Parsad

Hi Folks, There was an earlier poll started, but only 25 people out of nearly 400 members have voted. So, I'm asking you guys what would you like to see. I'm personally of the opinion that this current format works well...as we have predominantly BRK & FFH shareholders, and then there is a broad discussion on many other subjects and investments. But I will go with the majority on the decision. - Do you like the current format (BRK, FFH & General Discussion boards) - Do you want just one board (General Discussion) - Do you guys want more boards Please vote, so I can make a more reasonable estimate of the users wishes based on a greater number of ballots. Thanks very much! Sanjeev

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Carol Loomis discusses the metric both Warren and Prem have mentioned in the last few years...stock market value versus U.S. GNP. What once stood at 190% in March of 2000 hit 75% in January 2009. I'm sure some will argue that GNP is overstated, or that reversal to the mean usually means overshooting the current 75%, but anyway you slice it, stocks are cheaper today than at anytime in the past. http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/04/magazines/fortune/buffett_metric.fortune/index.htm If you take that one step further, market yields in relation to the risk-free yield of treasuries, is probably the widest we've seen in several decades. Cheers!

I don't like watching Ackman talk his book on CNBC, but that's a good presentation. Cheers!

Tariq, Last night, I was thinking of archiving the old posts in a new folder entitled "MSN Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Archive". Would that work? That way I can have the archive directly on here, and the search engine would pick up the name. Is that correct? Also, this boards own search feature would be able to locate old posts. The only concern I had was that the dates would not be accurate. I have to figure out some way of keeping the original post's dates. Thanks!

Mark, Ah, that's gobbledy-gook to me! Lucy, you got some 'splainin to do! I think you're going to have to explain that to me in laymen's terms. Or anyone else that has other ideas regarding that. Cheers!

Hi KFR, The vote on one "General Thread" or a number of seperate boards seems to be firmly on the side of one "General Thread." So adding more boards probably won't fly. I would suggest if you want to test something, go ahead and then you can delete it afterwards. Feel free to explore the various tools and features. Cheers!

Crip just messaged me and it seems to be working well. You can adjust your own personal settings on your own profile. Let me know if you guys notice other features that you would like to use. Thanks!

Hi Guys, The "PM" feature should be active now. Could one of you try and "PM" me, so I can see if it is working. Thanks very much!

Hi Guys, I had turned that feature off, but I can turn it on. Just to let members know, you can turn off that feature through your profile page if you don't want others to email you or IM you. I don't want people to be inundated with spam. I'll see if I can turn it on, so that only other approved boardmembers can use the feature and that the public cannot access it. Sanjeev

If you guys all want your Fairfax stock to rise today, I suggest you all go for the free breakfast Denny's is offering at all their location in Canada and the U.S. today. The offer is from 6am-2pm and you are offered a free grandslam breakfast! A value investor's delight...free! Cheers! http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hD-CjfIHSk86H_liOUaeDNr6M2SwD96465T80

Lacy Hunt of Hoisington Investment Management is interviewed. Cheers! http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Lacy-Hunt-$pd20090129-NR997?OpenDocument

Berkshire's stake in Burlington Northern is now 22.4%! How about we start a discussion on the merits of this investment on this thread. Cheers!

Hi guys, I've increased the attachment size to 2000KB per post. Hope that helps! Cheers!

Hi guys, Keep the poll going for a while and then I'll decide based on the outcome. I originally did not want seperate threads, but there were a few people who wanted them, so I figured just four would meet somewhere in the middle. But if the votes for one significantly outweigh the other, then I'll go with the majority. Cheers!

I think the investment losses were somewhat expected. They had about $1.4B in equity investments at September 30, 2008. It didn't look like they had alot of hedges. Wipe out about 30% from that $1.4B and you get about $500M in mark-to-market investment losses. There weren't too many insurers like Fairfax...hell, there weren't too many companies like Fairfax out there with their hedged positions and CDS portfolio. Even Berkshire will get sideswiped when their report comes out. Cheers!

Hi Folks, Since the board is called "Corner of Berkshire and Fairfax" and virtually every member owns either Berkshire or Fairfax, I thought it would be best to have two seperate boards to discuss those two companies. I have a third board that relates directly to product experience or customer service related issues to do with Berkshire or Fairfax subsidiaries. All other discussions should be thrown under "General Discussions" for now. At some point, if there is significant demand for another category, I will put it in, but I don't want to clutter the home page or make things too complicated. Thanks very much! Sanjeev

Hi Folks, Since the board is called "Corner of Berkshire and Fairfax" and virtually every member owns either Berkshire or Fairfax, I thought it would be best to have two seperate boards to discuss those two companies. I have a third board that relates directly to product experience or customer service related issues to do with Berkshire or Fairfax subsidiaries. All other discussions should be thrown under "General Discussions" for now. At some point, if there is significant demand for another category, I will put it in, but I don't want to clutter the home page or make things too complicated. Thanks very much! Sanjeev

Ok, I adjusted my profile time offset, but I'm not sure it changed the servers time. I believe you can use the "auto-detect" on the profile page to adjust your offset and that should correct things. Let me know if you guys notice other stuff. There are just so many options, I'm not sure what has been adjusted and what hasn't! Cheers!

When Shortly after the FFH AGM Wednesday April 15, 2009 Meet & Greet: 1:30pm-2:00pm Presentation: 2:00pm-2:30pm Q & A: 2:30pm – 4:00pm Light Refreshments Will Be Served Where Fairmont Royal York 100 Front Street West Toronto, Ontario Salon A For More Information & RSVP sanjeevparsad@shaw.ca

When May 2, 2009 Where Qwest Center Omaha 455 North 10th Street Omaha, Nebraska www.qwestcenter.com For More Information http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/meet01/2009meetpre.pdf

When April 15, 2009 at 9:30am Where John W. H. Bassett Theatre Room 102, Metro-Toronto Convention Centre 255 Front Street West, Toronto For More Information www.fairfax.ca

Unfortunately, there is no way to choose between a sequential & a threaded view at this time. There always updates to the software, so we may have that ability in the future. Cheers!

Hi Zarley, I didn't think anyone would want to use avatars, but I guess alot of people might. I'll turn on that function so that you can also upload anything you want...just keep it clean guys! You can upload videos, etc. I'm still learning how to do some of that stuff, so keep playing around with it and tell me what you find out. I'll fiddle with all those features later on once I get the membership stuff done and archive the old posts from the MSN Board. It's probably a good idea for users to post questions and anything new they've learned on this thread. Thanks very much!

Thanks folks! It's a very easy to use site, that has some decent features and meets our needs. In regards to the question about discussions being under "General Discussion", that would probably be the easiest and cleanest way to keep the board operating. Feel free to title your post whatever you want, but let's keep it under General Discussion. Once everybody starts using the board, a natural flow will evolve and at that point the board may expand into other folders. Cheers!