Parsad

<i>But, the best predictor of success in life is IQ. Multiply a 20 point IQ deficit across a billion people and you end up with a lot of needy people. They drain the resources that would otherwise go towards funding infrastructure and investment. Taxes go up and wealth gets redistributed.</i> Again, that's rubbish! Buffett and Munger have high IQ's, but Buffett has said numerous times that he would not be successful if he had been born to parents in Bangladesh and would have probably ended up as a Lion's meal if born in parts of Africa. I would suggest that the differentials you are seeing in IQ's is because of the lack of infrastructure, resources and low per capita income...not the other way around. If you level the playing field in terms of access to resources, you change the outcome...combat corruption and create a free-market system, and the citizens will flourish. What was Singapore's IQ like before Lee Kuan Yew took the country in a new direction? How did China become the global colossal it has become? Were U.S. patriots any more intelligent than their British compatriots...but what have we seen happen over 240 years? Cheers!

Buffett responded to Trump calling him out during the debate: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161010005859/en/Tax-Facts-Donald-Trump Cheers!

Absolute rubbish! And a very damaged way of thinking intellectually. Martin Van Blerk, who runs the Baobab Fund out of Botswana (IQ 70), has found plenty of opportunties for his fund. Michael Lee Chin, who used to run AIC Funds, and instead plowed a billion dollars into his home country of Jamaica (IQ 71), has done very well for himself. Tata, Ambani, Khosla, etc...have made riches in India and other parts of the world, and plowed money back into India. These are just a handful of thousands of examples I could give you! Cheers!

I think there was a little more to it than that! But either way, serious question, who do you consider the most successful businessmen since you think innovation is such a key part of that title? I feel like every super successful businessman that I've ever looked into inevitably "copied" their idea from somewhere else. Very good point. I feel the others are successful businessmen as well as innovators, while he's only successful in business. I wasn't calling him a failure. Simply overrated (and he's rated very highly in general, so overrated is not as much as an insult as it may appear). I'm not sure how Musk is any more of an innovator than Jobs. The electric car existed long before Musk came along...in fact electric cars have been around since the late 1800's! SpaceX and Solar City aren't new ideas...he's just executing in a different way than others in the past. Bezos did not invent online retailing...there were many online retailers before Amazon. Even Bill Gates stole Windows from Jobs' NEXT operating system to forge Windows dominance in the PC OS market. I have a hard time understanding how someone who created arguably the most profitable company in the world today is not innovative when his products are ubiquitous and user-friendly. Cheers!

Jobs is so overrated. His accomplishment was mainly making a huge marketing machine (while most people believe him to be an innovator, he's not in the slightest). Gates, Musk and Bezos are indeed close. The only reason smartphones and tablets are as ubiquitous as they are is because of Jobs. The design, utility and functionality of the iPhone is what forced other manufacturers to step up their game. When I first used the original iPhone, it was light years ahead of the competition...only now, 9 years later have other manufacturers started producing comparable devices...and the best competitor, the Samsung 7, was recalled for exploding and catching fire! Jobs was not an engineer, but he understood design better than one. Today, his company is the most profitable company in the world, with arguably the strongest balance sheet...how over-rated is he again? Cheers! Because the above is false. Ipod wasn't new and Iphone wasn't either. Similar devices were on the market years before. With some combination of skill and luck Jobs got people to buy it by the millions. I wonder who will take Google glasses, rebrand it and pretend to be an innovator. Did I say that the smartphone didn't exist before jobs, or did I say that he took the smartphone and made it relevant through design, utility and functionality? Think of the products that he created that forged the environment we are now in: - The Apple Computer - The Apple II - The Mac - Macbook - Ipod - Iphone - Ipad - Itunes - Applepay...yes on Cook's watch, but you knew this was coming and was thought of at Apple long ago. Not too mention all of the other Apple products, the insane cash flow at the company or the culture created there. Cheers!

