VersaillesinNY

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren [buffett] reads -- at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out".” Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie's Almanack “Read 500 pages like this every day”-- “That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” Warren E. Buffett http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130428/MONEY/704289987 "I’ve read about 80 books a year for the past 50 years. I come from cultural breeding. I don’t have a cellphone. When you spend all your time checking your cellphone messages, or updating your Facebook (of course I don’t have a Facebook page) then you don’t have any time for reading." Vaclav Smil

Allen & Co. Flourishes as a Tech Deal Maker Facebook's WhatsApp Purchase Highlights Allen & Co.'s Rise in the Technology Sector http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303636404579397112054095536 "Allen & Co. has long been a big player in media and entertainment deals. Facebook Inc. FB +3.04% 's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp Inc. highlights the boutique investment bank's rise as a Silicon Valley deal maker. Allen advised Facebook on the transaction, its latest accomplishment following work on the initial public offering of Twitter Inc. TWTR -0.09% and a big round of private financing at Dropbox Inc. Underwriting roles in IPOs from Coupons.com Inc. and Castlight Health Inc. also are on tap. Last year, Allen ranked sixth among banks in proceeds raised from U.S.-listed tech and Internet IPOs, according to Dealogic. Before 2010, it had never ranked higher than 21st. On tech mergers globally, Allen ranked 16th last year, up from 53rd in 2010.[...]"

http://www.fairholmefunds.com/show_pdf.php?file=http://www.fairholmefunds.com/sites/default/files/596616-FAIRX_v4%20_C_updated.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks Bruce Berkowitz is still bullish on Sears: "Headlines shout of Sears’ disastrous 2013 loss of $12 per share. A longer history shows that since the merger of Sears with Kmart, about 9 years ago, Sears has distributed over $66 of cash per share via buybacks and spin-offs and has paid down $27 per share of a pension liability that is no different, in our view, from debt. Fairholme research estimates that the fair value of Sears’ net assets exceeds $150 per share. If our research is accurate, we expect Sears’ market price of $38 to increase to this value over time. ------------ “Traditionally the investor has been the man with patience and the courage of his convictions who would buy when the harried or disheartened speculator was selling.” Benjamin Graham & David Dodd 596616-FAIRX_v4+_C_updated.pdf

These are Bruce Berkowitz's former partners and analysts: http://www.goodhavenfunds.com/media/pdfs/2013_AR.pdf "In the aggregate, we now have a reasonably sized holding in the energy business, particularly focused on natural gas. Huge discoveries of “shale gas” in the United States led to a drilling boom and then a sharp decline in gas prices. We made our initial investments over a year ago as panicked investors drove gas prices to $2 per thousand cubic feet (“MCF”), well below the level that most need to generate profits. Current natural gas pricing is closer to $4 per MCF. Our current holdings consist of Devon Energy, Exco Resources,WPX Energy, and Birchcliff Energy. Of these, Exco and WPX recently experienced leadership changes, which we believe may act as a catalyst to improve operations. Although natural gas prices are heavily influenced by weather, there are some good reasons to think that another huge price bust may not occur for a while. Crude oil contains about 6 times more energy than natural gas while the price of crude oil hasrecently ranged between 20 and 25 times the price of natural gas. We expect that gap to narrow as industrial users attempt to make substitutions. More importantly, severe regulatory restrictions on the burning of coal and the building of new coal-fired plants continue to increase the market share of natural gas in electrical generation. Furthermore, a small but growing part of the commercial transportation business is converting from diesel to natural gas. Lastly, there are a number of permitsin progressto create modest but meaningful export capacity for natural gasto take advantage of large price differentials, such as in Japan where landed prices per MCF are more than four times U.S. wellhead prices. Given relatively soft valuations and a bright longer-term outlook, we continue to look for additional opportunities in this area." GoodHaven_Fund_2013_Annual_Report.pdf

