Parsad

Happy New Year everyone! May 2013 raise your portfolios 100%. ;D Thanks for all your contributions to the board! Cheers!

I have to apologize to Shane from Farnamstreet regarding this! His email ended up in my spambox, and I did not see it until now. He has transcribed Munger's 2008 Lecture at Caltech: http://myinvestingnotebook.blogspot.ca/2012/12/transcript-conversation-with-charlie.html The transcript is for sale on his site for $15 and is going to $25 on January 1st. He is kindly offering it to boardmembers for $5 until January 1st. You should know the video is available for free online if you look for it, but it takes alot of work to transcribe 13,000 words, and Shane has done the work. For the special discount, please use the link below that he has provided: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=NBNAN9ZKM2QMS Cheers!

Mainstreet is in the news...tenants in Vancouver condos are complaining of no heat or water for 2-3 weeks. The company says they are doing upgrades, but there is now mold appearing in some units. Wait till interest rates rise at some point or real estate prices in Canada correct...this sucker is going to go down. Cheers! http://www.globaltvbc.com/residents+of+a+surrey+apartment+complex+left+in+the+dark+and+with+no+power+while+building+repairs+are+made/6442777591/story.html

I love the last line of the article: After the dot-com crash, it seemed as if “things would turn around. Now, I don't know,” Mr. Neitlich says. “The risks are bigger than before.” Cheers!

Article on how more investors continue to leave equities as companies are left to buy back stock with record amounts of cash. I love hearing people talk about the "death of equities". Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/funds-and-etfs/etfs/slow-death-of-equities-as-more-investors-abandon-stocks-in-2012/article6742839/

You probably didn't give it quite a chance...especially if you have any adversity to musicals like myself. I don't think most people go into it thinking the whole movie would be singing and no dialogue at all. If you are looking for a fun movie, Le Miz isn't it. But I thought Hooper did a great job with the size and scope of what he took on, and the actors were astonishingly good. By the way, for a guy in a band, Russell Crowe is the weakest link when it comes to singing...and he's the lead singer in his band! Cheers!

Ok, saw Django and Tarantino lost it again in the last 25 minutes of the movie. Don't want to give anything away, but the movie is superb until the handshake sequence. After that, it falls apart and ruins what would have been a wonderful spaghetti western. And what the hell is it with his addiction to creating late 50's, early 60's theme songs for this movies, and then suddenly throwing some Tupac in there for good measure. This guy needs someone to pull the reins in on each movie. Inglorious Bastards was the same way...great movie until the final 20 minutes...ruins another terrific movie! Kill Bill would have been one fantastic movie if anyone had the balls to tell him to cut out an hour from Part I and Part II, and make it just one movie. Entertaining movie, with Oscar-worthy performances from Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson who both steal every scene! Waltz in particular is even better than he was in Inglorious Bastards. But the movie cannot touch "A Fistfull of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" or even "Unforgiven". Cheers!

I ended up seeing Django Unchained on Christmas day. Les Miz might be a really good movie, but I don't think I'll like it better than Django Unchained. I'm going to see Django in a couple of hours. I'll let you know what I think. I hear it's vintage Tarantino, not like some of the crap he's made recently. I really didn't like Inglorious Bastards...just way over the top. You go back to Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, and he had a much more deft touch. With Les Miz, I think you'll come to appreciate how difficult it is to sing throughout an entire movie, and still have some emotional connection with the audience...this not like those Mamma Mia type musicals...it's incredibly dark, violent, hopeless and unfortunately true to what life was like back then. Jackman may be one of the most underappreciated actors in Hollywood, since he makes all those X-men and Wolverine movies. Probably no other actor in Hollywood has the physicality he has (he's a big guy) and still has a very soft touch with his dialogue. I think he may be a shoe-in to win the Oscar. Anyway, I'll give you my review of Django later tonight. Cheers!

It was better than "The Master"...Hooper with his camera work created an intimate atmosphere for his characters that musicals don't normally provide. Cheers!

