Parsad

They did in the past, but they stopped when Fairfax fully integrated Hamblin-Watsa. I believe the principals do receive bonuses based on their performance though. Cheers!

The Omaha World-Herald's "Warren Watch" has a number of new stories that might be of interest. Cheers! http://www.omaha.com/article/20100516/MONEY/705169913

In regards to Sardar, I don't think it would be fair at all to take away from the positive and quality things he has done. Steak'n Shake would not be around right now if it wasn't for his work and everyone else involved with Steak'n Shake after the change in control. It's definitely one of the greatest turnarounds I've seen in such a short-period of time, regardless of the new compensation package proposal he's asked for. I can't agree with him on this one signficant point...it's truly an ethical dilemma for me and there is no suitable resolution for me or him. He has to decide if it is worth the impact to his reputation...we've already decided with our feet! The one thing I've always espoused when investing is never fall in love with the CEO. You can fall in love with their actions...even their words...but they have to always back it up. It doesn't matter if it is Buffett, Prem, Eddie Lampert, Joe Steinberg or Sardar Biglari. Things can always change quickly, whether it is a direct result of management or a risk from the enterprise's own nature...you have to always pay attention. If not, you can quickly become a casualty of your own emotional quotient if you aren't careful. We've made alot of money with Western Sizzlin and especially Steak'n Shake. I don't begrudge one moment that I invested in those businesses, or the support I gave Sardar over the years...we just won't be investing alongside him going forward. During the last few years, we've also learned alot from things he's done and we'll learn more going forward. Hopefully, he'll also learn from other people as well. Cheers!

Out of curiosity why are you stopping at 15-20 million instead of like 40 million? i am just wondering is that much harder to invest if you have a fund that is 50 million versus 25 million? Thanks again. The difference between $20M and $40M is a double. That means an extra four years of compounding at 18% or 5 years at 15%. The number for the most part is somewhat arbitrary...it may be a little earlier, or it may be a little later. It will depend more on the opportunity and if it's the right fit. Eventually your investments will grow. Do you plan to pay out dividends a la Walter Schloss? Yes, more than likely as we get larger and larger over time, but probably not for many years. Cheers!

Very good letter written from Shane Parrish, of Noise Free Investments, to the Indianapolis Business Journal on BH's compensation agreement proposal. Cheers! http://www.ibj.com/bait-and-switch-at-biglari-holdings/PARAMS/article/19946

I appreciate all the support guys. We will at some point get involved in a public company. At the moment, we are growing the capital in the funds. As I've said in our letters, we will shut the funds down early and they will be open to existing partners only...most likely around $15-20M we will shut down. We plan on keeping the capital base small so that we can maintain a high level of performance for a long period of time. As I've said, I'm not in this for the money...I'm in this to put up the numbers over time...if I can...so far, so good! We are fortunate as we have fantastic partners. They really understand our mandate and what we are trying to do. At that point, and maybe earlier depending on what projects we are working on, we will move into the public company space. And I promise to hold up all the same values that Buffett or Prem have always projected and lived up to...that I will guarantee! Things with ITEX are progressing nicely. We plan on applying similar strategies in the future. But you won't see me doing the day to day operations of a business. I'm not interested in being the CEO. I like what I do and no one tells me what to do each day...I live a very happy life! I can't see why I would ever want to change that. We already have people in place to run any businesses we ever get involved with...with plenty of CEO, CFO experience...I will focus solely on capital allocation and long-term objectives. That also helps remove a bit of the conflict of interest in day to day duties between a private fund and public company, as we will continue to run the funds for a long, long time. Cheers!

Indeed Good Job Parsad. Sorry it did not turn out as well, must suck to be heavily invested and liquidate. He was fluent in value investing music and a lot of people danced on it. It actually worked out very well for us...we made about two and a half times our money in less than two years. The unfortunate aspect is BH's own loss in reputation, as well as the loss of a quality group of shareholders that would have stayed with them for the long-term, if they just followed the dictum of their role models when it came to compensation and humility. Cheers!

Hi Smazz, Click the little square box next to your address bar at the top of your browser that looks like a page ripped in half. This changes the page compatibility to the new version of Explorer and it will stop bouncing around. If you clear out your cookies each time you close your browser, this will always reset, so you'll have to click it again before posting each time. If you don't clear out your cookies, it will remember. Cheers!

Jack Byrne has returned to the Overstock.com board. I'm guessing that with OSTK returning to profitability and Patrick being right on so many facets of naked short-selling and stock manipulation, Jack has decided his son has finally listened to his advice from the past about focusing on the company. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/John-J-Byrne-Elected-to-prnews-758898059.html?x=0&.v=1

Forbes article on Munger. Cheers! http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/12/charlie-munger-warren-buffett-markets-streettalk-berkshire-hathaway.html?partner=yahootix

What a fine coincidence that we've been hacked twice in a week! We've never had such a problem in a year and a half, and now suddenly twice in a week. What are the odds of that? ;D Being a Fairfax shareholder, I'm not one who bows down to coincidence in such cases. Anyway, I've finally got it up and running today. I apologize for the site being down, but hey it's just a coincidence! Cheers!

What a fine coincidence that we've been hacked twice in a week! We've never had such a problem in a year and a half, and now suddenly twice in a week. What are the odds of that? ;D Being a Fairfax shareholder, I'm not one who bows down to coincidence in such cases. Anyway, I've finally got it up and running today. I apologize for the site being down, but hey it's just a coincidence! Cheers!

