Parsad

I really enjoyed The Gray Man tonight. Very funny and superb action! Ryan Gosling is the one guy I could see filling Robert Downey Jr's shoes as Iron Man. You're going to wonder why he doesn't do more action movies after watching this. Cheers!

Where do you have vacation homes? No vacation homes...can't justify owning one unless I go there often, and I'm not interested in being a property manager. Where are your repeat vacation spots? Locally...Victoria, Osoyoos (Okanagan wine country), Whistler and Seattle. What are must see places? (North America vs Internationally) That I've been too...well Vancouver of course...Montreal...a leisurely drive on the Pacific Highway from near Portland all the way to San Diego...Chicago (like New York, but the people are really nice)...Omaha (must make the pilgrimage at least once)...Maui....internationally...Mumbai, Beijing, Sydney, Hong Kong, Brisbane and Surfer's Paradise, Christchurch New Zealand, Shanghai and last but not least Fiji! What is your next adventure? I haven't travelled Europe at all believe it or not! I plan on spending two-four weeks a year in different spots in Europe for the next 10 years, starting with London. Was planning on going this year, but was worried about Omicron and airline/terminal service issues. Will start on this for sure next year! Cheers!

Oh contraire, mon frère! Over 67% of the users are American, about 18% Canadian and 15% outside North America. Victoria and Lake Cowichan are both beautiful! Glad you had a good time in my neck of the woods! Cheers!

There are a ton of people here and elsewhere that I've met, that swear they will not, have not and never will feed their children McDonald's or that they don't eat there. They prefer Five Guys, In & Out, A&W and other fast food restaurants, where apparently the food is "healthier", or they will not feed their children or themselves any junk food. Cheers!

As soon as all of the pharmacists in my pharmacy started to ask me about the cryptocurrencies they had all bought, I knew they were f**ked and that maybe, we had just avoided another disaster of epic proportions by more people not being stupid/greedy and doing even dumber things with their capital. As the great Forrest Gump says...stupid is as stupid does! Cheers!

I didn't say I have a disdain for McDonald's. I eat there at least a couple of times a week...breakfast burrito or a fruit & fiber muffin...sometimes a filet-o-fish, occasionally a Big Mac. But are you going to tell me that most people don't eschew McDonald's food, quality and taste...especially those that aren't frugal like myself? And my point was that having the best quality doesn't make you a good business. Cheers!

I agree with you for the most part. At the same time, we are somewhat lucky that things like crypto didn't get wildly comingled with non-crypto assets. Otherwise, this would have been another GFC. And things were headed that way...you have some very smart people doing stupid things because to channel Munger, "they are overly confident in their confidence!" Like all resets, this one was necessary. You needed people to lose money...the smart ones, the stupid ones, the "smart" money, the professionals, the amateurs, the speculators, the greedy, the confused and the lemmings! God knows value investors paid for their confidence over the previous 5 years. Every single category got whacked except the shorts and cash...and probably those two will get crushed in the surprise rebound those investors are certain was years away. First time in 70 years both bonds and equities had double digit losses in the 1st half of the year...and I thought I had seen it all and read it all. Stupidity never ceases to surprise me...from others and myself! Yet, here we are...deja vu! I still think we are in for a up and down, somewhat volatile market for the next couple of years as interest rates and inflation find equilibrium, nation states fix their balance sheets and the overleveraged finally get their day of reckoning. So moving from overvalued assets to cash to undervalued assets...repeat...may be the strategy for the next while. Cheers!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to watching it. I always thought Jeremy Allen White should have his own project. He was one of the few interesting characters on Shameless alongside William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum. Cheers!

No way to prove for sure...only time will tell...but: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bofa-survey-shows-full-investor-084216443.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/feasting-shorts-last-stock-faction-202053790.html Cheers!

You know critics didn't like that movie, but I loved it. I think it's one of the best movies on cooking/greatness made. Another one I love is an old movie with Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub called "Big Night". I haven't seen it in ages, but if you love food, good acting and the challenging notion of being a great chef, it was one of the best movies of that type. Cheers!

With the rupee where it is, I would hope that FFH and FIH are injecting more capital into India and looking at more businesses to acquire. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/india-rupee-drops-another-record-035250125.html

It's one of the great movies ever made. Costner cemented his reputation as an American legend with that movie. Has to be seen on the big screen to appreciate the cinematography and when they are riding with the buffalo. The other guy today on the type of run Costner was on back then is surprisingly Bradley Cooper. He's got nine Oscar nominations now already...never won! I suspect he'll get a number of nominations and probably a win with the Leonard Bernstein bio movie he's doing. Cheers!

That was not a good western. Blazing Saddles was a good, funny western. Million Ways was more comparable to the Three Amigos! Cheers!

Both were directed by Howard Hawks, thus the clever dialogue and charismatic takes of the stars. I still have a mad crush on Angie Dickinson from what she looked like in Rio Bravo! Look at this woman back in 1959! I forgot to mention all of the westerns by John Ford...without him there would be no western genre. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" was his best western and arguably his best movie. Cheers!

