Parsad

It was most definitely a subtle jab. Read the exchange again here: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/whoa-battle-of-oligarchs-warren-buffett.html By the way, try and ignore the "Snorgtee" girl in the bikini on the right...it was hard for me to do, but I managed! Cheers!

14.45% annualized since 1974 is pretty solid, though many have done much better. http://www.centman.com/investment-strategies/cm-value-i-all-cap-value/performance Many? You will struggle to come up with more than 5, maybe 10. Even if you would come up with 50 it will still make them a Superinvestor. They will certainly rank in the top 0.1% of the fund population. Great notes!! +1! Cheers!

Maybe Buffett was just talking about selling shoes! ;D Not sure the email is clarification. Cheers! http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/11/06/warren-buffett-purple-shoes-jack-welch/?source=yahoo_quote

A man died at the poll, was revived with CPR and then asked "Did I vote?", once he came back from the dead! ;D True story. Cheers! http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/michigan-man-dies-during-early-voting-revives-makes-225724476.html

I think Welch is going to have to get GE to buy him some more toilet paper and bulbs for his house...since you know Obama's going to ruin America and force Welch to buy his own. Poor bugger! :o Cheers!

WEM lost his marbles or just trolling? Neither - it was a wickedly funny takedown of (presumed) self-interested fear-mongering. Yeah, I don't think anyone got it except Welch himself, and that's why he said "I may have said that, but I don't remember." It was pretty funny! Cheers!

Canadian investment legend, Stephen Jarislowsky, is stepping down from the CEO position at his firm. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-06/jarislowsky-to-step-down-from-helm-of-money-manager.html

Article on how WFC is focusing on expanding their corporate banking business in Canada. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-06/wells-fargo-makes-canada-top-priority-in-international-expansion.html

Buffett calls in to ask Welch a question. Cheers! http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000127240&play=1

So he has this confidence of being an imagined important person that isn't born from his own competence. - Ericopoly 2012 That was so good, I'm going to use that in the future at some point. Cheers!

Rogue Apple trade went sour. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-05/rochdale-said-to-be-in-advanced-rescue-talks-after-apple-trades.html

Amusing article on the world's obsession of formulating Buffett's brain within a fund! Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mind-games-finance-pros-keep-022100543.html;_ylt=AjcemAXPi_UbC_VH6yly3JGiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTNyczdrczJsBG1pdANGUCBUb3AgU3RvcnkgTGVmdARwa2cDOGU0NzI3YzItMDBmOC0zN2NmLWEwZjUtZTNkYWM4NzAyYzY0BHBvcwMzBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzI0YmUzNjYwLTI3NjItMTFlMi1iYzcyLTcxZmJlNGE0ZjRiMw--;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

In dollar terms that is. Anyway, here's an article from Bloomberg. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-05/berkshire-s-cash-nears-record-as-buffett-extends-elephant-hunt.html?cmpid=yhoo

The Munger Bust went for $7,600 and the Lunch With Mohnish went for $18,100. Way to go Mohnish...great for Dakshana! Cheers!

To be fair those deals are a lot less scarce than distressed businesses. That's where management comes into play: when to hold cash and wait versus when to invest it in less-than-ideal ventures. I think a great acquisition would be Chou Associates! ;D Prem should buy out Francis and bring him back into the Fairfax fold. We all know that the money management business is spectacular if done right, and bringing Francis back in means that Francis can just grow the money management business for Fairfax. You still have the Hamblin-Watsa team focusing on investments for Fairfax. This way, Francis' business will never have to worry about succession for his family, and you bring another younger, quality, ethical manager back into Fairfax to take over as the Hamblin-Watsa principals retire over time...if they so choose! Because other than Peter Furlan and Paul Ianni, I don't know of any other young analysts at Fairfax who could just step up and fill some shoes. I'm sure there are a couple, but I don't know who they are. Wayne Cadawallader is running his own fund, so they probably need to find a Justin Wheeler type or people they already know. Paul Rivett is quite young and he's in good shape, and if you combine that with Francis, and add another person...Tim McElvaine comes to mind...I think you've got a good team for another generation. Anyway, I thought I would throw that out there just to stir up some trouble for head office! ;D Cheers!

