Parsad

There was some criticism of Prem's previous comments about Henry Singleton and Teledyne, but everything we are watching indicates that not only is Prem buying back a ton of Fairfax shares through course issuer bids and total return swaps, but Fairfax positions are also buying back massive amounts of their own stock. Should bode well for both Fairfax and their holdings! Cheers!

Resolute is buying back $100M in shares on top of the 15% they've retired over the last year. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/resolute-announces-share-repurchase-program-220000977.html

RBC and TD - personal accounts. Scotia is CMC's corporate account broker. UBS is our U.S. GP and U.S. fund's broker. So not as much money as you might think! Cheers!

Yup, RBC, TD, Scotia and UBS. Cheers!

Biggest mistakes were selling when I thought the stock was at intrinsic value. I bought a bunch of Overstock.com LEAPs in March of 2020 when the stock was around $7.50...both in my fund and my personal accounts. I also bought quite a few shares at $2.99 in my personal accounts. I thought intrinsic value was around $25-$35, so I sold half of the LEAPs in my fund when the stock was between $25-30...I made 8-10 times my money. I also sold the shares in my personal accounts through the same range, but was smart enough to sell the remaining LEAPs when the stock was at $40-45. Did very well really! But if I had held the LEAPs and stock for a few months longer, I would have made 30-40 times my money! A difference of several hundred thousand dollars in my personal accounts and about $3M in my fund! Cheers!

Steinhardt gets lifetime ban from buying antiquities...unfortunately avoids jail time! Cheers! https://news.yahoo.com/hedge-fund-founder-steinhardt-return-185644763.html

James Simon's family office invests in multiple AI businesses: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-office-billionaire-renaissance-founder-125601904.html Cheers!

Has the fears of the past come home to roost? Is China's debt-fueled, real estate bubble about to get taken down? China has managed to keep things afloat so far, but watching this video and reading the stuff I've read regarding how overbuilt China is...is it a global calamity about to show its fangs! Cheers! https://ca.news.yahoo.com/chinas-real-estate-crisis-indebted-151812957.html

AI assists in the creation of cellular, replicating xenobots. Cheers! https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html

I thought I would start this thread on the field of AI which is garnering more and more investment, and is starting to affect our day to day lives. The area will be greatly beneficial to humanity, but carries certain risks, and could be extremely disruptive to many businesses. Feel free to post articles on here and carry on discussion regarding AI. Cheers!

Canadian insurers are going to take a big hit from this. It certainly is the worst natural disaster in British Columbia history, and I would imagine it ranks very high in terms of Canadian disasters. Just the Abbotsford area, which is where much of the flooding is happening in the Sumas plain, you are looking at well over $1B in losses...just property, infrastructure, etc. Add business losses, crop damage, livestock losses, impurity of water sources, etc...I would imagine the losses are approaching $2B over the next few years. Then add insurance losses in other areas like Merritt (much smaller) and other small towns, you are looking at another $1B-$1.5B. I would imagine total insurable losses in all forms...looking at $3.5-$5B! Some of those losses like infrastructure, water impurity, etc will be covered by different levels of government. But I see at least $2.5-$3.5B of damages hitting insurers directly through present loss claims and future total loss claims. In the short-term the supply chain issues have been exacerbated because the primary highway across Canada has been cut-off in Abbotsford. It should be running again in the next week or so. There have been signs of milk, egg, dairy, poultry, beef shortages in grocery stores across BC as the Sumas plain region is home to significant agriculture for BC consumers. People aren't starving or anything, but they are restricting the amount on each purchase in some locations...such is 2 containers of milk, 2 cartons of eggs, etc. per puchase. The Trans-Canada pipeline was also shut, so there is fuel rationing of 30L per purchase occurring throughout BC until December 14th. They expect the pipeline to be running again within a week or so. Cheers!

It should be back up to normal speed. Please report any issues on this thread going forward...that way I can have the IT guys inspect the problem. Cheers!

For your viewing pleasure: https://www.cnn.com/business/economic-growth-indicators?utm_source=optzlynewmarketribbon Cheers!

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/25/business/sears-kmart-last-holiday-shopping-season/index.html Once the equivalent of Walmart and Amazon combined...soon to be forgotten and lost in business lore! Cheers!

I've sent an inquiry to our host/service provider. I was having the same issue myself, but I thought it might be related to the flooding issues we’ve had in Vancouver, and some slowdown in service with our internet provider locally. Should have an answer shortly. Cheers!

Thanks for the great response posts Glider...much appreciated! Cheers!

Good to bring this post around again, as we are now entering the season of imbibing! Please update your current refreshments in your cabinets you are tasting, or plan on buying for the yuletide season. Cheers! You can't get this everywhere unfortunately, but for the last three years I have been drinking a fair amount of this Empress Gin made by Victoria Distillers and the Fairmont Empress hotel: https://victoriadistillers.com/ http://www.bcliquorstores.com/product/6968 Really is fantastic by itself or in mixed drinks! Cheers!

Long-term, maybe a portfolio of FFH and an S&P500 ETF is the way to go. We know that FFH has little correlation to the S&P500 and tends to do better in down markets. At the same time, most growth stocks are represented in the S&P500, which Fairfax rarely invests in. This is what I've told my brother to do for the family accounts if something happens to me...1/3rd FFH, 1/3rd S&P500 and 1/3rd cash to put to work when markets turn down in a big way. It's simple, low-cost and effective for the long-term...while letting him and his family sleep at night. Cheers!

He fired Sokol after almost a similar matter of semantics...is he going to remove Howard from the board? Cheers!

It's hard to drink Dom Perignon at full price, when you are doing just fine with Two Buck Chuck at 50% off! In other words, hard-core distressed value investors don't like paying 18-20 times earnings for anything...even JNJ! Cheers!

A member asked for a separate John Malone Related Companies board, which isn't really possible without adding more boards for other companies. So the next best thing is a separate thread solely for all of the various companies he is/was involved with. Feel free to discuss all of them on here or stuff related to them. Cheers!

Thank you Viking! But I'm sure Greg will respond with "If any decent CEO was running Fairfax, they would get rid of Blackberry! What a POS! C'mon guys...been a 7 year turnaround already!" And with that..."bring in the young guys who are hungrier!" Cheers!

Yeah, I was going to remind you of that. Cheers!

Long-term that only works if the cash flows are consistent or growing. Buybacks of a business with declining cash flow does not have the same positive effect. Cheers!

I remember when people were saying that Buffett should have retired...ironically back in early 2001 when Buffett was in his early 70's. A well known money manager who worked for Michael Lee-Chin at AIC Funds was sitting next to me at the Berkshire AGM (my first), and said to one of his associates that when he gets back to the office on Monday, he's selling all of the Berkshire in the funds he was managing for AIC...these were his exact words, "Look at these guys, they look nearly dead!" I had just put my entire net worth in Berkshire B's 14-18 months earlier when it bottomed out at about 0.8 times book! Interestingly enough, I've got about half my net worth in Fairfax stock for the last 14-18 months bought below 0.65 times book, and here we have jokers screaming for Prem to hand over the reins. Hope history repeats itself! Cheers!