bargainman

Well one reason I think they can't just buy google or apple stock is their monopolistic history. People would be crying foul if they tried to buy those 2 in particular, although I wonder if they still own the Apple stock they bought back when Steve Jobs first came back to Apple. That said I did comment about this on a thread a long time ago, in particular I found it odd that Bill Gates, being on BRK's board didn't push MSFT in this direction..

Thanks, I think it was Dash, and I didn't mean a literal shouting match, sorry. I remember Sardar coming out at the most inopportune time and stating he and BH had nothing to do with the Denny proxy fight or Dash. I think I was confusing them. Are Dash and Biglari associated in any way? There was the whole Enhance Denny's committee no? Here is a reference to the 'shouting match' I was referring to: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Biglari-name-invoked-in-Denny-s-proxy-fight-793095.php Oh here is something else I just found: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dennys-Stays-in-the-tsmp-3988930977.html?x=0 "Jonathan Dash of Dash Acquisitions, a member of the committee, has also been involved in three other restaurant activist campaigns: Friendly's, Western Sizzlin and Steak n Shake, all of which have involved current Steak n Shake CEO Sardar Biglari. Dash has also been on the board of Western Sizzlin and consulted to Steak n Shake in recent years."

Oh goodness! I thought you might be talking about the professional wrestler!!! On that note, sadly Randy "Macho man" Savage died the other day... RIP Randy...

Didn't Bigs and Linnartz get into a shouting match over the Denny's activist deal? Or am I remembering incorrectly? I also remember Linnartz giving a less than stellar interview about why you should vote for their side on the Denny's proxy.. I think it was Dennys, but I'm having a hard time remembering the details.

Mindshare is certainly one thing.. but there's another. That's servers, hardware, and algorithms. Bing still doesn't do as good a job as Google as far as I've seen and MSFT has thrown billions into it. Google by some estimates has more than a million servers. I think the only companies with as many are Amazon and MSFT. But MSFT's servers aren't as focused on search. In order to do search well you need many many servers all over the world with cheap energy close by to power them. It's at the stage where infrastructure matters.

Interesting that most of the replies here are about buying options. Personally I sell options more than I buy them, probably because I'm more conservative. But if I want leverage I do buy leaps. Selling Puts is a great way to get paid while waiting for a stock to hit your buy price. Selling calls is a great way to get paid while waiting for your sell price. But they are both low payout high risk scenarios, but that's offset by high probability profits, so it's all about what you want out of your investing. Generally if I want unlimited upwards potential I buy the stock, then maybe some leaps. But for monthly income selling puts or calls (in an unleveraged manner suits me).

Sorry, what does Sears Canada have to do with anything?

More than anything this whole thing is very very sad. Sokol was considered a hero, one of the brightest stars of many stars, but still. He was the CEO heir apparent. It's kind of sad that BRK and Buffett is going after him now, and it's even sadder that Sokol dropped the ball on something so stupid. I'm not sure if it was an honest mistake or not, probably not, but the letter lays out a number of assumptions. Like it says, this is a potential gray area, and BRK wants to play in the middle of the court, but it's turning ugly for something in the gray area. Sokol definitely did put in 'indefatigable efforts' in the past and he did create tremendous shareholder value. He was Buffett's go to guy to fix things over and over again, everyone here and everywhere else was singing his praises until a few weeks ago. Everyone here is going to side with Buffett for sure and that's fine. But after reading Snowball it's 100% clear that Buffett is no saint either. The fact that he's taking no responsibility for not having asked Sokol more about his share ownership kind of bugs me. He made a big assumption that the ownership was just benign, I'm not sure it's fair to place that entirely on Sokol, although Sokol should shoulder the majority of the blame. It's clear Buffett wants to make an example of Sokol. It's very sad to see a star get demolished like this... (now I'm sure I'll get flamed for this by all the Buffett groupies... but remember I am a Buffett groupie too.. so be gentle :-) )

Swizzled, why would you say this? "I just can't make myself invest in oil companies when I see $100 oil prices" given the conclusions you outline it seems contradictory...

So we all know that there are smart people on both the inflation and deflation side of the debate/trade. My question to those here is... Being that I'm just a small investor and have no idea what the economy will do from a deflation inflation standpoint, what are some investments that will do well in *either* scenario?? Would love to hear anyone's ideas..

Well Sanjeev, I take it you read the snippet from the latest annual letter right?? Looks like they're coming around... "While our primary objective is to expand our insurance and reinsurance operations worldwide, our investing skills could provide us with opportunities to buy, in whole or in part, excellent companies in other industries which generate strong free cash flows and will contribute to our objective of achieving a 15% per year increase in book value per share over the long term. For entrepreneurial founders who have built their companies over long periods of time, Fairfax will be an excellent owner, allowing the founders to continue to run their business, unfettered by the head office, and we are open to these opportunities."

Hmmm.. Maybe this is the only way to 'regulate'.. The companies that are attacked and survive have to sue and fight back. I say this after having read that recent rollingstone article about the unbelievably cozy relationship between the SEC and the investment banks (presumably also the Hedge funds).. I guess the SEC would rather go after big criminals like Martha Stewart than after bankers..

