Parsad

Slideshow from yesterday for Professor Bruce Greenwald's class: He's got the song Jai Ho by AR Rahman from Slumdog Millionaire playing! ;D Cheers!

Prem and his team have been very nice to set up a bus for us to take people to William Ashley & Sporting Life on Wednesday, April 10th. The bus leaves the Royal York at 1:00pm and arrives back at 3:30pm in time for Norm's Pre-Dinner Gathering. I will also have all of the discounts and surprises for everyone that you would normally get at the AGM the next day, so you will be able to use them on this trip and get a great deal! I need a head count for those going, so please RSVP me at cornerofberkshireandfairfax@gmail.com. Alnesh and I will be going for sure...I've got to get me a box of Teuscher chocolates at William Ashley, as well as stuff from Sporting Life! Cheers and thanks to everyone at Fairfax!

That's so stupid. That company is going to lose more business. Cheers!

Energy Boom Ripples Through U.S. Economy. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/energy-boom-ripples-us-economy-192914084.html;_ylt=AoV3OrknK0JoX9Vry.a9B_WiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQ4cmViMXBjBG1pdANDTkJDIFRvcCBTdG9yaWVzBHBrZwNhZmU1MzUzYi0yMzNjLTM0ZWItOWJmOC00MzRjY2EzZWFiY2YEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgNjZGYxZTg1NC05NTg4LTExZTItYjczOS1jM2UzYWM1NTc4ZDU-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

Again, without any particular comment, other than I find the hypocrisy in this proxy contest to be a complete misjudgment in light of what has come to the fore. Please read Item. 2 and Item. 4...which were never disclosed in any previous filing. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/800286/000114420413017017/v339005_sc13da.htm While I'm no fan of SED's management, I find it difficult to understand how someone can ridicule an incumbent director after their own ethical and personal failures were so poorly documented or disclosed? It seems there are many young men these days, who want to get rich quick and gain notoriety as activists, yet the most basic of ethical behavior eludes them. The losers are the actual shareholders of these companies...from the oven to the deep fryer with executives these days! Cheers!

Comments by Wilbur Ross. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wilbur-ross-long-term-bonds-144336656.html;_ylt=AuHaMBFW84I1beMfeBtlqPiiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQ4a3FicWkyBG1pdANDTkJDIFRvcCBTdG9yaWVzBHBrZwNiYzRmNWMzYy1lYjYzLTNhZjItYmE0Zi04NmY0OWE3MjA1OTgEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgM5ZjQ5ODc3MS05MzAyLTExZTItOGY3Ny00MzE4MDVjM2FmMmI-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

The softer side of Kraven (nod to old Sears advertising). Really, though, your original comment can be called funny (at least by me) because it wasn't directed at anyone personally. The apology - whether or not he's the guy - is cool. I have to say, Kraven, you won a lot of points in my book for your posts some weeks (months) ago about how one of those banking / consulting conferences play out. It was genius. The early workings of a Dilbert. You know, if I have a son, I'm beginning to look at this board for pithy life lessons for the as yet unborn tyke. Wanna go corporate, see Kraven posts. Wanna get into insurance, see twacowcfa. Wanna pull yourself up and do it on your own, read the story of Parsad. Wanna flout the conventional wisdom you'd otherwise be taught at business school (or at least die tyrin'), see my friend Ericopoly. Want some excellent returns and good insights into macro, here's Pakcer. Want to become a lawyer like your grandfather -- fine -- but do what txlaw does. Want to pursue your Italian heritage, how about a summer internship with gio franchi. Feeling a tinge of anarchy -- I've got just the rkbabang for you. Want to see dad put in his place, call ragu. You like Canada -- what's that aboot? O.K. but at least find a girl from Vancouver (if she isn't already an actress in L.A.) and don't tell mom. That's a pretty darn good post there yourself, Kiltacular! Cheers!

Most of the ads I see on this site are based of my google profile activities (searching and gmail) ;) it is kind of scary... i look at the one thing on another page and bam the ads shown here are related, almost instantly... It is very scary. What is stopping the government from tracking the exact same thing? A wonderful, and increasingly weird, world we are living in. Cheers!

It also begs the question...if things are so good and improving in Europe, why would a Euro country resort to such drastic measures? Are they simply playing the North Korea of Europe and bluffing for an easier to implement plan? If so, at what point to other Euro nations get tired of the bluffs from Greece, Cyprus, Spain et al, and say go fu*k yourself! I'm still of the mindset that a monetarily united Europe, is not possible without a fiscally and politically united Europe...we're in the 3rd inning of a 9-inning game over there! Cheers!

Ok, thanks Ross! Seriously great looking spreadsheet when working. Cheers!

Hi Ross, Great idea and looking spreadsheet, but I can't get it to work properly. When I enter the ticker symbols and then go to Main and click "Scan List", it just gives me errors. Anyone having problems? Cheers!