Ron Muhlenkamp wrote an essay on a similar topic: Fund Your IRA Every Year or How to Retire Wealthy by Driving Used Cars Stocks and Used Cars: The Road to Wealth? "Recently, I commented to a friend that most “investors” buy stocks the way teenagers buy clothes. He responded, “How should they buy stocks?” Being a slow thinker, I didn’t have a ready answer then, but I do now. Buy stocks the way you would buy used cars. The truly amazing fact is, if you also buy used cars, you can get rich on these two actions alone. It is not hard to save $2,000 per year by driving a used car. The table shows that by investing $2,000 in an IRA every year, you can accumulate $1 million (at 12%) in 36 years or $928,000 (at 10%) in 40 years. There are three keys to saving $2,000 per year by driving a used car: 1. Insure only for liability. This alone will save you more than $600 per year. 2. Do not pay interest, which would cost you at least $130 annually per $1,000 borrowed. 3. Buy only what you can pay for in cash. Do Your Homework So how do you buy a good used car, or a good stock? In each case, start at your local library. There you will find books titled How to Buy a Used Car (or something similar), which can be read in a few hours. Read one of them. It will give you criteria to use and a framework to work from.$2,000 per Year Compounded at 10% and 12%* " Read more @ http://www.muhlenkamp.com/investment/memorandum/issue_78

http://www.tweedy.com/resources/library_docs/quarterly/FundCommentary%20Q4%202013%20-%20Final.pdf "Only one new position was established: Antofagasta, a UK-listed Chilean copper mining company. The company owns majority interests in five copper mines in Chile and a railway, and we believe is a well run, low cost copper producer with a strong balance sheet. The company is profitable, generates free cash flow, and pays a dividend. While it is difficult to predict the direction of copper prices with any degree of certainty, declining ore grades and mine closures across the world should have a meaningful effect on supply over the next several years, resulting in better pricing in the future. At purchase, Antofagasta was trading at approximately 6.2 times enterprise value to EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes), which was near its 52-week low, was in a net cash position and paid a dividend yield of 1.6%. " FundCommentary_Q4_2013_-_Final.pdf

Barron's full interview: Shaking Things Up By LAUREN R. RUBLIN Our Roundtable experts Abby Joseph Cohen, Marc Faber, Meryl Witmer and Bill Gross see big opportunities and challenges in 2014. http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111903704404579334780442204564.html

Revisiting a 1999 Fortune article on Bill Gates, Michael Larson, Cascade Investment and philanthropy: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/03/15/256491/

http://live.wsj.com/video/meryl-witmer-top-stock-pick/89463A9A-922A-4F93-8957-66FACBBFF334.html?mod=BOL_article_full_video#!89463A9A-922A-4F93-8957-66FACBBFF334 ------ "The investing class is a little snobbish about timeshare business" Meryl Witmer

I came across an old Coke article that might interest some of you. “By taking a brief look at its history as well as two of the skirmishes between Coca-Cola and Washington, the first in 1906 and the second in 2000, we can see how our country has changed in the last century.” “[…] Government agents seized 40 barrels and 20 kegs of Coca-Cola syrup in Chattanooga and thus began a court case with legal maneuverings, charges and countercharges that would last almost a decade. The case was given the unintentionally comical name: "The United States vs. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola."” http://www.lewrockwell.com/2002/05/gail-jarvis/the-rise-and-fall-of-cocaine-cola/

WEB's Xmas card: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/23/warren-buffett-christmas-card/

More light on the deal: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/30/buffett-berkshire-hathaway-phillips/

Thanks for sharing!

I like to listen to Berkowitz, Holowesko, Yacktman and Romnick among others. http://feeds.feedburner.com/trillianmedia/JVWE

Merry Xmas & Happy Holidays from Spain. All the best for 2014!

Thanks for posting!

Some Fool Threw Away a Hard Drive with £4.6 Million of Bitcoin On It - Adam Clark Estes - Ever accidentally lose a pound coin? Then you count what’s in your war chest, realise it’s a quid short, and kick yourself for being careless? Well, a British IT worker knows what that feels like—except times 4.6 million. James Howells did a really smart thing back in 2009 and started mining Bitcoin before anybody had ever heard of it. He managed to stockpile 7,500 of the magic cryptocurrency before his girlfriend made him stop. (Evidently, she thought it “was getting too noisy.”) Based on today’s exchange rate of about £613 per Bitcoin, that stash is worth about £4.6 million. Then, earlier this year, Howells did a really stupid thing and threw away the hard drive that contained the key he needed to access the small fortune he’d saved up. Actually, he did two stupid things. First, he spilled lemonade on his mining machine and sold it for scrap, which is why he took the hard drive out in the first place. Then he threw it in the bin. His £4.6 million now rests under about four feet of mud and trash at the local landfill. For all intents and purposes, the money is gone. Howells can’t afford to spend the money it would take to mobilise a team to dig through the landfill, and, even if he did, he probably wouldn’t find the hard drive anyway. “I’m at the point where it’s either laugh about it or cry about it,” Howells told The Guardian. “Why aren’t I out there with a shovel now? I think I’m just resigned to never being able to find it.” Consider it a buried sacrifice to the cryptocurrency gods. [Guardian] http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/11/%E2%80%8Bsome-fool-threw-away-a-hard-drive-with-4-6-million-of-bitcoin-on-it/

