Parsad

uccmal - are you saying Daphne is old? Anyone who knows Daphne knows she's beautiful and intellectually stimulating. She's been a shareholder for as long as most of the other old-timers here, like myself and Uccmal. I think she was just wondering if anything had transpired that would warrant the recent move. We all held or bought through the drop from $200 to $57 back in 2003, so I think she can handle the swings. ;D Cheers!

The one thing I noticed is that the "Investment Ideas" board is going to get quite full in a very short period of time. I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but when you go on that board, an easy way to arrange the companies is to simply click the "Subject" heading on the top of the message board. That will put the posts in alphabetical order, so that you can just look up the name of the company you want. Cheers!

Thanks for posting that Damian! I did not want to put the spreadsheet out unless you felt it was ok. The tweeks I made were to make the ROE numbers and payouts much more conservative. That will give you a better margin of safety. I also made a few other additions based on capital, etc, that unfortunately I cannot share...they are now proprietary! ;D Cheers!

Financial terms not disclosed. Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/sun-life-sells-reinsurance-unit-to-berkshire/article1774898/

There are some out there, or they do it slightly differently, but Leucadia is pretty unique. Cheers!

That's terrific news! They needed that. Now with Jack Byrne on there and Sam, it's terrific! And you know Fairfax is going to hold the stock for the long-term. Cheers!

I think Munger is taking the longer term view, and views BYD as a company that will build a significant moat over the next decade. But we've seen this alot in other sectors...take a look at "Search" engines for example...very few thought Google would have such a dominant moat. Munger is also betting on the CEO, which can be pretty powerful if the bet is on the right person. What happens, I don't know. We'll know in a decade! ;D Cheers!

I wasn't a fan of this investment. I'm still not. I don't think it is a business where they can sustain a large competitive advantage over time. Money will flow in, as it is presently, and new companies will take market share away. Personally, for Berkshire, I like something like BNSF better. Not so much the price, but the idea. The more capital that is deployed into capital-intensive businesses with huge moats, the better. I'm also not keen on the investment managers they are choosing. These are gigantic shoes to fill, while handling huge sums of money. I would be much more comfortable if someone like Klarman, Berkowitz, etc, were the ones taking over. Ideally, they should just buy Fairfax and let Hamblin-Watsa manage all the money. It would be cheaper in the long-run and the returns would be better! Plus Prem is ok at insurance and leadership! ;D Cheers!

El-Erian is a smart guy, but I'm getting tired of his constant comments in the news...he's joining my annoying list of Roubini and Rosenberg now. Cheers!

Here is Comb's record at Castle Point. I think Buffett is looking for those that would preserve capital, rather than provide outsized returns. Cheers! Castle Point’s fund gained 6.2 percent last year, fell 5.7 percent in 2008, rose 19 percent in 2007 and climbed 13.6 percent in 2006, according to the letter. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/buffett-names-castle-point-s-combs-to-berkshire-hathaway-investment-post.html

BYD barely eeked out a profit for the 3rd quarter. Yikes! Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/buffett-backed-byd-s-third-quarter-profit-drops-as-sales-in-china-falter.html

sanjeev, how do you know all this stuff?? Bobby was at Mohnish's AGM in Chicago last month. I met him and we spoke for a few minutes. Very nice, mild mannered guy. He was the only one working with Lou Simpson for the last five years. He lives in Chicago and will be launching his fund soon. Cheers!

I suspect they will start him off with GEICO's money. Lou Simpson is retiring and his protege, Bobby Biergin, is starting his own hedge fund soon. So either Buffett runs GEICO's money or they bring someone in. I think he's the guy...test him out and see how he does with it. Cheers!

This topic has been moved to Investment Ideas. [iurl]http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=997.0[/iurl]

I recall Biglari was also on your list... good thing he showed it's true colors before your family needed him. BeerBaron Regardless of how I feel about Sardar's compensation plan and the way it was instituted, investors will make money as shareholders in Biglari Holdings. I didn't pull our capital from Sardar because of his aptitude. I pulled it because I felt what he did was somewhat unethical and misguided. Cheers!

Francis and Tim McElvaine are the two nicest and most genuine people I know in this industry. My family knows that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, call Francis and Tim and put the money to work with them...then go and enjoy your life! Plus don't sell the Fairfax shares! ;D Cheers!

You didn't get a letter back with his actual signature on it? Was it actually a form letter...what did it say? Cheers!

Do you want to ask the next question by how much? No that area becomes too grey, because you never take into consideration exactly what level of risk people exposed themselves to during a short period of time. Were they fully concentrated in one stock? One sector...commodities? Was a considerable portion of their portfolio in short positions? Did anyone use leverage? How much cash were they holding? How much was in fixed income instruments? What percentage achieved those results holding many positions? But if you take a large sample, and those results prove to be an outlier over a longer period of time (ten years plus), then you start to prove that a specific subsection may have a certain temperament, consistency in execution of their respective framework, and it is probably less likely to be a matter of luck. Cheers!

No doubt Mr. Watsa contributed substantially to the outperformance figure. Probably partially, but I think the majority of those that outperform, would be able to do it over longer periods and without Fairfax. This argument is sort of the same one people use from time to time against Sequoia, but at the end of the day, they were just smart enough to hold on to Berkshire...that takes a certain amount of aptitude, since thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands that owned the stock sold at some point. Cheers!

I suspect we would have an outlier result at 5 years and 10 years as well. Although that number would probably drop. I'm quite certain that an unlikely percentage (unlikely to any efficient market theorist) would outperform the S&P500 Total Return over the long run. Cheers!

Hi Harry, You weren't the only guilty one in that exchange, but it was one post in particular that was starting to go over board. I appreciate you respecting the other members, and I would ask that all members try and be respectful to one another. If you don't agree walk away...there are more than enough participants on this board for everyone to be engaged and entertained. Cheers!

Rents have come down, yet the building is 90% empty. Incidentally, the rents they describe are just slightly above Vancouver rents for such apartments. Cheaper if you consider the finishings you get...but there's no bubble here in Vancouver of course! Cheers! http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101022/wl_time/08599202693400

Charlie distributed $25M of BRK stock from his wife's estate to his children. Cheers! http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11947474

I'm of the opinion that the majority of board members on this message board have outperformed the S&P500 Total Return over the last 3 years...July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010. The S&P 500 Total Return during that period was a cumulative -9.813%. That would be completely contradictory to the performance of the average investment manager or the average private investor. Please respond with either "Yes...I did beat..." or "No...I did not beat...". Cheers!

I've spoken to Harry on a couple of occasions. He is a good guy and a good contributor. But I put a moratorium on antagonistic and rhetorical posts a week ago, because I received numerous complaints over the last couple of months. The rhetorical have stopped, but I would like to stop the flow of posts that are sometimes ego-driven as well, or at the very least a bit antagonistic. This isn't a board about bravado...there are plenty of boards available for guys with big balls who feel like tripping over them. Rubbing noses, name-calling, etc are posts that will be eliminated. Cheers!