I cannot stand musicals...not at all! All of our New York board members are yelling "New York wouldn't exist without hedge funds and musicals...how can you not like musicals...what is wrong with you, man? You're East Indian for crying out loud. Every movie you make in Bollywood is some bizarre musical full of singing and dancing!" Nope, just never liked them. Personally, I subscribe to Tom Hanks sentiment a few years ago on Late Night With David Letterman: "Dave, I personally cannot understand how people just spontaneously break out into song and dance...not a fan of musicals!" Just never enjoyed them after watching a few as a young boy. Well, I've got to tell you that Tom Hooper's screen version of "Les Miserables" was terrific...probably one of the best movies of the last few years. Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway's performances are the type that just stick with you after you leave the theatre. I was just blown away by the size and scope of the movie, and how well it was done. Didn't even notice that people were singing! ;D So for you guys dragged into the theatre by significant others, friends or family to watch this, you won't have to suck it up. You may actually really enjoy it. Cheers!

I can! ;D Cheers!

You can't look at them in vacuums...each has different strengths and weaknesses based on underwriting, investment results, leverage and lines of business. Fairfax has the best investment results, but weaker underwriting due to lines of business and leverage. Markel & Alleghany have great underwriting due to lines of business, culture and leverage, but investment results aren't anywhere as good as Fairfax. Berkshire is the rare insurer that is incredible at both with less leverage, but far too big and unwieldy now. Cheers!

After Alnesh went through his divorce, he decided he's going to ask for tax returns from prospective partners...they must bring equal or better assets and income into the relationship! ;D So far no dates...may have to modify his request! Cheers!

Agreed. You guys all know what your estimate of intrinsic value is for BAC. You know the risks associated with legacy issues. You know the progress they've made. Determine what price you want to buy or sell at...simple...who cares what Whalen or anyone on here even says. We average in and we average out...it takes the worry out of the whole thing...and then we hold the portion we would like to hold long-term. And yes, Whalen was being a douche a couple of months ago, saying that BAC was undercapitalized...now he's just being a bigger douche by changing his opinion overnight! Cheers!

CNN visits Buffett's office. Cheers! http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2012/12/26/n-warren-buffett-office-tour.cnnmoney

Ok, time to lock this one up! Cheers!

Daphne doesn't post that much, but she's been a board member almost since we started the old MSN BRK Board. She knows everything about Fairfax as well. Perhaps, Daphne and some of our other female boardmembers could enlighten the men on here...myself included! Cheers!

Hey, we're all here! Rk, put the bang-bangs away. Even the site didn't go down. ;D Cheers!

Freeport State Bank repaid it's $301,000 loan with $61,910 in dividends. TARP, one of the most successful government programs in history! Cheers! http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/12/20/tarps-smallest-recipient-repays-treasury-reaps-62000/?mod=yahoo_hs

Still manageable, but it would mean more in reserves. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-20/banks-loan-loss-reserves-seen-jumping-50-under-fasb-proposal.html?cmpid=yhoo

Hey, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Nice to see Jefferies and Bank of America getting some big business. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-20/nyc-picks-underwriters-including-bank-of-america-and-jefferies.html?cmpid=yhoo

Thank God! Those "Ri-DQ-ulous" commercials were getting ridiculous. Cheers! http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2012/12/20/dairy-queen-picks-new-advertising-agency.html?ana=yfcpc

I'm constantly flabbergasted by some of the talking heads...mainly Rosenberg, El Erian and Faber. They seem to flip flop as much as Mr. Market! Here's Rosenberg's most recent comments...he thinks 2013 is the year to put cash to work, as cash is now bad. The huge run-up in the stock market for the last 3 years wasn't good enough, I guess! Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/market-outlook/rosenberg-sees-2013-as-the-year-to-put-cash-to-work/article6547075/

Just checking to see how many nutjobs we have on here, or do many people just get prepared for any sort of normal calamity and not just the end of the world! Personally, I've always got enough food, water, blankets, propane, etc in my house to last me for about a month...always prepared for a short-term crisis. By the way, for our resident nutjobs, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand et al are still there, and they are a day ahead. ;D Cheers!

Yes, the Elon Musk one is very good. In fact, it's probably one of the best shows any of these business channels produce. The Steve Jobs one and Google one were terrific as well. Cheers!