CorpRaider

My Kindle version of this book has updated to include the latest letter at least a couple of times too...good value, just saying. If you want the partnership letters with some good analysis, you could get that Jeremy Miller book, Warren Buffett's Ground Rules (I discussed it in the last "media curation post" on my site).

Is USB the best big(ish) bank?

Did a little update since it was ~ 90 days since I first looked at the retail REITs. Damn Brohams... I hope you all loaded UP on BRX and KIM (and KRG and CBL!!!)!

He was a first year at Cravath...but he said hourly. ;D

For any who haven't read his books, especially the Checklist Manifesto, get on it. What an incredible polymath!

BRK + AMZN + JPM hire Atul Gawande as CEO of their new combined healthcare effort! Wow, what a get! He is an amazing thinker in my estimation.

VXUS, SPDW, IVAL, FNDF

How did you get at 60% leverage? My numbers got to 23%... which explains the 2017 adjusted ROE of 10.7% (parent adds leverage but for sure assumes some general costs). Just took it from slide 19 of the deck you linked ("Credit Ratios Support our Credit Ratings") Debt/Total Capitalization column for Berkshire Hathaway Energy for 2015 - 2017. It is right at 60% for each year.

Thanks. That presentation is literally the only thing I've looked at. Weird. I think it says they earn 10-12% regulatory ROEs across the operating units and they are running @ like 60% leverage on a BH Energy basis. I am mostly interested as a potential clue to how WEB views his opportunity set.

Being lazy so ignoring me is probably doing me a favor, but what kind of un-levered returns has been the recent historical experience in BRK Energy? ~5-7%?

Hell yes. As you probably know. See, The Money Game (or any of the books about the conglomeration game of the Go-Go years).

I'm up to like 99 afternoon, I think. Munger gives beast mode explanation of opportunity cost and says "that's the name of the game around here" or something like that in one of those early years. Lots of good stuff. I can feel the BRK force flowing through me.

Afternoon session of 95 is your favorite?

Agree. If they opened an account or charged me for something I didn't authorize though, I would be so gone forever it is not even funny.

Very little, almost zero. But it is a PITA to move accounts with direct deposit and having entered all the data in online bill pay, figure out closest branches/atms around town, etc... Although, I do like my FIDO cash management account a lot for some reason.

Blockchain/distributed ledger is something to keep an eye on, but probably the big guys just end up employing the technology to reduce costs. Was an interesting read, thanks. Kind of like the usual hard transition from making an undervalued investment to trying to hang on for full upside. Buffett's hold forever filter probably makes it a lot easier. I do wonder how much bigger the big guys can get, they are kind of constrained by GDP and where they will go for growth. Maybe outside U.S.? Dimon comes off as such a stud in this piece (he is). How stupid I am for not buying gobs of JPM when it was clear in/after the financial crisis they were the high ground. I wonder wow much longer Dimon hangs around? Who is his heir apparent? Staley at BCS? I kind of like him but don't really like that bidness. I like the guy at CITI but they have gone bankrupt like three times in my investing life and I can't do it.

Yeah, I'm not sure. It was a reader e-mail question. They didn't send statements or anything but were concerned about commissions that they would incur unwinding all these positions (leading me to infer they were paying $ per trade). I also saw a similar situation posted on a more personal finance focused message board. I just told them I'm not an investment advisor and to talk to vanguard or another RIA about moving their money over (and maybe a plaintiff's attorney who has handled some securities litigation/arbitrations, if they felt they were ripped off badly enough to feel like messing with it).

Look forward to reading. I haven't bought my BAC back. One reason is that I had occasion to see what a Merrill Lynch broker did to a retail account with a few hundred thousand bucks. Churned it up, really badly....like one share of this, four shares of that with probably hundreds of micro positions. Pretty highly unethical/disturbing to me. Once that person learns about vanguard and/or RIAs they are probably never again going to be in the market for any BofA product in my opinion. I also saw an advertisement from one of the banks for something they were calling a CD, which was basically a variable annuity. Not sure if that is still alive. Maybe I can go with JPM and avoid this type of retail "grifting" bidness? Much prefer a rogue trader or two.

It was good. Funny about the BRK meeting. 40K is probably a miniscule portion of the public/investors/professionals. Also, you have to back out the private office marketing people from China. hah.

Yeah, the millennials are coming. ;D

Sorry to hear that. Didn't Munger and Buffett have to offer some sworn testimony on the amount of time required to invest (maybe in their matter with the SEC)? I think Munger was quoted in some press accounts too about an SEC inquiry or some other proceeding concerning the Daily Journal Corporation (centered on his superb investments in banks during the financial crisis, which mirrors your own investments if I recall and could probably be substantiated via your brokerage statements) where the activity level of his investment operation was an issue. Perhaps you could flag those ideas for your attorney to see if she thinks they would be helpful to track down.

Just don't be so freaking long, ok? Bring back Gettlemen. He's GM of the Giants now though right? He's probably not looking around.

Beating the Market - Same as it Ever Was.

This thread reminds me of SuperMoney when the Hedge Fund guy was like "you have to bring in some kids to trade this trash."

BS tech stock questions are already rolling in 1994 and 1995. I guess they've seen that in the 70s and 90s (and maybe the 50s?) so they aren't too bothered by the questions the last couple of years.