Parsad

Article on Wilbur Ross. Love listening to what he has to say! Cheers! http://www.thestreet.com/story/11726738/1/distressed-investing-king-ross-loves-the-mortgage-market-exclusive.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

I'm not a particularly huge fan of Ellison, but he is a remarkably interesting fellow. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-does-larry-ellison-4-151813692.html;_ylt=AuztwhmBOjz9UVn.sAS.412iuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQ4cjdqb2ZlBG1pdANDTkJDIFRvcCBTdG9yaWVzBHBrZwM0MjJiNDFjOS1jNGJjLTMxZDAtYTVkNy1mOTc2Nzk1ZTYzYTAEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgNjZjQ3NTQwOC0wZDcxLTExZTItYmRmZS0wN2E4Nzg5Y2ZmMzA-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

Apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...Charlie's children seem to be as independent-minded as he is. And they are driving Jerry Brown nuts! Cheers! http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/03/usa-elections-california-idUSL1E8KRJ0720121003?feedType=RSS&feedName=industrialsSector&rpc=43

Interview with David Winters of the Wintergreen Fund. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/video/railroads-are-indicator-of-economy-winters-says-n22XypMjR1KGYCLjFau31Q.html?cmpid=yhoo

The charts look to me like they are contrary indicators if you look at historical net short and the actual results of the Dow. These guys are retarded! Markets are now fair-valued, but there are still pockets of cheap stocks. I'm not buying the market, and we still have a fair amount of cash. Just buy things that are really cheap and ignore all of the other crap and what anyone else is doing. Cheers!

More detailed Bloomberg article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-02/jpmorgan-rivals-face-billions-in-damages-after-mbs-case.html?cmpid=yhoo Cheers!

Get rid of two small railroads and add two huge wind farms. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/49258987

Here you go: http://www.investeem.com/2012/01/does-price-reflect-value.html Cheers!

Looks like Berkshire actually contacted the STB regarding the two small railroads, and said that they had been overlooked. Berkshire will sell them by the end of the year. STB should actually thank Berkshire for coming forward and correcting the oversight, since the STB did not notice anything when the BNSF deal was consummated. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-selling-2-short-150233989.html

He's too smart so far. There is nothing to implicate him other than that his firm has a culture of unethical conduct within its ranks. Hopefully eventually they nail him. Cheers!

In regards to the "Lifetime Member" tag. Everyone is a lifetime member once enrolled, but I will switch over Regular Members to Lifetime Member status once they hit the required number of posts. It doesn't mean anything different for members, other than how much you've contributed to the board by posting...which is really the foundation of the board, and does mean alot. Cheers!

It's ok, now you know how Kobe Bryant feels! ;D Speaking of which...I'm pretty excited to see this Lakers team in action...another ring! Cheers!

I don't think prizes are necessarily a good incentive for people to post. For those who feel $20 or $100 or a book is worth it, they will post, but I don't think it will incentivize those for whom those items aren't as valuable. For example, there are people on this board that buy a book almost every week, who are incredibly intelligent and very good investors...why would they be incentivized to compete for a book they already own and have read? I've always found that the best incentive is approval by your peers and other investors you admire. The people who post on here, do so because they have a sense of community, they find value in the ideas themselves, and are passionate about finding nuggets of value. I'm not interested in getting the lowest common denominators competing for $20 because they would not be incentivized to contribute any other way. We attract good investors and ideas, because we like the people we are sharing them with...whether we agree or disagree...there is a level of respect for other investors on here and those that read the board. They don't post and share their ideas here for the possibility of nominal prizes. The prize is finding the idea and seeing it unfold before other investors eyes...especially if they couldn't see it! ;D Cheers!

Any company making acquisitions could do the same. Be it Berkshire, Fairfax, Markel, Microsoft, Google, Dell, etc. Cheers!

Here's another analysis of Dell using the same theory...assume the PC business is worthless, and do a valuation estimate! Cheers! http://seekingalpha.com/article/897521-dell-too-cheap-to-ignore?source=yahoo

Ha, ha! I know Kraven, I guess it could have been higher, but the main point was to just eliminate the spam. Besides, they are better off giving up 5 supersizes at McDonalds and using the board instead. More meat, less fat! ;D Cheers!