Here's something worth reading regarding what Sanjeev said about the Chinese influx: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/real-estate/Chinese+investment+surge+hits+Metro+Vancouver+housing+market/4352746/story.html Couple that with what Prem said about the bubble in Chinese real estate... And for your amusement let's bring back the classics... Always good for a few minutes of play time.. http://www.crackshackormansion.com/ http://www.crackshackormansion.com/part2.html

Wow that's brutal, I can't believe they just took the $10,000 and refused to address the problem!... What's more brutal is that the comptroller didn't do anything about it. I just reminds you how small we are vs the giant corporate entities. That's probably why I'm paranoid and have accounts in 10 or more institutions..

This doesn't sound good. http://www.cnbc.com/id/41644085 This just sounds very strange... http://www.cnbc.com/id/41645307/ Can't say I've had good customer service experiences with WFC myself...

Wow. Well it looks like Joe's ex CEO is walking away with almost 8 million bucks. But from the comments about 'going around the globe to find partners to develop the land', maybe Bruce's earlier statement might become real... “When industry comes, which it will, to the area, because that area is in an aerospace corridor, it’s going to be one of the best places to live and work in Florida,” Mr. Berkowitz said in a Feb. 9 interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I want it to be a metropolis. I’m not just talking about a vacation community.”

There's another manager out there, sometimes mentioned on this board, who could certainly use that piece of 'advice'.

Here's some more info: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-02/st-joe-climbs-as-quarterly-loss-narrows-on-lower-land-impairment-charges.html Greene’s severance package includes more than $4.3 million in cash and benefits plus 128,681 shares of stock and six years insurance coverage for potential lawsuits, the company said in a regulatory filing yesterday. He earned $2.8 million in 2009, when the company reported a loss of $130 million on revenue of $138 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 130 million loss on revenue of 138 million! And the guy gets paid 2.8 million! jeesh!

Hmm.. sounds like a less than astounding victory... http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2011/03/01/greene-to-get-4m-st-joe-severance.html Wish I could lose 100+ Million a year then get kicked out and get a $4 million bonus, uh severance package! jeesh!!!

What do you mean by mark to air? Are you talking about the same strategy Singleton of Teledyne used.. issue high priced stock to get cheaper assets?

You'll want to pick up Tim Ferris's book "4 hour work week" or check out his website. He's a piece of work in some ways, but leads a very interesting life and advocates for mini retirements, which is what it sounds like you're doing. http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/

I'm surprised that all the directors didn't leave.. maybe he needed some to stay for continuity...

Thanks for giving me this very nice piece of advice. My wife and I actually have been thinking about this for sometime and there are several aspects of it make me undecided. One aspect is, of course, will we have enough assets? We live in Taiwan, where the living cost is somewhat lower than the States, so this part is much easier. However, what makes her uneasy is to have me being a fulltime "home maker." Here the society values "corporate titles" very much. When I told my wife I think I should eventually quit my job and manage our investment full time, my wife actually wanted me to form a small company, a small investment partnership, so that I can: 1) keep the "going-to-work everyday" routine and have a job title and 2) keep relatives from thinking I am lazy to retire when I am 45. I wonder whether other members who work for oneself full time have to fight this stereotype or not. What will you suggest me do? Quit worrying what everyone else thinks and do what makes you happy. I was laid off at the end of last year from a good job and used my extra free time to travel all of SE Asia, Japan, HK, and Bali for several months. Friends thought i was nuts. "Who does that?"But it was probably the best time i have ever had and I made great lifelong friends! Glad i didn't listen to them or worry about what they thought. Zippy It's clear that you care about what your wife thinks, and thank goodness for that! So i don't really subscribe to the comment about "quit worrying what everyone else thinks" since clearly her opinion is important to you. The idea of doing what makes *you* happy is a good one, but also seems to me to be more of a north american western individualistic concept that doesn't pervade all societies, and certainly not a lot of Asian societies. So ultimately there are actions and consequences and the most important thing is for you to be happy with the consequences ( and perceived ones, since maybe they wouldn't be what you think they would be. Often times we fear doing something, then after we do it we realize our fear was just in our heads, or our spouse's heads). You already have spelled out what you think the consequences will be, the question is whether you can live with them? that's only a decision you can make. In other words if you take advice from a board member that says "do what makes you happy", and the thought of other people close to you thinking bad of you doesn't make you happy, well then you should ignore the part about "quit worrying what others think" :-)

That is funny! I was also quite amused at the talk of Whole Foods in a Sears store! I mean Whole Foods? really? I guess it makes sense in that it's SHLD's answer to Target and Walmart's "supermarket in a store"? Kind of reminds me of was it la Quinta hotels? The famous Peter Lynch investment that decided to drop their hotel restaurant (hotel restaurants are almost always money losing parts of the business) in favor of providing space for a Dennys (I think it was Dennys). Definitely an interesting move. Lampert rarely talks about focus on giving customers the cheapest goods, always about delivering customer service, which makes me think Whole foods kind of fits into that strategy? Will be interesting to see how it plays out...

I was just thinking about that today! Basically sounds like someone throwing popcorn from the bleachers if you will. If he has an issue with these things he should become more involved politically. Maybe he is, who knows? The 'opinion' about Amazon not collecting taxes vs SHLD and others having to also sounded like an opinion piece. I mean if it's important to the business and I believe it is, there should be a call to action or a description of the actions that SHLD is or has taken no? But I do agree that his political opinions are kind of weak and out of place in an annual letter.