SAC's Plotkin Said To Have Been Tipped By Analyst: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-17/sac-s-plotkin-said-to-have-been-tipped-by-analyst.html Cheers!

They made a terrible mistake. Genie is now out of the bottle regarding confiscation of assets. Something that people other than gold bugs have never thought about before or even possible is now contemplated as a real practical solution by politicians. Markets around the world are now coming down. S&P futures are down 1.1%. 1.1% happens once every week! I remember when markets were down 8% on consecutive days...now that's a shitstorm. Cyprus is the canary in a very small coalmine...investors should get concerned when Italy or Japan contemplate doing the same thing. Cheers!

Elon Musk! ;D Cheers!

Bill Miller had $200 million of Bear Sterns. He gave a short talk the morning of March 14, 2008 explaining why Bear Sterns was a good investment. As he was talking Bear Sterns was crashing. LOL! Yeah, I remember that. Alot of things were crashing, while alot of people were talking in 2008, though. He's long Groupon, so let's see if that was a canary in the coal mine in a year or two. Cheers! Groupon has no long term debt and cant even be compared to bear sterns. If you think groupon dies in a year or two this wont look good for overstock either. Did I say that Groupon dies in a year or two? It was a sarcastic comment about the Bear Stearns interview he did, just like right now he recently said he was long Groupon. Cheers!

Not in the U.S. But I can easily see a 20-25% correction in the U.S. Let me ask the bulls just one question...do we have a central international clearing house for derivatives yet? Some of the black boxes at financial institutions are now transparent, but has the world gotten any clearer about derivatives risk or dark pools of capital? With all of the financial engineering going on around the world right now, do we really know what could happen if China's property prices drop 40-50%? Or if Italy's government bond rates rise 3-4%? Things are much clearer in the U.S., and I've been saying that for the last three years, but I cannot say that with any confidence about the rest of the world. We are still long good, cheap U.S. equities, but we also have a third in cash and we thin out the herd as prices rise to intrinsic value. Cheers! Yup. But I have no restrictions on the amount in any one idea in my personal account. I can go 100% BAC if I want. Whereas we have an internal cap of 25% for the fund. So generally, unless there is an abundance of ideas, cash will always be higher in the fund than my personal account. Cheers!

Bill Miller had $200 million of Bear Sterns. He gave a short talk the morning of March 14, 2008 explaining why Bear Sterns was a good investment. As he was talking Bear Sterns was crashing. LOL! Yeah, I remember that. Alot of things were crashing, while alot of people were talking in 2008, though. He's long Groupon, so let's see if that was a canary in the coal mine in a year or two. Cheers!

Yup, pretty much. Or they know that the system can be dragged out for over a decade, and there is still the possibility it will fail the prosecutors making the case with no financial settlement. Cheers!

Not in the U.S. But I can easily see a 20-25% correction in the U.S. Let me ask the bulls just one question...do we have a central international clearing house for derivatives yet? Some of the black boxes at financial institutions are now transparent, but has the world gotten any clearer about derivatives risk or dark pools of capital? With all of the financial engineering going on around the world right now, do we really know what could happen if China's property prices drop 40-50%? Or if Italy's government bond rates rise 3-4%? Things are much clearer in the U.S., and I've been saying that for the last three years, but I cannot say that with any confidence about the rest of the world. We are still long good, cheap U.S. equities, but we also have a third in cash and we thin out the herd as prices rise to intrinsic value. Cheers!

Smart guy, a few bad decisions. You are only as good as your last game in this business, so he was a hero for 16 years, and then a zero for four more years. I'm not sure public perception means anything, and investors can still learn from him...both successes and failures. Cheers!

Doesn't look like SAC and Steve Cohen's problems are going to disappear anytime soon, even after the record settlement at Sigma. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-16/sac-criminal-probe-may-expand-on-sec-lawsuit-allegations.html

I think you'll both be quite disappointed within the next two years. After that, I suspect we will see another long multi-year bull market. We are only at the beginning stages of the deleveraging in Europe and I think the China bubble has finally popped. The best indicator will be to watch home prices through Asia, Australia and Canada. If you start to see them going down, things will slow down everywhere outside of the U.S. North America will not be immune to the Asian flu, as the recovery has been underway here, but headwinds are coming. That's my macroeconomic prognostications for now! ;D Cheers!

As cute as she is, Mila Kunis has rotated from cash to stocks...she's been studying internet-based stocks! Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mila-kunis-rotates-cash-stocks-112538935.html

We only put 1% of the fund in it...so it was nice, but not life-changing. We don't have kehones (sic) like you Eric! Cheers!

Short, funny article on Berkshire's director fees and how Buffett repays Berkshire for any personal use expenses. And over at Sandridge you had a CEO running his personal accounting through the company for free. Cheers! http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2013/03/15/warren-buffett-pays-bill-gates-1800/?mod=yahoo_hs