Hi Folks, After considerable discussion and thought about this, I finally had to implement a one-time $10 fee for new members. First, I resisted the idea after originally posting about it here and hearing from many of you, so I started changing the registration questions every couple of weeks...that helped briefly, but after one spammer gets in, they start flooding the registration with the correct answers. Normally, I clear out the registrations every week that made it past the forum spam filter, but my brother got married last week, and I was briefly on and off on here, and there was suddenly over 80 registrations piled up...and those are the ones that made it past the filter! I finally had enough and had to implement the one-time fee for new members, as I cannot spend so much time running through the posts and registration. I don't think a $10 one-time fee would be onerous to any potential membership that will be able to use the board for free for the next 10+ years. But it is high enough to stop spam registrations! New members will follow the normal registration process by clicking on the "Register" tab above the log-in. After they have registered, they need to click on the "Donation" tab and pay $10 through Paypal. The email of the member registration and the email on the Paypal payment should match. If they don't, then the registrant should just note in the payment that they registered under which email address. Once the payment is received, the registration is approved and the member can use the board forever. Thanks very much! Sanjeev

Article on John Malone. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-the-largest-landowner-in-america.html

Under existing Basel 3 requirements, they are already above what is needed. There is some discussion regarding whether they tighten rules even further against risk-weighted assets, in particular derivatives, but that has not been finalized yet. If tighter requirements are needed, they have until 2019 to build the capital, so they don't need to hit that level anytime soon. Over the next couple of years, they could shrink their book further, sell off some more assets or even build capital through existing cash flows. Cheers!

Berkshire owns majority stakes in two other railroads other than BNSF, through Marmon and Mid-American. Cheers! http://www.joc.com/class-i-railroads/stb-orders-berkshire-hathaway-divest-two-railroads

Go to jail...do not pass go...do not incriminate Steve Cohen. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-28/ex-sac-analyst-said-to-plan-guilty-plea-in-insider-case.html

They are selling more PC's through SME channels. Consumer demand for PC's is waning, but their end-to-end users are buying more for their businesses...so as a percentage of revenues it remains flat or slightly elevated. They discussed this in their Q1 2012 Conference Call. It may be possible to continue to sell significant amounts of PC's as they increase the commercial & SME client base. So those saying that DELL's PC business is dying are correct...but only from the consumer demand side. Businesses are still buying laptops and desktops...for now anyways. Cheers!

There was no basis...he flat out said that "Fairfax is a fraud and he thinks it is a zero." I was there at the first Value Investing Congress in New York when he said it, and have not/will not ever attend another one because they allow jackasses like him or Herb Greenberg to speak! And no, having other speakers like Mohnish or Guy that I respect does not make it any better. Who you associate with says alot, and people like Chanos or Greenberg are like the stuff I usually wipe off my shoe on the grass after stepping in it! Yes, I hold a grudge better than Buffett! ;D Chanos assumed Fairfax's offshore subsidiaries were involved in hiding gigantic reinsurance losses, which wasn't true. There were insurance losses, but they were in the open and not hidden in any offshore subsidiary. He was getting information from these "contracted researchers"...I'm guessing that one was working as an analyst for a research firm, releasing reports ahead of publication to hedge funds, and is now dead...and the other worked as an analyst for a large Australian hedge fund, used to call up large shareholders and tell them to sell their FFH shares, and now runs a blog. These cretins were also the ones behind the articles by Peter Eavis, Herb Greenberg, Fabrice Taylor, et al. I can't believe these morons are still employed...says alot for business journalism! Cheers!

James, I would agree with you here, except: He called Prem a "fraud" in front of hundreds of hedge fund managers and in the media. That wasn't just outsourcing the research, but libel and slander. He's not some small shop lackey, but had billions under management and a very high profile...thus not only was it unprofessional in every manner, he was completely culpable alongside those that were manipulating the stock and information in the media. Cheers!

When we checked Chanos' average back in 2004, I don't think he was right on 2/3rds of his ideas. In fact, the numbers looked like he was wrong on most of them. But hey, "negative correlation to the indices" was how his purpose in life was explained to me by those that liked the guy. His clients were willing to pay very large fees for that service. I would have thought low-cost Bear ETF's would have put him out of business by now. Cheers!