealerships against competition from car producers trying to compete by selling cars B2C.

UK election: shock as blue-blooded Kensigton turns red. Hilarious. Two recounts of votes be sure - Nobody believed it. Interesting times.

Thank you a lot for taking the time to shed some light on my question, Cigarbutt. It's much appreciated. I'll take it from there.

Does any of my fellow board members have any idea of statistics to watch overall capital in- & outflow to & from ETFs? -Thank you in advance.

Based on your last post, I coulden't resist ordering the book, longinvestor. There was apparently some back log on it at Amazon, but I got confirmation today, that it has now been shipped. - - - o 0 o - - - Off topic: It's about keeping my purchase impulses in check, pure diversion by buying books, instead of stocks. It's starting to get costly, actually. The Lady of the House is shaking her head over all those books coming in. Then I start talking about that what I'm doing is actually building a margin of safety against going down on and running out of unread books. [Actually, I still have some reading "work in progress" with "Of permanent Value" by Mr. Kilpatrick and "Snowball" by Ms. Schroeder right now, perhaps in the area of reading through 3 kgs of pages - and she knows that ... - then she shakes her head again : - ) ]

Finally received the book today. The quality of the book - as such, as a book - leaves a lot behind, being a book - as such. Poor page cutting etc. The printing craftmanship is to me just secunda quality. I look forward to the reading, though. I hope the contents conpensate for the overall state of the physical book as such.

Bump. I have been thinking quite some about this lately. I would really like, if we could pick up this discussion again, based on recent conditions. How do you perceive the situation now etc.?

Distressed debt investing & distressed assets investing is not about making new friends, like "I want to work with people whom I like and admire". It's simply just another game. It's more like: "You are in need of oxygen?" Answer: "Yes, pleaase!" Answer back: "OK - here you go - ... but it'll cost you all your underwear - new and used!"

Thanks for sharing the Bogle interview, Sanjeev! I still think a lot about this topic. So one thing is to be prepared for such a situation - the other thing is to play it right ... - to take advantage of such market situation. - To me, the second part is like: "How the heck do you that?!", based on what Sanjeev posted then back in February '09... - most likely, time will tell! [-and that is for sure no kind of guarantee, that I will end up having played it right!]. - - - o 0 o - - - The situation for me has been, that I still - on overall family level - held quite some cash, untill the end of March this year, where a large cash pile ended up in the lap of the Lady of the House, as the major enheritance for her from the MIL estate. I only need to finish a transfer of the MIL stock portfolio, do a tax return for 2016 for the late MIL and the estate for 2017 when it is fully processed, and some reporting to the probate court about the estate, for calculation of final inheritance tax, the cash for the inheritance tax, court fees etc. still in place in the estate, plus a cash buffer. Honestly, it has almost been hauting me during April this year, how to proceed with the capital allocation for the Lady of the House going forward, at these market levels. It is not "only" a cash pile and stock portfolio, it is basically the whole inheritance belonging to the Lady of the House, after her parents - the whole economic output of what her parents have generated [net] during two whole lives, including a small part inherited from their parents ... - it's not the time for me for making mistakes! - - - o 0 o - - - Here is what I have come up with so far, personally: 1. Occam's razor: Keep it simple. And accept the opportunity cost of keeping it simple and clear: Accept the material increased overall cash level, and do not go on a shopping spree. It is in the situation much more important to preserve the capital than to get it to grow at a satisfactory clip. I have pushed the cash up in the high interest account of the Lady of House at the Danish branch of the Norwegian SAN SCF sub, where it is right now pulling 0.9 per cent per year, allocating it to stocks right now - at these market levels - going forward in small drips over the next few years [4 to 5 years], with the opportunity to buy much more, when we end up in a downturn ["when", because we will - it's just a matter of time]. 2. Identify the antifragile companies in the portfolio, and be prepared to load up on these in a downturn, and perhaps start selling the fragile ones now. Antifragile: a. Berkshire : From this angle, Berkshire seems to be a no brainer. I'll just continue to buy it in small drips, from now, and going forward. b. Investor AB, Sweden [iNVE A.STO] : The company has a commited and idle credit line of SEK 50 B from a consortium of banks - with no covenants. I feel confident, based on experience, that this company will play its hand right in such situation. c. Schouw & Co. A/S, Denmark [sCHO.CPH] : I feel confident this company will try to take advantage of such a situation also, based on a large economic aquisition capacity right now [in the area of DKK 2 B], despite it has a lot to do right now with already made aquisitions. Fragile: d. Banks, in general [without having any clue to what extent]. For me, it's about primarily the SAN position.

villainx, To me, it is plain and pure Buffett logic, because Buffett long ago defined the rough estimate of the economic progress of Berkshire as the change in book value per share year by year. Please also note the particular circumstances, that was ruling when the buy back treshold was raised from 1.1 x BV to 1.2 X BV. It was about buying back a large block of A shares [9,200 A shares] from the estate of an early [long term] Berkshire investor. longinvestor has mentioned this before here on CoBF. How many early - and very rich, by holding on to the stock through thick and thin -, now still alive and at high age - Berkshire investors are there out there, what size are those individual "non float" blocks, and what will happen, when they come in play? [At least some of them will most likely come in play, because some capital gain taxes has to be paid, even if the shares are mainly distributed to inheritants, I suppose]. The alternative to a Berkshire buy back in such situation would most likely be a large conversion to B shares and a sale in the market of those B shares over a certain period, if Berkshire would not be willing to buy such A shares back near at that time ruling market price for the A.

