Parsad

Pepsi has officially fallen to 3rd, while Diet Coke has climbed to 2nd! Cheers! http://ca.news.yahoo.com/pepsi-slips-no-3-cola-war-20110318-073434-542.html

I think he had to go the two-column route, since the damn thing would have taken up one entire shelf on a bookcase! ;D Cheers!

That was one hell of an investment! Cheers!

Here is an article discussing Robert Wilmers', CEO of M&T Bank, annual letter to shareholders. He discusses how the big six banks need signficantly more regulation. Cheers! http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article368057.ece

I wouldn't disagree about not waiting by the mailbox for a check but didn't the lawsuit include RICO allegations which if upheld would treble the damages to $18 billion? Just to add to your equation. The Overstock suit had RICO charges, but I'm not sure about the Fairfax suit. Cheers!

No Al...you're just ethical and believe that most people are. I think incentives in every industry should be aligned with the interests of the general public. Just like pay packages or hedge fund compensation, why aren't energy industry board members, regulators, etc. required to put up their own assets and reputation behind anything they sign. If every nuclear energy regulator, engineer, worker, etc were required to live on the land next to the plant with their families, I bet accidents would go down to zero, and site engineers would be very careful about where they situate a plant even in the worst case scenario. Nothing instills prudence as putting one's own livelihood or family at stake! Then again, there was Madoff and Hitler! >:( Cheers!

The smart ones know they sound like idiots but they do it any way cuz it means their job. If they do not show pictures of the containment building blowing up every 5 minutes the average viewer will switch to watch American Idol or the hockey game in Parsads case. No, even if things are blowing up, I'll be watching my Canucks play. I can just PVR the stuff blowing up! ;D Cheers!

Here's an article that came out today. Looks like 9 restaurants will be closed in the Southeast. Cheers! http://www.ajc.com/business/hooters-restaurant-in-montgomery-875171.html

I agree Myth. There is no middle ground in this...you either stop it or you contain it...that's it. And you can't build a new building on there, or have 10,000 workers walk the beach picking up globules of oil. No one can live on there for years! You'll have to monitor the radiation levels in the food supply...be it on land or water. The displacement, job loss, business interruption, etc would be pretty big. Already you've got announced delays on vehicles, electronics, etc since parts will be short for the next little while. I'm glad I bought a big screen on Boxing Day, since that huge oversupply on LCD and plasma screens was short-lived! This is not a short-term problem. Cheers!

Here is an article in Globeinvestor.com with Vito Maida of Patient Capital, and who used to work for Hamblin-Watsa in the past. Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/why-this-value-investor-holds-cash-in-a-rising-market/article1944857/

That's my read on the situation so far. The US is way over-reacting which is very irresponsible. It just foments panic in Tokyo, and tends to discredit the Japanese Government which isn't fair. If it was just the U.S., then maybe, but it's also Great Britain, Australia, Germany, South Korea and Canada. This is the last ditch effort with the water and attempt to reconnect power. The helicopters and firetrucks with shielding can't get close enough because radiation levels are so damn high. If they can't keep it cool enough until the power can be reconnected, or if they can't reconnect the power at all, then it's over...meltdown. So I think those country's have a responsibility to their citizens to get them out for their safety, before the possibility of a mass exodus at which point it will be very difficult to get out with millions leaving at the same time. If it ends well and they get control of the reactors, the worst that would have happened is that people left and had to come back...but at least they are safe. Cheers!

Thanks for the video. I had not seen that one. He called it the OJ Simpson trial of the financial world. I would say that between the Overstock.com and Fairfax Financial cases, this will be the biggest story since Madoff. If the jury finds favor for either of those two, then it will be a huge story. Of course, I don't expect Herb Greenberg, Roddy Boyd, Peter Eavis or Bethany McLean to comment much on it! Cheers!

I would think X mile radius. No idea how far, because it would depend on air and water currents. While radiation levels would be elevated...the major problem would be the fear, not just whether the elevated levels ACTUALLY pose any long-term risk. Panic would force the Japanese stock market, financial institutions, factories, etc to close. It would create a massive supply-chain problem and hit a country very hard, whose debt to GDP is already at crazy levels. If that happens, you will see the Nikkei fall 40-50%! Fear of the unknown is much scarier than fear of what is known...and that is what you have happening already. No amount of expert advice will quell that fear, if we see a full blown meltdown with contamination spreading to a metropolis of Tokyo's size. From my chair here, it's a buying opportunity under the worst of sad circumstances. But for the Japanese, it is a complete nightmare...one that wasn't really their fault, but a God-awful act of nature. Cheers!

