dealraker

Got to include Bill Russell. In my early years I watched Bill and Wilt go at it. What a privilege that was to experience that. Some say there was little competition back then, they are silly given the Walt Belamy's athleticism and Nate Thrumond's all around offensive and defensive skills. Huge guys with skills as good as any today.

+1

And Tesla has morphed to Bud Light? LOL, I was actively buying the BUD in the lower 50's but you can be triple damn sure I will never discuss it on this site except to mention it here.

And with Luca something seems to be re-igniting within him which may extend his interest in continuing.

The planned show, Jerry Springer style, sells like hotcakes the the base. Love it!

Wife: "Hubby!!! We got our Beach trip paid for. I love Donnie and Elon so much!" https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/27/trump-musk-promote-idea-of-5000-doge-dividend-checks.html Husband: "Sweetie, deficits going up; taxes too; and a recession is coming where I'm gunna lose my damn job." First fascinate the fools, then muzzle the intelligent.

So maybe BUD Light in auto!

Value investors have an obsessive need to create deep dives and read deep dives and Bloomstran has a big piece of the minds of some who are in this camp. He works it very hard, particularly the much obsessed Berk take. He follows several who have successfully used this model in the past. Does this presentation give him financial rewards? He slides over on the "the market's always wrong" side which is too always a heavily sought after value investors theme. He's a good promoter.

Just like in the James Bond movies!

schin yes the PSR has pretty much run its course and in some cases parts of HH's game were taken too far and have had to be reversed. Regardless the railroad business is faced with a new era as how to get more profits and it will most likely need to involve volume/sales increases.

Volumes have about a decade of stall in general. We've cut and cut but cutting employees, cap ex, lines, yards ain't gunna git the job done going forward. Hopefully less borrow to buyback obsession and more business growth is what management is thinking. I think too the rails will struggle to raise prices as in the past. Yep prices of industrials are in the stratosphere but certainly not the railroads.

I would agree with John on the 8%.

As I said, you are a better investor than he is. Would I let you manage my money? Yes. Would I let him? No. And we have at least two other guys here who I'd let manage my money too and I'd never lose a bit of sleep. Ha! Just mentioning that as you say "we all have our personal freedoms...." and whatnot. Have a good day John.

Just realized that with Bloomstran and his massive writings that you are probably reading someone who isn't nearly as good of an investor as you are. I wrote the same with several of the others through the years who made-a-market for themselves via Buffett/Berkshire.

A populist's daily wording massages the cult via dominating his (his, not the...because he owns it) media but may or may not be anything meaningful as to what's actually being officially discussed- particularly when Elon, the top brass of the military, and CEO's of the defense bunch are all in the process. What's happening to BAH and CACI is precisely what I thought would happen to them. The entire defense sector is drunk driving right now and the big growthy's like the above two have so wide-wide-wide variance of where they could go as to business and stock performance. I still own by BAH, a taxy thing, bought in the 20's long ago. But if it had been in a tax free account you can be sure that stock would have flown the coop way above today's quote. I'm a rare seller, but I do have eyes, ears, and a brain. Budget deficits are gunna go through the roof; collections likely down; but spending is going to go places none of us can predict. The current administration is a big spender and one for massive debts so $ is going somewhere. You tell me where.......and I'll just laugh.

AJG 43%; Berk 38%; Fairfax, Meta follow along with Brown and Brown, Erie, Aon, Norfolk, Lowe's....gets well up in the 95%. All owned for decades except Meta. How much time a week do I spend on "investing" a week with the above? That would be zero, ZERO, and more Z-E-R-O. Probably one hour in the last ten years as to making changes, adding shares. I do read our forum, all but a couple threads. I mess on the fringes to stay relevant and Spek is a delightful read!

Great eye opening post Ralf.

A few years ago my niece went to work for Booz (BAH) and it was when the stock had fallen some, I think to a PE of 15 or so but the price was $27-$28. I gave her 100 shares of stock, I have no children and I have regularly throughout my life given to my younger family members (all but one are extremely responsible). Angela and I both bought $10k of BAH at that time, Angela's in her retirement account mine in the taxable one. But anyway the valuation of BAH and CACI (CACI which I had bought a bit of recently and quickly sold) escalated immensely with grand performance as it should have. But these businesses are so dependent on government credit card spending that I think it is absolutely rational to step back and observe. Basically every business in the US benefits by the guv credit card but for many it is their direct dominant customer. I personally do not think the current administration will lower the deficit but I do sense some abrupt changes and most will be in my view to benefit some chosen individual or group linked to the decision makers. And to me defense is just the ideal place for all this to happen. I sense we will have some relative extreme winners and losers and I'm just not able to decide which is what. I do have all the major defense stocks in my taxable account, years-years-years of gains and of course I'm not selling these.

I often think that when the cycle of US exceptionalism, read rising stock prices, ends that ex-US indexing is going to give some very predictable relative outperformance. Maybe not a great return straight out, but relative a "you'll have twice the money" with the swap.

Love it!

Well, Angela says that I used to say that Tony mentioned that he wanted to diversify as he turned 60. I don't remember him saying that but Angela says that's what I would say years ago.

No Viking I did not get an answer. My wife was the CPA/accountant for DeFazio's owned my Joe DeFazio and Tony would eat lunch there often. I'd go to Richmond (her family lived there) with my wife often. The owner Joe DeFazio was a great conversationalist social guy --- and of course I was infatuated with the long tail float business model trying to figure out how much money I could stomach investing there. And Tony's selling just concerned me. But neither Joe's plodding nor I could ever get the big affable guy to chime in with his reasons for a very steady constant selling of stock.

I think I am correct recall 25 or more years ago one of my questions to Tony Markel was why he consistently sold stock, a significant amount it seemed to me.

Certainly gives clarity as to how aggressive AJG is towards acquisitions.

Fairfax...short for "Fair Friendly Acquisitions."