SlowAppreciation, Also thank you very much from me for sharing your piece. I have read it today. It's a great write-up. At these market levels in the US, Berskhire is certainly a buy, compared to so much else, with S&P 500 at about a P/E ~ 25. It actually made me check a few things today also: I haven't bought any North American stocks since 2015, with three exemptions: 1. Berkshire - quite some, 2. Markel - to fully build the long term position for the Lady of the House, in the autumn of 2016, 3. Fairfax - to fully build the long term position for the Lady of the House, in the autumn of 2016. Berkshire is priced right now in the area of ~1.4 x BV. At these levels, I'll just continue to buy going forward, in small drips.

villainx, Here and here.

Speach by CEO of Blue Ocean Robotics ApS, Odense, Mr. Claus Risager, held at TEDxOdense 1st April 2017: "The Cloudworkers - Your next job is to help your robot". There is a Youtube clip a bit down on the page. It is in English language, actually. To me absolutely worth your time, if you have just some interest in this topic.

More than one day and night has passed - still no reply ... I appreciate that you bring this topic up, longinvestor. It's complicated - very complicated - basically it's out of of my circle competence. So I'll just post some thoughts here - without considering it even a stab on the topic in mention. Since I read the 50th year anniversary shareholder letters from Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger about the future of Berkshire, my thoughts has been circling around this topic, constantly - on/off. The point here is, - what you mentioned from the Berskhire 2017 AGM session about how Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger responded to this topic is - at least to me - in reality, that both those gentlemen don't really have a deep knowledge about it. They are "only" capital allocators - very good ones over time - what they say at the Berskhire AGM's are simply just hear-say, from the CEOs of the subs - but still very important - based on trust on the CEO of the subs and their information flow from the CEOs of the subs. So in short - the CEOs of the subs simply has to get this right going forward in the long term - it would be potentially nothing less than crippling to me and my familys living conditions going forward otherwise. And please do not ever forget: You can fire Mr. Buffet and Mr. Munger as your capital allocators whatever day the NYSE is open. Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger are stuck with whatever wholly owned subs they have bought on behalf of Berkshire, and have to get the best out it, be it not a total disaster. - - o 0 o - - - No vote from me on the poll.

I haven't had the time and energy yet to do write up on Investor AB in the investment ideas forum - I'm still studying this thing on/off. It's a never ending story studying it, like it is with Berkshire. Today I found this short presentation of the company made by the Swedish singer Liselotte Östblom. [Just press the start button on the upper video clip]. Let me just say I coulden't do it better my self! Sometimes it's enternaining in more than one way to study companies! ; - )

scorpioncapital, From the 2016 Annual Report, p.44, almost at the top of the page: As we all know, most of the listed stock investments are held in the insurance companies. So the deferred tax on urealised gain on the listed stock investments is calculated in the group balance sheet for Berkshire as if all the stocks were sold at the date of the balance sheet at market prices, incurring the tax rate for realised gains on stocks for an insurance company for the most part.

Not at all, rb, at least not to me - I actually find these family stories here on CoBF fascinating - vey fascinating indeed. Do you mind sharing your country of origin? - From another post of yours yesterday, I get the perception, that you are of European origin - I have also noted earlier, that you actually have an extraordinary general knowledge of German business, considering that you are a Canadian citizen. Not at all John. I'm originally from Romania and my family moved here when I was in my teens. The fact that I lived and worked in London for a number of year I think broadened my horizon and understanding of things. But generally most of my knowledge of business has been acquired through boring old fashion studying. Thanks for sharing, rb, I'm actually in some state of shock to read about your national origin here. Those years before your parents made the decision to move to Canada were very bad here in Europe. Totally crazy stuff going on many places in Eastern Europe. I still remember how worried I was at that time, because it was going on so close to here. To me, it really puts your posts on here in perspective. I suppose you have some things in your mental backpack from between gaining selfawareness and the move to Canada as a young boy that you'll never forget.

Not at all, rb, at least not to me - I actually find these family stories here on CoBF fascinating - vey fascinating indeed. Do you mind sharing your country of origin? - From another post of yours yesterday, I get the perception, that you are of European origin - I have also noted earlier, that you actually have an extraordinary general knowledge of German business, considering that you are a Canadian citizen.

And I have asked Sanjeev to lock this topic. Why do you guys not get it? - This is an investor board.

clutch, Why are you even mentally occupied by this question? Take care of your own AUM - do your very best - do your own work.

The Berkshire Annual Meeting 2017 - Full Q&A Video - is now available on Youtube here.