adesigar

I believe the problem with global warming is the same as politics. There is a very delayed feedback loop. A voter votes for a terrible politician who creates all sorts of bad problems...but the problems don't manifest themselves for 20 years. That voter doesn't necessarily link their vote and the politician to the problems. If they do some new solution that might create problems is required to fix it, consequences are delayed. Global warming is the same. Something that's a problem right now might not be terrible for 20-30 years. There is no feedback, and it's not immediate so people have a tough time with it. I don't know why using less of things, being more resourceful, and conserving is all that bad. Even if there isn't any global warming those are good things we should be doing anyways. Unless someone is a contrarian to be contrary why is "I just want to waste and use too much of anything for no reason" something anyone strives for? I have no problem with using less of things, recycling, and everyone doing their small part. I do these things myself. What I have a problem with is things like carbon taxes which will not only hurt the economy but give the governments of the world trillions of more dollars to spend on weapons to slaughter people over resources with. No thanks. If it is a problem, and it increasingly looks like it is, then, like any real problem, government does not have the solution. Im not saying global warming is real. Im not saying it is man made. Im also not saying if its real we can do anything to control it or reverse it. All im saying is we cant take a chance. Its like if someone gives you a gun with 1000 chambers and says it has 1 bullet in one of the chambers. He says he will pay you a lot of money to aim it at your head and pull the trigger, would any of you do it? (Only someone who is extremely poor and want to provide for his family might). The odds that the scientists are right is better than 1 in a 1000 and cost is possibly tens or hundreds of million lives.

Heres a question for the "theres no global warming people". There are 2 options 1. The scientists are wrong on global warming and we spend a few trillion dollars (which is what is spent on weapons every few years on this planet trying to kill each other) trying to save the planet which didn't need saving. 2. The scientists are right and we need to work on global warming to save our planet. Only morons would be willing to take the chance. Thankfully the majority of the world is not as dumb.

+1 Quiz: which of the following will increase your life expectancy more? A) Get a thorough physical exam every five years. B) Buy a new car. I really don't get why people feel so great/proud about buying the cheapest car and driving it for 10-20 years. Its one of the dumbest things you can do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year fatalities per 100,000 has been dropping the last couple of decades 1. Buy the safest car you can afford (especially if you have kids). 2. If safety has significantly improved since the model year of your car its time to get the newer model. It doesn't matter how great a driver you are you can always get hit by someone else who is drunk etc. The difference between the more expensive car with better safety and the cheap model/clunker/15 year old model could be the difference between you and your family walking away from the accident or not. Insurance is something you pay for and you hope you never have to use. The latest and best car safety features are something you pay for and you hope you never need them. All the money you save is meaningless if you and your family are not safe.

The only expert on diet/exercise is Jack LaLanne. Warren Buffett is the JackLalanne of investing. :P http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_LaLanne check his accomplishments, ill list the last one 1984 (age 70) – handcuffed, shackled, and fighting strong winds and currents, he towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, 1 mile

it actually does because berkshire's annual report is out. live long and prosper! I made the post because Leonard Nimoy (Spock) passed away yesterday. As a kid every Sunday my mom used to take me to an uncles house so I could watch Star Trek.

I know it has nothing to do with stocks and finance and investing but it seemed like the perfect comment to end today with so... Live Long and Prosper.

People that can pay cash/debit are really the only people that should have a credit card. More specifically a no annual fee Cash back card. Not having one is like saying no to free money. Amex/Discover isn't accepted everywhere but the benefits are usually better. Visa/MasterCard are accepted everywhere.