Alfred Feld, Goldman Sachs’s 80-Year Employee, Dies at 98 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-26/alfred-feld-goldman-sachs-s-longest-serving-worker-dies-at-98.html http://www.bloomberg.com/video/goldman-says-goodbye-80-year-employee-alfred-feld-maz0ZIXWRAubVyRqc4evZg.html

It's always a good read. ---------------------------------------- "Were you to visit our offices, you would be reminded more of the reading room in a college library than some frenetic trading room at a major brokerage firm." Christopher H. Browne TBFundsSemiAnnualReportSept2013.pdf

Thank you Sanjeev.

Some videos features Sal Khan, Elon Musk, Kenneth Griffin, Ray Dalio and Daniel Loeb: http://www.livestream.com/dealbook Sal Khan http://www.livestream.com/dealbook/video?clipId=pla_bfe9a767-9908-42b0-a044-ae5546ad1347&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb Elon Musk http://www.livestream.com/dealbook/video?clipId=pla_2acee178-0c26-44e2-a95a-47ea95337b0c&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb Kenneth Griffin http://www.livestream.com/dealbook/video?clipId=pla_b88155d1-8177-4d4c-9485-94c1815758db&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb Ray Dalio http://www.livestream.com/dealbook/video?clipId=pla_29509cc4-3b72-4dc1-be4c-dac6c86ce62c&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb Daniel Loeb http://www.livestream.com/dealbook/video?clipId=pla_d6168ad0-5bf7-474e-826a-32aaf2261be2&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb ---------------------------- "I think the idea that everyone can have wonderful results from stocks is inherently crazy. Nobody expects everyone to succeed at poker." Charlie Munger

"What's the secret of a great marriage? It's not looks, nor intelligence, nor money -- it's low expectations." Warren Buffett Good luck Gio and may the force be with you.

Another tycoon just passed away, the famous real estate developer and gambler Paul Reichmann. The remainder of his empire can be found in Brookfield Office Properties. His family story is interesting and well documented. Extract "With brothers Albert and Ralph, Reichmann built Olympia & York into “the greatest property development company in Western history,” according to Anthony Bianco, a former Businessweek writer who wrote a book on the family. Before its 1992 bankruptcy filing, the company was the largest private owner of commercial property in New York City. Forbes magazine calculated the brothers’ cumulative net worth at $9.2 billion at its height in 1988, making them among the world’s richest people" The saga http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-25/paul-reichmann-olympia-york-family-s-idea-man-dies.html Faith and fortune http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1997-01-19/faith-and-fortune The man who blew $10 billion - Fortune magazine http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1993/05/17/77850/index.htm Recommended Book: The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York By Anthony Bianco --------- "You build on cost and you borrow on value." Paul Reichmann

Thanks for sharing. We notice that Gates is a big fan of Prof. Vaclav Smil. According to Vaclav's bio: Vaclav Smil does interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. He has published more than 30 books and some 400 papers on these topics. Here are two of his lectures on Energy transition. ------------ "I’ve read about 80 books a year for the past 50 years. I come from cultural breeding. I don’t have a cellphone. When you spend all your time checking your cellphone messages, or updating your Facebook (of course I don’t have a Facebook page) then you don’t have any time for reading." Vaclav Smil

http://www.tweedy.com/resources/library_docs/quarterly/FundCommentary%20Q3%202013%20-%20Final.pdf "Bargain hunting remains challenging, but we have plenty of dry powder should the markets present us with an opportunity." Q3 commentary - Tweedy, Browne Company FundCommentary_Q3_2013_-_Final.pdf