Parsad

Hi Omagh, Can you explain to me exactly what RSS Feed is, does and allows the user. I know a little but I thought I might get more details. As far as extra operational cost, I don't think it will cost anything more, because in my package I have unlimited bandwidth and unlimited data. If you explain what it does exactly and how users can utilize it, I'll have a better understanding of how to turn it on and any other controls there are for it! Yes, I'm not that tech-savvy! Remember, I already crashed the whole system once! :o Cheers!

If you own a bank that is in decent shape, or are starting one, the spreads between deposits and loans are fantastic. Banks that are growing their deposits like Wells, M&T, etc. are going to do very well going forward, even if they do have the occasional hiccup from their loan portfolio. I think the really tough time was a couple of months ago. Going forward with the options banks have, the spreads they are getting, the quality of business they are now forced to write, the industry should start to do better. Cheers!

GE has no tangible equity in light of a huge balance sheet and tons of various financial exposure. How is it a no brainer? Where do you get the idea that GE has no tangible equity? Those revenues and earnings from the various lines of business, most of which they are #1 or #2 in, come from somewhere. Just because their financial assets dwarf their operating assets, and a standard ratio isn't defined by their intangible assets, doesn't mean that the core earnings generating power from the various businesses isn't there. They are as tangible as Berkshire's businesses. Cheers!

Well Whitney may be correct to a degree. Wells Fargo won't completely avoid fallout, nor will their stock stay up if the entire sector is brutally hammered. But market price is very different than a business going under...Fairfax is a perfectly good example of that, and also one that Whitney shorted. If you look at the entire banking sector, Wells will get hit on occasion as other companies and the economy suffer, but they will be one of the few left standing in an industry where enormous consolidation will occur over the next few years. The other thing about Wells is the their management, and their ability to cross-sell to their clients. No customer for any other bank uses as many company products. The average is like 2.6 industry-wide, while Wells Fargo customer's is 5.6. Their clients are locked in. They use too many products and get too many deals by using them to go to another bank. That ability to cross-sell, combined with their ability to weather the storm, will allow Wells to increase market share. And they are already doing so, as customers from other banks flee to them. But that doesn't mean the stock won't continue to get hammered or suffer some losses from different markets like California or Texas. Our only concern should be what their actual results are long-term, and do they have the ability to weather this storm. Buffett seems to think so. Cheers!

Sanjeev, Why do you feel so striongly that he has been buying WFC? I kow he bought it last summer for his personal account, but I believe he sold it based upon the NYT Op Ed piece Cheers Ish It's just a no-brainer! As is GE. There's two of your twenty life-time punches smacking you in the face right now. You don't need Buffett, Watsa, Pabrai, or the MPIC Funds. I haven't had two ideas this cheap since Fairfax was below $100/share, and at that time Fairfax deserved to be cheap. These are two market leaders that will increase their share for the forseeable future. They have huge competitive advantages that will not be surpassed over the next decade or two. Buy it and just put it away! In regards to WFC, Berkshire filed an amendment a few minutes ago, so that answers that question...they've added shares, and I'm certain they will add considerably more at these prices, as long as they don't face any restrictions. Virtually every Berkshire subsidiary pension trust now owns Wells Fargo stock! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/72971/000119312509031272/dsc13ga.htm I bet you will see a filing for GE in the next few months if not sooner. GE will never be at these prices again in our lifetime! Absolutely ridiculous! Cheers!

I would expect there is probably at least a couple of positions Buffett is/has bought that are confidential at the moment. I'm almost certain he has been buying more GE stock and Wells Fargo. Cheers!

Folks, That 13-F is till the end of December 31, 2008. While broad market prices are fairly close to the lows hit November, some individual stocks are trading far cheaper. Things like GE at $11, or WFC at $13.50 are just plain stupid! We said it in our quarterly letter, and I'll say it again here...I don't expect to see these prices for some of these great companies again in my lifetime! These prices may be available to us for some time, but this era will probably be the bottom for me, as I turn 40 this year and if you assume another 25-30 years of life for me...well that's about it. Some of the deals on distressed debt are also unbelievable! Extraordinary times! Cheers!

Hi Jb, Yes, it's almost certain the Yellow BRK'ers are having an annual gathering: http://yellowbrkers.blogspot.com/ For some reason, the date on top of the announcement says 2006, but I think that's a typo. Shai Dardashti is organizing, and his email is on that site. Just email him and make sure the details are correct. There are tons of things to do in Omaha during the weekend. With the sheer size and scope now of the number of people attending. If you go to any event, you can probably make a few friends and sneak into other events with them. Not that I'm suggesting that...I just heard that those things perhaps happen! ;D As well, there are all the shareholder events, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Borsheims, the Old Market Area, the casinos across the water in Council Bluffs, Boys and Girls Town, Eppley Airfield, etc. It's a blast! Cheers!

If you are planning on attending our Fairfax Shareholder's Dinner, please let me know: For the fourth year in a row, we will be holding a Fairfax Financial Shareholder's Dinner in Toronto. About nine people showed up the first year, and last year we had about 30 shareholders attend. For the last three years, Sam Mitchell and Francis Chou have graciously attended, where they have entertained questions from shareholders for over an hour. Many attendees left with sage advice that served them well through the volatility of 2008! Fairfax Financial Shareholder's Dinner Tuesday April 14, 2009 Joe Badali's 156 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario (416)977-3064 Drinks: 6:30pm-7:00pm Dinner: 7:00pm-9:00pm RSVP: sanjeevparsad@shaw.ca To date, the list of attendees includes: - Sanjeev P. - Alnesh M. - Andrew C. - Paul R. - Eric A. - Jim B. - Brian B. - Stephen C. - Marc C. - James E. - Stuart F. - Simon H. - Tom J. - Charles K. - Stephen K. - Peter L. - Stefaan M. (possibly a guest) - Eng O. - Norm R. - Al R. - Keith S. - Brian S. (possibly a guest) - Jeff S. Cheers!