It all depends on the education available in the school they can attend, the ability of the kids, the ability of the parents and other circumstances. The decision all completely depends on a ton of factors and there is NO single answer Things to consider - 1. How good is the school the kid will attend. Some public schools are as good as private ones. We bought our house based on the school our kids would attend. 2. One income vs Two. 2nd parent works and you can send to private school. 3. How flexible is the school? eg- When my daughter was in first grade (youngest in her class) she attended 4th grade for 1/4 of the school day. In second grade she got special math homework. etc 4. Socialization, Getting along with other kids, making friends that will last a lifetime, being part of a group etc. 5. Other circumstances - My wife and I grew up in a different country. School was a class with 70-90 kids on benches behind desks (we were lucky some of our friends in other schools sat on the floor). There was a blackboard, chalk and duster for the teacher. So when we see the classrooms, personal attention, classes for music, dance, drama etc. We don't quite get what all the whining and complaining is about. Like I said the decision all completely depends on a ton of factors and there is NO single answer

LOL I read the title as Deflation - Through exercise. Thought it was about New Years resolution to lose weight.

In the video he kind of mentions Guggenheim. Is this what he was talking about - Guggenheim Canadian Energy Income ETF (ENY)? Does anyone know of any other ETF's that hold exclusively Canadian/Oil Sands etc? Thanks in advance

Ive been thinking. How can I lock in Gas prices at these levels ???

Its kind of like the parachutes on a plane story. A plane is low on fuel and could crash and the people are getting in case they need to jump out. There are 100 people on the plane and only 99 parachutes can be found. Whats the value of a parachute? People would pay/do anything to make sure they have a parachute. Now imagine someone runs in and says he/she found 2 more parachutes. Now there are 100 people and 101 parachutes. The value of the parachutes is now minimal.

Maybe im totally wrong but I somehow seem to remember that Buffett did not like the fact that Gillette bought Duracell. He felt it was a commodity business.

Another idea for Sears stores http://weburbanist.com/2012/09/04/abandoned-walmart-now-americas-largest-library/

Fory anyone that missed it, heres a Kmart ad from last year.

So correct me if I am confusing this. You spent 30 minutes to get $1 in cashback. You also got $100 in coupons. To use these coupons you need to buy $350 in gas (if they stack) or upto $1000 in gas if they don't. You need to stop every 15 gallons to make a new transaction or else you end up buying full priced gas for the remaining 15+ gallons to fill the truck. The gas prices at this station are going to be higher than other gas stations. And you bought $50 worth of stuff from Sears. That is funny. Yo ho ho. :P

Thread for Dumb Sears jokes, Troll posts, Mustache references and other crap to keep it off the main thread.

For me the main question would be Do I want it as an investment or to use/enjoy. 1. If its to use/enjoy and the price feels good then buy. Even if price is not good but you will really enjoy it then buy. Life is not all about money. 2. If its an investment then a. Just because it was selling for 14k/sqmtr doesn't mean it was worth that much. It could be bubble pricing. b. Why aren't other people interested at the 7k/sqmtr price if its so cheap? c. Will you be renting it out? d. In 10 years what will be the total value of your investment in apartment vs holding the current stocks? Total value needs to be adjusted for Real Estate agent fees and taxes on apartment vs only taxes on stocks. Lots of assumptions go into this. How many years till economic conditions recover? What rental income you get? What is vacancy? What will you pay some to handle rentals/maintenance etc? Which stocks will you sell? If its something like BRK would you sell the apartment and end up buying the same stocks? The calculations will have to be adjusted for how sure you are about the predictions you are making. Like you are 60% sure about economic recovery vs 80% sure about your stock gains. Sorry im rambling its 1:20 AM. Time to sleep. Maybe ill edit it later to clarify what I meant.

for 10 years id be in 1. Stocks Berkshire Hathaway, Leucadia, Sears Holdings, Markel, Coca Cola, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson Goldman Sachs, Costco, Microsoft, Walmart. 2. Funds Fairholme, Yacktman, FPA, Fidelity Contrafund.

Yes but you are comparing 4K on a single screen for a 2hr movie. People using cloud Pcs would use multiples of that. I use 4 screens for 10+ hrs a day. I know companies who have bought racks at hosting companies and moved their servers offsite because it was cheaper to pay for hosting/bandwidth than to pay for office space, electricity etc.