What a fine coincidence that we've been hacked twice in a week! We've never had such a problem in a year and a half, and now suddenly twice in a week. What are the odds of that? ;D Being a Fairfax shareholder, I'm not one who bows down to coincidence in such cases. Anyway, I've finally got it up and running today. I apologize for the site being down, but hey it's just a coincidence! Cheers!

Prem discussed underwriting in detail during the AGM. He said that their combined ratios will appear to be very high, but that is because they are contracting their book of business dramatically at the moment, while expenses are not going to contract as fast. You cannot reduce customer service to existing clients, even though you are decreasing underwriting because of poor premium rates. When premium rates harden, you will see the momentum in Fairfax's underwriting. The market will miss this because they will be preoccupied with the higher CR's right now. Wait till you see what these guys do in a hard market! Cheers!

Another article on the upcoming AGM weekend. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/At-Buffett-gala-all-that-rb-1167539222.html?x=0&.v=1

Article from Morningstar on the BRK AGM. Cheers! http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=334684

Hi Folks, Please use this thread if you want to post various meeting places, events, etc for the weekend. Here is a link to Berkshire's visitor's guide which is very useful for anyone attending the AGM: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/meet01/VisGuide2010.pdf Alnesh and I will be at most events and we look forward to meeting anyone attending. I'll be the fellow with the blue "MPIC Funds" baseball cap on. For those coming out the first time, enjoy the experience...the Mecca of Capitalism! Cheers!

Like all institutions, it looks like Berkshire will also be required to put up collateral for derivatives contracts. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/36778375

Does Canadian/US securities law-reg FD etc. not require them to make a filing/disclose the 2010 presentation at the same time as or before the annual meeting so that all shareholders can see it? The law applies only if there is material information that wasn't previously available. Nothing discussed at the AGM was previously undisclosed in quarterly reports, annual reports, or individual filings. I'm sure they will put up the slides soon enough. Cheers!

By the way, I thought of you Sanj when they were serving those mini burgers. Quite tasty. What did you think.(I was quite hungry after missing breakfast) I didn't get to eat one! You only get a certain amount of time to see everyone each year, so I was saying hi to everyone and didn't eat anything. I just had a Coke just before our own AGM started. The day before, I did go to my usual haunt when in Toronto for what I consider the best mini-burgers I've ever had. It's at a place called Trevor's Kitchen & Bar. A little funky restaurant in the lower level of a heritage building...38 Wellington Street East. They make these little Kobe beef mini-burgers...by far the best mini-burgers I've ever eaten. I make a trip there every year when I go to Toronto and make sure I get to taste them. If you go before 6pm (they open at 4pm), they are half price at the bar. Cheers!

Al, Kilroy, Alnesh and I were talking about that this afternoon, when there were only the three of us left at the MPIC AGM. Your name came up as one of the nine that were there on that first dinner five years ago. Cheers!

Hi Folks, I would just like to thank all the people who attended our fifth annual "Fairfax Financial Shareholder's Dinner". First of all, we raised $3,820 for the "Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada" in honor of Jo Ann Butler, with a few more contributions still coming in. We hope to have raised close to $5K when all is said and done. We could not have done it without all your support! The generosity was overwhelming...attendees were just handing over $20 bills instead of $5...a few people wrote checks, handed over hundreds of dollars or bought handfuls of raffle tickets! We would like to thank Prem, Pat Hios and the rest of Fairfax Financial for the raffle prizes, as well as our director Andrew Cooke for the See's Candies he donated, and Alnesh and his accounting partner, Paul Robertson, for the wine they donated as prizes. We'd also like to thank Joe Badali's Restaurant for allowing us to hold our dinner there, and to their staff for patiently catering to our needs well past closing! Once again, Fairfax was very supportive of the dinner and were well-represented. Our guests from Hamblin-Watsa were Sam Mitchell, Brian Bradstreet and Peter Furlan, and of course our honorary chairman for the panel - Francis Chou of the Chou Funds! They answered question after question for about an hour and a half. Brian ended up staying till about 11pm and I had to actually intervene because the group of shareholders around him had lots and lots of questions. The AGM was well-attended and everyone was in a jovial mode. I won't expound too much on the meeting, as I'm sure there are plenty of other boardmembers who will be posting their notes. Prem was one of the last people to leave and was working the room as I've never seen before. It was actually quite funny because Pat and Vinod had to try and get him to the Presidents meeting, but Prem was absolutely engaging all the shareholders and answering every question they had, so it was an almost impossible task to drag him away. Needless to say, anyone who attended could not walk away from the event without completely grasping the culture of the company from the top down. Like any first rate organization, Prem sets the tone and the humility, ethics, and shareholder-friendly culture trickles down every layer of the company. I cannot emphasize how important it is for any long-term shareholder to come to the annual general meeting at least once. You do that and you won't ever sell a share! Finally, I'd like to thank all of the attendees at the MPIC Funds AGM, especially our partners! We hold the event for you guys and want to celebrate your trust and support. On behalf of Alnesh and myself, we look forward to seeing you all again next year! Cheers!

Hi Onyx, That is a very generous gesture! Thanks very much. Cheers!

About friggin' time! Cheers!

Mark Mitchell has a story on the Goldman Sachs saga. Interesting how many people in this story have worked with or for Michael Milken in the past. Cheers! http://www.deepcapture.com/goldman-sachs-john-paulson-and-the-hedge-funds-that-pumped-and-dumped-our-economy/