Jobs is so overrated. His accomplishment was mainly making a huge marketing machine (while most people believe him to be an innovator, he's not in the slightest). Gates, Musk and Bezos are indeed close. The only reason smartphones and tablets are as ubiquitous as they are is because of Jobs. The design, utility and functionality of the iPhone is what forced other manufacturers to step up their game. When I first used the original iPhone, it was light years ahead of the competition...only now, 9 years later have other manufacturers started producing comparable devices...and the best competitor, the Samsung 7, was recalled for exploding and catching fire! Jobs was not an engineer, but he understood design better than one. Today, his company is the most profitable company in the world, with arguably the strongest balance sheet...how over-rated is he again? Cheers!

Bezos created something that affects virtually every person in the U.S. in a positive way. No one else on the list has really done anything on that level. E.g., I respect Watsa, but he's just doing his investment thing, and that mostly only impacts shareholders. I would also have put Gates ahead of Bezos if I had the choice, echoing some others. Biglari should not even be on the list! If you include Biglari, then you should be including Mohnish or Allan Meecham...both haven't screwed over their partners either...so they would be well ahead of Biglari. Actually Trump and Biglari should be on the same list...not on this one. Cheers!

I'd say Gates is pretty successful. Build huge company. Build huge wealth. Build huge foundation. Help cure disease all over the world. Improve millions of lives. Not bad. Without a doubt, Bill Gates would be above all of those guys...and not by a little bit. Sam Walton would even rank higher than all of them! And Prem ranks below Donald Trump...c'mon, you've got to be kidding me. Cheers!

Yeah, it's some sort of software glitch. I haven't subscribed to any notifications, yet I get randomn ones from time to time. Software updates over time should correct it. Thanks!

If you have to choose one, go to Omaha. You should hear Buffett & Munger at least once in person, and see what they've built. We're not going anywhere at the Fairfax dinner, so you can always come the following year. Prem is also still quite young and in very good shape, so you'll definitely be able to hear him for many more years! :) Cheers!

<I>Regarding the other critique by RichardGibbons. You're right, I responded too impatient, irritated and cynical. Luckyly for me Jurgis comes to the rescue to show why I'm getting tired of (what appeared to me) another person wroshipping Keynsianism blindly. Look at his post:</I> Guys, please stop with the posts specifically targeting any one individual. Feel free to use their quote, but avoid personal attacks in your rebuttal. Otherwise I have to start deleting posts and threads! Cheers!

No. Outside of inflated tech stocks, equities are still appealing compared to the alternatives, so betting against stocks at the moment may not be the best idea. Question is, and there is ample ammunition for this line of thought, is there an exogenic event that would cause yields to go back to much more sensible levels? The world is an economic powder keg at the moment...is someone or something going to light a match? If yes, then staying out of most asset classes is a good idea. If not, then stocks will continue to prove more appealing. That being said, I do know of one asset class that provides equity-like yields with zero correlation to other asset classes. In fact, an exogenic event would have little or no effect on this asset...insurance-linked securities! Why every pension fund, endowment, family office and large hedge fund isn't allocating a portion of their capital into it, I don't know?! But it exists! www.sequantre.com Cheers!

I don't hate my investors. I hate the fact that for some of them, their emotional constitution gets far better of them than their rational side. I would surmise that if and when the smoke clears, many will be kissing his ass again. People had the same comment back in 2007/2008 about him when the fund was down 70%. I know of very few managers (cannot even count them on one hand) that continued to manage their fund after such a loss and recoup those losses for his partners. Munger would be the only comparable I could bring forth. Pabrai could have easily taken the much-followed route of shutting his fund down and then start a new one in 2009 like many investment managers did. No need to try and get back up to a high watermark...but he didn't and he made every penny back. Most managers cannot beat the markets long-term. I just think that the assumption that those that did for many years are suddenly poor investors or incapable of doing so is shortsighted. With an operating company, there are no expectations to manage. The capital is captive and you can take a very long-term view. The operating manager can look stupid for many years until proven right...think Prem and his deflation bet. Far easier than managing a fund where investors can pull capital on you whenever they get scared or start to second-guess your abilities. Cheers!