They should institute the same rule here. If longs have to report, then shorts should too. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/49655827

Thanks Cofabmd! Just a terrific article on Bill and Kennedy Wilson! Bill has been at our dinner for the last two years. Mary Ricks also came with him at the first dinner he came to. I know plenty of you have looked at and are invested in Bank of Ireland, so I thought I would expand this thread by starting a bit of a discussion. I really like Richie Boucher, CEO of Bank of Ireland and who also was at our dinner last year, and I'm keen on investing in Ireland, but I'm struggling with their business...still a ton of risk. If you look at page 27 of their June 30th financials, they are really, really underfunded on their loan loss portfolio. I mean there is potential for half of their equity to be wiped out easily: http://www.bankofireland.com/fs/doc/publications/investor-relations/interim-report-20121.pdf In my opinion, they need to deleverage a hell of alot faster than the timeline they've given themselves. They probably need to be selling assets left, right and centre like Moynihan was doing at BAC. Please feel free to give me your opinions, because I think this is an intriguing investment, but it's priced based on the amount of risk around it...I'm still not sure it's cheap enough! Cheers!

You guys have only about four hours left if you want to get in on either of these! Cheers! http://www.ebay.com/itm/121001990415?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 http://www.ebay.com/itm/121002008088?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Yeah, I'd like to really see how they valued this, and then compare it on an apple-to-apple comparison in terms of Inditex's normalized P/E, cash flows, etc relative to Berkshire's. Cheers! Sure, Inditex has always been expensive (the lowest P/E in the last 5 years was ~15) and right now I'd much rather own BRK. But it is an impressive achievement nonetheless for the son of a railway worker born just before the Spanish Civil War and who had to leave school when he was 14. You'll agree that being the son of a US Congressman and attending Ben Graham's classes at Columbia is a much better starting position. Oh no, I totally agree with you. Phenomenal achievement! I just hate these annual rankings, because often one person's investment is inflated due to stock price relative to earnings or a bubble in their industry, and the valuation is briefly elevated to obscene levels. Cheers!

If you can't find a $20B idea, sometimes you just have to go with forty $500M ideas! ;D Cheers!

Yeah, I'd like to really see how they valued this, and then compare it on an apple-to-apple comparison in terms of Inditex's normalized P/E, cash flows, etc relative to Berkshire's. Cheers!

While there's room to debate whether the restaurants are shitholes or not, it's absolutely clear that the industry is a shit-industry. There are thousands of participants, extremely low barriers to entry and cut-throat competition. These chain restaurants continuously face pressure on their margins from every little immigrant-run eatery that pops up. While there may be room for both the chains and the immigrant restaurants, clearly this is a shitty place to try to make good money. But, I guess that's consistent with FFH's primary business of P&C insurance, which is also a highly competitive (shitty!) industry where there's little potential to build a moat. SJ As far as I know, the top 25% of restaurant chains returned 279% from 2001 to 2011. The median of restaurant chains returned 113%. The S&P500 returned 33%. “The most valuable business in the world are brand royalty businesses that can grow without capital investment” Bill Ackman on the new Burger King franchise business model. Maybe, Imvescor is not the case, but surely there are some fast-food restaurant chains that are valuable businesses! giofranchi Oh for sure! The restaurant business is a great business to buy into if you can find quality chains at distressed prices. Steak'n Shake was an amazing find and turn around. A restaurant chain I would have loved to see Fairfax buy before they sold their underperforming Golden Corral unit was Frisch's. Frisch's has somewhat saturated their market, but they are well known and faithfully busy. You wouldn't be able to expand the franchise significantly but its burger business is a cash cow. They sold the Golden Corral chain for $50M and paid out a $9.50 dividend to shareholders. Someone could have bought this chain at about $18-19 share, did the same thing making back $50M, and then just held on to the the burger business. Nope, no one bought it! Cheers!

hmm..not exactly sure why he'd want this company. I'm sure Buffett and his family have been buying stuff from there for a long time and they know the history of the business. No way of knowing unless we could see some financials. Cheers!

Yeah, I still don't know what really went down. Larry Pitkowsky and Keith Trauner left because of Fernandez, right? But did Fernandez leave because of a personal riff between him and Bruce? Or was the whole blowup about BB's lack of portfolio "diversification"? I think Fernandez felt the ship was going down, and he wasn't the captain. Either that, or he tripped and fell out of the "Fairholme" boat as it ran aground. ;D Cheers! we don't know what happened. but the stress must have been unbearable on those two. that was the point of maximum pessimism. if you would have bought fairx that day you would be sitting very pretty. I think it was probably Berkowitz's fault partially. You've worked with two analysts for years, and suddenly you go all buddy-buddy with your new brother-in-law, buy him a house and move him in next door, and then expect his temperament to be about the same as your own. The analysts leave, and then buddy realizes he's not cut out for this...bye! Cheers!

Or hire Ron Insana. I think Insana Capital Partners is looking for another home after the wipeout four years ago. Cheers!