We've been doing that for audio and video. On the audio side you have Pandora, Grooveshark, Spotify, etc. On the video side you have Netflix. But the thing about streaming audio and video is that there are limits to how much bandwidth we need. For audio we don't need quality that is better than 192kbps mp3s. For video we don't need better than 4K. Once we get close to the limits of human perception, the demand growth for bandwidth stops. I don't think he is talking about streaming Video and Audio. What I think might happen (and its probably what merkhet is talking about) is all our devices are like Chromebooks but more than just Data is in the cloud. We have an interface and the CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD/VideoCard/OS/Software(Office/Databases/Games) is all in the cloud. No need to maintain hardware or upgrade it. Interface separates data storage from Hardware layer. Rent it by the month switch to a different configuration/OS at anytime.

You are comparing how someone would value a mutual fund v/s a company. Isnt that a really dumb way of viewing it? When you buy shares in a company run by an exceptional manager you pay a premium not for the assets of the company but for the manager. There are a limited no of shares of the company it doesn't create shares (like a mutual fund) just because you want to invest some money in. You also cant match future buys and sells at the exact same price as the manager so you can never track the returns exactly. you can only match buys and sells after they are reported and for the best managers with special exemptions like Buffett/Berkowitz/Ackman that could be months after they build their position and the stock has run up. If 2 companies have the same amount of assets say 1 Billion and hold all their assets into just one company - Bank of Ireland shares for example but one is run by someone like Buffett/Berkowitz/Watsa/Pabrai and the other company is run by XYZ would they sell for the same price? Also think about this, would you have avoided buying Berkshire/Leucadia 30 Years ago if it had traded at a premium to book value of assets held?

My largest and only TV is 32" too. I guess we're TV brothers :D Only on a value investing board would you find such people, every house I go in besides mine has a monster TV hanging on the wall in every living room. My kids were literately jumping for joy and high-fiving one another when we replaced one of our 2 tube TVs with that 32" HDTV two years ago. We still have the tube TV in the other living room though, I didn't want to get too crazy. That's my experience too. Even the poorest people I know have cable (which we don't have) and a TV larger than 45 inches. We actually bought our 32" as a floor demo with a small scratch on the non-screen part, so we got a discount. It was a good value... I still don't have a flat screen TV, still using an old tube TV. Prices are dropping to the point where I think it's worth it for me to upgrade. My wife really wants one :) What do you guys watch on tube TVs ?

As I imagined, you haven’t added anything I hadn’t already thought about BH… And I firmly believe you are wrong about it. Gio Since you have thought about it would you kindly share why Management should control a company and not shareholders. Can you also share what's so special about any CEO compared to the ones I mentioned that he needs to be made to feel safe to carry on long term plan for value creation, which by the way is every CEO's job.

adesigar, I think I know the difference between owners and management… But, as I have said, there are very few general rules in business, and each situation requires its own right course of actions. Therefore, let me ask you: do you know BH? Have you studied the company? Its businesses? Do you feel comfortable your knowledge of BH is clear and deep enough? If your answers are: yes! Then tell me why you should prefer to put Biglari in the same position as the average manager. Instead of making him feel safe and able to carry on his long term plan for value creation. Who knows? You might even tell me something I had not thought before… ;) Gio Id have any CEO in that position Buffett, Munger, Cummins & Steinberg, Gates, Jobs, Bezos, Dimon, Sinegal you name it. You can do a google search for any top CEOs select a name and add it to the list. They want control they need to own greater than 50%. If your blanket is too short to cover your toes and shoulders the ideal solution is to bend the knees, don't try to grab someone elses blanket :) . Similarly if your funds are too low to gain majority control of a large company buy a smaller one and work up from there. The only reason (that I can think of) to take control of as large a company as possible with limited funds is to maximize personal gains. The larger the company the more management gets paid. 100 million dollar companies don't give CEOS 10 million paycheques Billion Dollar companies do.