To be fair, and I'll admit I'm not very familiar with Chou, his letter doesn't inspire much confidence. The section on Valeant is almost cringeworthy reading. It reads like it was written by an 18-year-old college student who fancies themself an "investor"... LOL! I can assure you that Chou is the type of investment manager that Buffett would not hesitate to hire. He once said that he was looking for someone like Peter Cundill...well Chou embodies everything that Cundill was about. If Berkshire shareholders had no clue who Ajit Jain was, it is likely they would not hire the man who has made more money than anyone outside of Buffett for Berkshire. Cheers!

I think investor expectations are so f**king wacky that investors themselves don't know what they are talking about. Buffett hasn't beaten the indices over the last 7 years...is he suddenly retarded? Not good enough? A has been? Apparently Chou, Pabrai and Watsa don't know what they are doing anymore! I've made money for my partners since May of 2006...beating the indices over those years by about 3.5% annualized...that's the top 1% of money managers during that span. Even this year, we are up 9% for the first half, while the market is up 3%, but I've got a partner who is pulling some money because I don't report often enough or consistently enough. I suppose they would prefer if I expounded on the markets, macroeconomics, stock picks and all of the other value investing bullshit you could put into a letter, instead of making money for them and working my ass off! Incidentally, that 9% is on a portfolio holding about 45% PDH which hasn't moved...so I've returned about 18% at June 30th on half of the portfolio I could allocate into ideas. Again, it must be time to part ways with me, since I have no f**king clue what I'm doing. Maybe Francis should be put out to pasture with me...Pabrai too...he's really sucking ass right now. Anyone else you guys can think of that are poor performers? Cheers!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2016/08/29/young-hedge-fund-manager-cracks-the-private-equity-code-small-stocks-and-leverage/#4d5d2aaf4147 Cheers!

You guys have it a bit mixed up. They are exchanging the converts. Total dollar amount of the convertible position remains the same. Cheers!

Great article on Doris Buffett (Warren's sister) and her philanthropy through the Sunshine Lady Foundation. They are looking for volunteers in the Boston area. Cheers! http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/08/13/meet-doris-buffett-warren-sister-she-wants-your-help-spending-her-brother-billions/aEc47mXfoSeRkTgal5FgvK/story.html

