Parsad

Canadian investment company Salida Capital will enjoy its charitable Lunch With Buffett today. Cheers! http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/article_00f068f4-1fca-11df-97ac-001cc4c002e0.html

Story on how Greece is said to have arranged swaps with 15 different investment banks: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aViC_3fxSWK8&pos=3 How is it possible that the world allowed a derivatives market of $60 trillion dollars and there was no oversight, regulatory body or clearing house? What the hell was everyone thinking! Cheers!

Bloomberg article discussing hedge funds betting on Japan's problems, in particular David Einhorn. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aPBaV.B6hdS4

The NY Post in December reported that Steve Cohen had a story by Reuters on SAC Capital's insider trading killed. It's towards the bottom of the article: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/st_wife_clubbed_lwGOexXj3UOFOGCQKCMGvM#ixzz0cUIiHW5J On another note, and I don't really care about his personal life, but the article starts by discussing Steve Cohen and his wife's appearance in 1992 on a daytime talkshow where they candidly discuss their personal life. Very strange for a guy who maintains such a private life for the last decade. Cheers!

Alnesh, my brother and I were at Molson Hockey House on Friday for Wayne Gretzky Tribute night. There were at least 3000 people there. I got him to sign their Team Canada jerseys and spoke to him briefly. It was as fantastic as the first time I met Buffett or Prem! I've always wanted to meet Gretzky and finally did. One hell of a classy guy! I'm right in front of this cameraman: I remember his last game in Vancouver when he played for the Rangers. I took my brother to that game and the hard-core Canuck fans were booing him in the beginning. He went on to get a five point night, scoring the last (50th) hat-trick of his career. On the final goal, he skated around a Canuck forward at the centre-line, through two defensemen who collided and fell down, then drew Kirk MacLean way out of his net...skated right around behind...and polished off the goal by shooting into a wide-open and completely empty net! At which point the entire arena, including all those hardcore Canuck fans that booed him earlier, stood up and gave him a three-minute standing ovation! It's around the 1:00 minute mark of the video below: I'll never forget that game or meeting him! Cheers!

Haha Twa, I didn't even see it was written in The Onion! Yes, you got me! Ima Pazzo! ;D

Deepcapture does a story on David Einhorn's involvement with New Century. While I have no idea if Einhorn ever had anything to do with profiting from New Century's demise, I have always wondered why he never addressed the subject of New Century...not in presentations, nor in his book. http://www.deepcapture.com/how-activist-investors-david-einhorn-and-dan-loeb-brought-their-special-talents-to-bear-on-new-century-financial/ I asked Herb Greenberg in early 2007 why he wasn't covering New Century? If his relationship with David Einhorn was preventing him from discussing New Century, as he was writing vigorously about Novastar at the time. http://blogs.marketwatch.com/greenberg/2007/02/novastar_delinq/ No one ever wrote about New Century until now. Strange! The failure of the second largest mortgage lender in the U.S. received no press from all the journalists who were so vigilant on other companies that were heavily shorted...Eavis, Greenberg, Bethany Mclean, Joe Nocera, Fabrice Taylor...you name them, they didn't write a story! Cheers!

While quite humorous, that is probably one of the most bizarre articles/opinions I've seen WEB write. If he likes a shirt, he may just buy it? I hope next week he doesn't write an article for Money Magazine entitled "Top Ten Ways To Make Your Income Go Farther"! ;D I'm sure there are Buffetteers out there wondering if he's trying to stimulate the economy, by asking the average consumer to buy a shirt or something they like. Cheers!

The banks aren't stupid. They will pass this on to consumers. Cheers!

The lawyers are circling on the Zentih deal They can stuff it! They're not getting a penny more on this deal. Prem is paying up already unlike the Odyssey initial offer. Cheers!