Article by Fareed Zakaria on Canadian banks and fiscal policy. Cheers! http://www.newsweek.com/id/183670/output/print

I think alot of people wet their pants during the middle of last November! And probably rightfully so. Cheers!

XL got hammered in 2008 as well. Cheers!

He's still got a boatload of equities, so I wouldn't worry about that. I think the fact that you can find bonds and preferreds with terrific yields and far less risk is probably the point of his transactions. Most of what we've been buying over the last month has been distressed debt...the yields are unbelievable! We bought some debt maturing in three months at 73 cents on the dollar, where the company has enough in cash, receivables and lines of credit to cover their debt for the next year. Just ridiculous! That's about a 145% annualized yield! But you have to buy a basket of them to reduce any single one exploding in your face. If Buffett or Prem can get 10-15% yields on preferred stock or notes from companies like Goldman Sachs, GE, Tiffany's, etc., then why bother running the risk of increased equity exposure. Especially if you are running a leveraged insurance business where 6-10% total yield for the portfolio will give you 15-25% ROE going forward. Cheers!

There's a couple more Crip: 5) Adam Sender of Exis Capital was associating with both Spyro and Anthony Pelicano - both in jail now 6) Sender hired Pelicano to make a business partner's life "a living hell" 7) Chanos was in contact with people at SAC with information that was not public I'm sure there's a hell of alot more as well. Prem doesn't put down a bet with his reputation unless he's got the odds in his favor. Cheers!

It's been pretty active on this board in the last week or so, and I think a few more weeks should help. Remember, there are a stalwart of boardmembers still clinging to the old board, and that will disappear after next week, so we should have another flood of members come here in the next week or two. Cheers!

Al, Here is another example of things easing up a bit. Citadel is now allowing redemptions from their funds again. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a90C4OeoZLP8&refer=home

What's so ironic is that the WSJ, who is reporting on this story, employs one of the primary culprits who assisted John Gwynn...Peter Eavis! As virtually all of you know, Eavis is the one who wrote some 50 articles in a six month period during 2003 for the Street.com, where Gwynn and Hempton were his sources. But I guess the WSJ hasn't figured that out yet! ??? Cheers!

On the updated version on Bloomberg, SAC says that they held shares of Fairfax and weren't shorting. Now what if two or three funds colluded in driving down a stock's price? What if one firm bought shares and held them. Then one or two shorted the hell out of the thing. The one with the actual shares could also lend the shares out and receive considerable interest income. This would also allow the others to cover positions when the stock moves in the opposite direction. Working together by naked shorting a stock, putting out negative analyst reports and media reports, they drive the stock down until the point where the funds shorting cover and pay back the hedge fund that lent the shares out. SAC's comments prove nothing about their intentions. The emails being sent between the two firms indicates that there is more to this than meets the eye. I can't wait for the trading activities at Kynikos to be unsealed. Cheers!

The one thing I've learned is that you will never have any idea where the "bottom" or "capitulation" is. If we all went back to the beginning of 2008, most of us that follow Prem would have agreed that we would probably see dramatic corrections in equities, commodities, real estate, art, etc. What I don't think anyone really expected, and probably not even Prem, was just the sheer collapse in the credit markets. I think Prem expected spreads to widen dramatically and significant tightening to occur. But the seizing of the markets the way they did...I don't think anyone expected that. After that, I think pessimism took a stranglehold to the planet, and fear became rampant. The one thing we do know is that once fear becomes rampant, usually the least likely scenario, in this case optimism, is probably more likely the correct assumption. But it takes time to prove this theory correct. It doesn't happen overnight. Just like it took Prem a couple of years to be correct on the downside, it will take a couple of years for Buffett to be correct on the upside. Cheers!

What's also very interesting is that Chano's little forum called CNBC has yet to report any of this story. Cheers!

Bloomberg reports that both Kynikos and SAC Capital had access to John Gwynn's preliminary analyst report on Fairfax before it was published. As we all know, Gwynn was subsequently fired by Morgan Keegan for releasing non-public information, and it was his original report insinuating that Fairfax was nearly $5B under-reserved that stirred the hornet's nest. This gets better and better! Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1gpkAyXa8iw&refer=home

I reminded of the time when the pilots of Singapore Airlines threatened to go on strike. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew responded by threatening to shut down the airline and start a new airline. End of strike; no more labour disputes in the decades since; and SIA is today the strongest airline in the world sitting on $5b cash. This should work for Detroit. This does occur in North America, but it is few and far between. Regan fired all of the air traffic controllers when they went on strike. Walmart and McDonalds usually close a location if the employees succeed in unionizing. While I think unions do serve a purpose for grievances, generally like the Senate and Congress, they simply employ tactics to get what they want added to deals. I guess a free market system is based on the fact that humans are innately self-serving, but sometimes it would be nice to see individuals put their own self-interest aside for the greater good. Cheers!

The home next to Warren Buffett's house in Laguna Beach is for sale. Any boardmembers have $13M laying around? Cheers! http://southcoasthomes.freedomblogging.com/2009/02/12/be-warren-buffets-neighbor-for-13m/

John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, spoke at the Senate Committee on Financial Services. The Charlotte Business Journal has his comments. Cheers! http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2009/02/09/daily37.html

If you guys have any more questions, please submit them. I will be putting together the questions and sending it out to John this weekend. Cheers!