I take issue with this statement. While I see what you mean in terms of technological development, advances in certain fields, etc., it's estimated that millenials will be the first generation in a long while to NOT be better off than their parents on average. My nieces, nephews, their friends are all millenials. They are all in a better position than I was at their age. While cost of housing is higher for all of them, they have better quality jobs, benefits and prospects than I did. They have cheaper access to capital. They have better medical, dental and general healthcare. They have better access to information, technology, air travel and personal freedoms. Their mixed race friends that are couples don't face past prejudices and their gay friends don't worry about being beaten while walking home at night. Expenses outside of housing are actually generally more affordable than in past generations such as food costs, utility costs, automobile costs, etc. Millenials are graduating in a world that demands they go to college at an exorbitant cost, take on tens of thousands in debt to do so, to be eligible for jobs that are highly competitive and barely pay better than the $15/hr demanded by fast food workers who don't need degrees, just so they can become "contributing members of society"/tax payers which means they are immediately on the hook for carrying the rest of the country with their income taxes by taking. The United States, as well as Canada, actually has more opportunity in science, technology, healthcare today than any other period in the last 50 years. With the boomers retiring en masse, millenials will have access to a dearth of jobs as teachers, police officers, doctors, dentists and especially tradespeople. My nieces and nephews are all leaving university or college with jobs or decent prospects. Further, tax rates are at historical lows while deficit and debt are at historic highs. Any millennial with a brain can see that the likely trajectory in taxes is up even while the likely trajectory of benefits for our generation is down (social security being nonviable, growing health care costs to be carried publicly, deleveraging of public balance sheet at some point given the 100k/tax payer balance at the moment, etc.). This is true. Doesn't negate the higher quality of life they will enjoy and the longevity that will exceed ours. Millenials are looking at more debt (personal and public), higher taxes, more expensive housings/cars/etc., lower social benefits, lower incomes, and lower investment returns going forward. On top of that, very little of this was their fault (other than maybe student loan balances). This is all the consequences of decisions made by those representing their parents and grand parents. Disagree on the lower social benefits, lower incomes and lower investment returns. The last five years were some of the best returns the market has ever seen and it won't be the last. Millenials are also about to benefit from the largest transfer of wealth in history as they inherit from their parents and grandparents. Sure we have smartphones and computers are ubiquitous. It's still hard for me to see how that makes up for a lot of the above and can definitely understand why the younger generation is pissed off and supporting non-traditional candidates like Bernie and Trump. If you watch old episodes of "All in the Family" or "Good Times", you would think that the world would have run out of food by 1999 and that domestic political turmoil/protests/riots would never end. The country goes through cycles, where bombastic candidates like Trump fuel voter's fears, and the country has gone through a period of turmoil, either economic or political, including unsuccessful foreign policy. This is a replay of the late 60's and early 70's. A generation that thought things would never get better, yet they had one of the greatest periods of success in history...the Boomers! The Millenials may worry in the same way, but everything points to them having as good a life or better in the future. Cheers!

I've refrained from putting anything political on here, as such posts always end up in a flurry of rhetoric, but this one really made me laugh. I love Wilbur Ross the investor, but if Americans want to know (do they even really care?) what the rest of the world is looking at and the perspective they have on what is happening in this U.S. election, this is all you need: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/video/wilbur-ross-trump-joking-khan-114100665.html No real way to defend Trump's comments on the Khan family, but even poor Wilbur gives it a go! This oomphaloompa is so close to being the next President, even right-wing conservatives in Canada can't believe what is happening. I know, I know...Hillary sucks...and I agree! But really, you guys are contemplating giving the keys to Trump? Every single person on this message board today, is living better than the previous generation, yet the fear this guy is permeating makes many Americans think they are still stuck in the middle of the Great Depression or in the midst of World War II. I'm willing to bet that almost everyone on this board is living better than they did even 8 years ago! Yeah, I know you guys can't stand Hillary, but don't give the keys to this raging lunatic who contradicts everything Americans and the rest of the world holds true. And stop trying to explain what he REALLY meant when the crap comes flowing out of his mouth...not worth the effort or the self-denigration! Cheers!

For someone who likes to hold themselves to lofty ethical standards, he sure had some unethical tactics in how he tackled his fraud thesis on Fairfax Financial. I'm glad he doesn't mind what people think of him, as I've always felt he had the characteristic odor of what I sometimes wipe off the bottom of my shoe! A blast from the past that the rest of my life can do perfectly fine without. That being said, many people on this board became incredibly wealthy betting against Hempton, Eavis, Greenberg, Chanos, Gwynn and the rest of the FFH shorts. Cheers!

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated! Have 4th of July to my American compatriots! All the best, Sanjeev

Hi Guys, Yeah, there was an update by Watermelon Webworks and the banner is blocking a bit of the message board on iPhones and Blackberry. They are working on it this weekend and everything should look back to normal after the weekend. Thanks! Sanjeev

Coremark report on Fairfax India...good read. Cheers! FIH_Initiation_2016-06-10.pdf

He was my father's favorite boxer and in many people's minds, one of the great generational athletes, but Muhammad Ali passed away at 74. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/muhammad-ali--simply--the-greatest---dead-at-74-042902069.html