Yes, seen it. Shirley MacLaine was a beauty. She stole many of the scenes from Clint...that's very hard to do! Cheers!

The Sergio Leone westerns are the standard! For a Few Dollars More is #1 for me all time...then A Fistful of Dollars is #2...the landscape, gritty cinematography, Ennio Morricone's classic scores, superb Italians playing Mexican banditos, Clint's charisma, chewed off cigar and poncho, Lee Van Cleef's grit and voice, the clever but sparse dialogue, and the fantastic gunfights. Hands down the best westerns ever made...everything else is a derivative! I love Westerns...probably seen almost every one ever made! My father was a huge fan of them, and I watched many with him. My love of Westerns has never been quenched. When you see a character like "Stumpy" in "Rio Bravo", how can you not love the genre? I agree, I wish there was a good one made every year, but unfortunately we don't get them enough, or the newer generations simply don't enjoy them as much. A pretty good one that came out recently was "News of the World" with Tom Hanks...who surprisingly had not been in a Western until now and the small role he had in "1883". "Hell or High Water"...kind of a Western...was one of my favorites of the last decade. The remakes of "3:10 to Yuma" and "True Grit" were good...different enough from the originals. "The Revenant" was good, but very bleak. "Django Unchained" and "The Hateful Eight" were fun and entertaining. The Denzel "Magnificent Seven" was quite good too...the classic with Yul Brynner still rules. "The Sisters Brothers" was really good. One that I haven't seen yet, but I heard good things about is "Bone Tomahawk". Cheers!

I can't believe I had not seen "Whiplash" till now! 7 years after it was made. In my top ten movies of all time. Just amazing...thrilling...can't give it enough superlatives! Cheers!

Now we see who has been swimming naked! This is the comeuppance of a decade of excess, overspending, reckless HELOC's, speculation, etc coming to an end. All those luxury cars that we see whizzing around Vancouver and Toronto...well, some of them are going to have to join Uber and Doordash to make ends meet! You have multiple leveraged houses with variable rate mortgages...you are in trouble! You've been using your house as an ATM through HELOC's...you are in trouble! You've been racking up credit card debt...you are in trouble! You've been living paycheck to paycheck with no emergency fund and have lots of debt...you are f**ked! Credit counselling and debt collection are going into a hard market. 5 year fixed rate mortgages in Canada are now well above 5% and are expected to hit 6-7% before the end of the year. 18 months ago you could get a 5 year fixed rate mortgage in Canada for 2.9%! Variable rate mortgages are now at 3.5-4%...double what they were 18-24 months ago, and expected to hit 5% by year end. This reset was sorely needed! Inflation is forcing Bank Governors to do what the system needed them to do earlier. Cheers!

Just finished watching all of them. Sort of a blend between 24 and Reacher. Was excellent! Pratt was just fantastic in it! Cheers!

I disagree with you on Zoom...certainly not $100B, but it is one of the few millennial stocks with some legs, no debt and real profits. I think it will get to a certain size and competitors will say easier just to take it out. Cheers!

Have been binge watching The Terminal List on Amazon tonight with Chris Pratt. Really terrific! Probably Pratt's best performance and role. Cheers!

Actually Buffett said that if he were managing small sums of money...less than $50M...he would be invested 100% all of the time. That on small sums of money, he could easily generate 50% per annum. So the truth is, that as much as I'm a Buffett fan, I'm never going to do 50% per annum and likely never even half that! I'm more of a distressed investment investor. If I can't find enough distressed stuff, I hold cash...Ben Graham's process more than Buffett's process. So the fact that you have cash at all, unless you have well over $50M in assets, you aren't following Buffett either. Cheers!

Sure. But you were wrong on cash at the beginning of the year. I believe that's 101 times now that I've said that! Cheers!

Greg felt that cash was a horrible holding regardless of environment...even when markets were at historical levels and various areas had huge speculative valuations. You feel that cash is better in this environment even though opportunities are now presenting themselves after a 20% plus drop in the S&P500 and 30% plus drop in the Nasdaq. Some areas are down 60-90%...even some stocks that are fully profitable, have little debt and generate steady cash flows. Yet you think there is still superior optionality in cash. That's what I mean that Greg was being theoretical previously...that equities would be superior going forward...and you are now being theoretical...that cash will be superior going forward. Cheers!

Good for you! Just make sure you put that cash to work when you think the opportunity is there. Otherwise you'll be kicking yourself if you miss the bulk of the rebound of the next bull market. Remember, it could very well be a sideways market where the market has now dropped 20% plus and stays in a range for the next 2-5 years with slight upward and downward movements. Holding cash when there are quality stocks out there paying 3-6% dividends with potential 50% upside on stock price and 10-15% downside, is a hell of a lot better than zero downside risk and near zero interest income in a highly inflationary environment. You could even move to 50% equities and 50% cash and hedge your bets. That would be far better than near 100% cash in this environment. Cheers!