Swiss Re is planning on repaying the convertible debt Buffett bought. Cheers! http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/swiss-re-eyes-buffett-repayment/?partner=yahoofinance

AM Best sees no change in Fairfax's credit rating, and expects debt to total capital to be around 29% after all transactions (ORH, ZNT) are complete. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AM-Best-Comments-on-Fairfax-bw-3710926809.html?x=0

Congrats KFR! Good things come to those that wait. ;D Cheers!

Congratulations on the detective work guys! I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about in Toronto this year. Cheers!

It seems as though some of Greece's woes spring from currency swaps they purchased from Goldman Sachs. I'm sure many people have watched that interview with Munger from last year at Stanford. I don't think Charlie's comments on accounting and the responsibilities endowed upon accountants could be any clearer. I think that should extend to politicians and financial institutions as well, and the financial contraptions they like to play around with. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5MJFT2dMyIU&pos=1

Also, I should mention that the tragic death of the Georgian luger yesterday really created a sombre moment for the games. The poor young guy who came here to compete and make his country proud had a freak accident. I saw the video on the news and it is just awful and disturbing. I'm glad his team-mates stayed to compete and make their fallen comrade proud. I hope they win a medal in every event they compete in! Cheers!

Everyone I have ever met who has been to Vancouver has remarked how beautiful it is. After watching the first part of the Opening Ceremonies broadcast, it's clear that those remarks were woefully inadequate. I'm sure that the next couple of weeks will be a wonderful experience for you city. Vancouver is most certainly one of the most beautiful and liveable cities you will ever find...as long as you can handle the rain! ;D We've got all the natural beauty, combined with your choice of the cosmopolitan lifestyle or the rural country lifestyle...whatever you please. Housing prices are insanely high, but that's part of the problem if you have a net immigration into the area for many, many years, and there seems to be little reason why that would stop over the next twenty-thirty years. It's not an old city with alot of history yet, but it is a great little city to live, raise a family in and do business. Yes, quite a buzz in the city. The opening ceremonies were actually quite fantastic relative to the money spent. Nowhere near the level of the Summer Olympics in China, but they do it much bigger and for a lot more over there...hard to beat the Chinese when they are trying to impress the world! It was mass hysteria yesterday near my office downtown as the torch travelled it's final leg. Wayne Gretzky was the final torchbearer and it was pandemonium on the streets of Vancouver when he was travelling over to the outside cauldron near the water for the final lighting last night. For the most part, they've done a fantastic job of putting the games together. John Furlong and the late Jack Poole deserve most of the credit. The province kind of railroaded through a bunch of stuff and it wasn't handled very tactfully in the years leading up...most notably, a number of small businesses suffered extreme hardship as construction projects and traffic closures killed revenues and ultimately forced them to close or move. But that wasn't Furlong's fault, who is one of the classiest and hardest working guys you will see. I see much bigger things for him! I hear that there are some drug and slum problems on the east side of the city. Yes, there is a significant problem...big city problems...in a eight block radius on the outskirts of downtown, known as Hastings and Main. About thirty-forty years ago, it used to be one of the main hubs of commerce and shopping in Vancouver. In the last 20 years, as the economic hub moved primarily downtown or into the suburbs, this area deteriorated and became a drug, sex and disease-infected area of the city. It actually has the highest rate of HIV infection in North America, and is easily the most impoverished postal code in Canada. Various municipal, provincial and federal governments have thrown money at the problem over the years, but there was no cohesive program to create social housing until about five-six years ago as the Olympics were won by Vancouver. Unfortunately, twenty years of poverty and influx of more drug-adled, strung out people cannot be fixed in five years. They've made some progress, but they've got alot more work to do. The area has also begun a succession of gentrification projects and that will eventually have an impact. The question is, will that simply push out the improverished or will they fund rehabilitation and social housing projects to aid those currently living there. It's become such a big mess that simple solutions won't work over the long-term. There has to be creative solutions to this problem. The other issue is that we now have people who have made it a career to exploit the poor, and use their plight to fight whatever other platform these charlatans want to build on. Right now we have balaclava-masked hooligans, fringe activists, who are tearing up store fronts downtown and forcing the police to don riot gear. Journalists that were photographing and following these fringe activists were pepper sprayed by them and beaten up. So these spoiled brats, and I bet half of them come from money, are out there spouting their socialist rhetoric, with their legal observers present and watching how the police interact with them. Yet they infringe on the freedom of rights that the media is granted and assault them...how uniquely Canadian! Yesterday, they disrupted the torch route going to a bunch of war veterans who were waiting for the torch lighting near their war memorial. They too had their rights for freedom of expression infringed upon, as they never saw the torch arrive at their memorial. And these guys gave their lives to protect the same rights these balaclava-masked jackasses are now exploiting! Cheers!