Worst case scenario...you have contamination and high levels of radiation through Tokyo with mass panic, health issues and enormous business disruption. At the very least, you are going to have elevated levels of contamination through the existing area around the reactors and all of the money and effort it will take to clean-it up. But if you get a full scale meltdown...watch out! Cheers!

Barry Minkow, the ex-con turned pastor, who ran the "Fraud Discovery Institute" seems to be making a plea deal for his insider trading of Lennar Corp. This is just another scum bucket domino I've talked about for the last few years that is falling, along with many others we've seen in the news in the last couple of years...from Spyro Contogouris to John Gwynn...the light is finally shining on their activities. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-16/minkow-in-plea-talks-with-u-s-prosecutors-in-miami-defense-lawyer-says.html There is another very well known ex-con turned reformed criminal who I expect the light to shine on also at some point. This so-called expert actually funded some of Minkow's investigations. Even Whitney Tilson used Minkow's "expertise"! http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=108944 http://www.deepcapture.com/the-ties-that-bind-sam-antar-and-barry-minkow/ As I've said before, how you conduct yourself and who you associate with says alot about a person's character. Cheers!

This reminds me of the oil spill. So much speculation. My prediction is this will all be contained and radiation spread will be minor. It is also, like everyone here, my hope. I truly hope you are proven correct! With the oil spill, you had one well that the world had to deal with. Here you are looking at six reactors offline, with four in the preliminary stages of a full-blown meltdown. On top of that, the ability to access the site, with recurring aftershocks and high levels of radiation, make it difficult to get under control. I think the worst case scenario won't come to fruition, but the ending won't be as comfortable as BP's spill. Cheers!

They are firmly in investment grade territory now! But I would like them to go up a couple more notches. I want Fairfax to be the last company standing when the crap hits the fan, alongside Berkshire Hathaway! Cheers!

As I've always said, this is hands-down the best biography on Berkshire and Buffett. Andy was really the first author/journalist to print something positive about Fairfax and Prem, exactly at the point when so many were doubting Prem's integrity. He printed it in a book completely about BUFFETT! Can you imagine the sacrilege since several managers who walked and talked the Buffett/Graham line were actually shorting the stock. When I talk about the great, ethical investment managers I know, I should always include Andy as one of the nicest and most ethical authors I know. He's a class act! I asked Andy for permission, and he has graciously allowed me to attach PDF's of the 2011 cover and 1st chapter. Enjoy! Cheers!

Looks they were allowed back to work on cooling the rods. Although, unless the U.S. or others have any other ideas, these seem to be last-ditch efforts before contamination. Cheers! http://ca.news.yahoo.com/fire-japan-nuclear-reactor-heightens-radiation-20110315-171920-237.html

Aren't the Japanese the most advanced on robotic technology? Don't they have any robots that could be sent in there to continue the work? We have frickin' unmanned drones, robots that build cars, and robots that detonate explosive devices. We don't have any sort of robot that could be controlled remotely in this type of situation? Cheers!

No, I think it's because of Buffett double-speak...do as I say, not as I do! As many people have said, and often these people are lynched for their comments, but Buffett does say certain things and does the opposite. What should concern Berkshire investors slightly, is the fact that he said that when the credit crisis hit, even Berkshire would have gone down if the government didn't intervene. It would have been last, but it probably would have gone down also as he stated. Thus, even Buffett would have been a very smart person who went down because of leverage and dominoes. Cheers!

What happened to the 50 technicians who stayed on to try and get them under control? Is a meltdown imminent now? Cheers!

...In The World Ripe For Discounting. Interesting little article on Overstock and some of their new website experiments. Cheers! http://emoney.allthingsd.com/20110315/overstock-says-no-shortage-of-inventory-in-the-world-thats-ripe-for-discounting/?reflink=ATD_yahoo_ticker

Someone has changed their tone in a few days. I hope you are right. I didn't say that it is guaranteed. Just that there is a distinct possibility. It will all depend on the total overall impact of the insurance losses relative to industry capital. The original estimates were relatively low compared to the amount of excess capital in the industry. That number has ballooned over the last couple of days to the $35B number by AIR. That is only earthquake losses, and not tsunami-related or business-interruption losses. The number I heard this morning on Bloomberg was that the actual total impact could be $200B, but how much of that will impact insurance directly is another matter and too early to tell. You can watch the interview below with Willis Group's Joe Plumeri. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/video/67649402/

Cash is like a stock. Right now it's cheap so I'm borrowing it, if it was expensive I'd sell it. Remember what Buffett said about leverage: "If you're smart, you don't need it. And if you're dumb, you've got no business using it!" Cheers!