Article on BNSF CEO Mathew Rose and the purchase by Berkshire. Cheers! http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-12/buffett-s-new-ceo-rejoices-at-farewell-to-analysts-hedge-funds.html

Cara Goldenberg, of Permian Capital, was invited to dinner by Warren Buffett after she sent a letter. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601108&sid=aYWu1wIwp2vQ

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, disagrees with Henry Paulson's recollections of certain conversations he had and are included in his new book. Interesting what Paulson's response to this is...hmmm, my memory may be fuzzy! Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZzcAxzDhlPo&pos=7

Story on Willmill & Company's Tom Winmill and his Midas Fund. I know there were some folks talking about Bexil recently. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=abSHodgpVd9I&pos=10

I know that people are on both sides of the fence when it comes to Patrick Byrne, Judd Bagley and Deepcapture.com, but I thought this podcast was quite amazing! Not long ago, Judd Bagley who runs antisocialmedia.net "friended" a bunch of journalists on Facebook under an alias, and found that many of these journalists were friends with various analysts, hedge fund managers, etc. This is nothing new. I had seen that John Hempton and Joe Nocera were Facebook Friends in the past, and I've seen other relationships between analysts and fund managers. We've all already seen the emails John Gwynn had forwarded to Kynikos regarding Fairfax. Judd subsequently released a video discussing these relationships, and all hell broke loose! Suddenly, all the people Judd was trying to tie together went public with various attacks, including that Judd had put their children at risk, that he was a pedophile, etc. Some of these guys were Gary Weiss, Sam Antar and Barry Ritholtz. Ritholtz was invited to a radio talk show to talk about his book, but planned on talking about Bagley during the interview. The radio interviewer decided it would only be fair to have Judd on there as well to respond to anything Ritholtz accused him of. Ritholtz tears into Bagley and pretty much calls him a pedophile on the air. When the interviewer brings Bagley in to respond, Ritholtz bails after vehemently crucifying Bagley on the air. Not just slowly dissipates from the air, but this guy runs! This is the type of excrement that Byrne is dealing with. I know that there are plenty of people who disagree with the way he's pursued this, and at times I've wondered the same, but this is the low-life scum that exists out there and is helping to manipulate stock prices. A must hear...Bagley does a very nice job setting up the whole scenario. Cheers! http://www.deepcapture.com/podcast-barry-ritholtz-tale-of-two-media/

Hi Partner, I agree with your sentiment, but unfortunately just like with Fairfax, it does matter. Berkshire's cost to finance their debt, including debt issued by MAE or Berkshire Hathaway Finance will go up marginally. If more credit rating agencies follow suit, those costs could increase a bit further. Over time, it does make a small impact in intrinsic value. Hopefully, various aspects of Berkshire will start firing on all cylinders and cash will start flowing back like before, and at that point the credit rating agencies will come back to their senses. In the meantime...Cheers!

Janet Tavakoli responds to Taleb's comments: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35331360 Cheers!

Interesting article about how Burlington Northern, Buffett and Calpers are working on reducing congestion for freight and commuter cars in Chicago. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aOLsZCyllcdo&pos=11