Jurgis

Actually, you might be right. I seem to remember that as a seller you mark some boxes that allow international shipping or not. This was couple years ago. I don't know if Amazon changed anything since then.

Both numbers are very aggressive IMHO. Personally, I'm concerned even about 4% withdrawal rate. If I could be sure that I'd get 5% after-inflation return and 4% after-inflation withdrawal, I'd retire tomorrow. 8) (This is a bit exaggerated for making a point ;) ).

Can you be more specific? I went through your last 100 post history and all stocks mentioned there have a lot of discussion. For example, yesterday, ItsAValueTrap asked if anyone was interested in AAMC/RESI. I explained why I was not, but no one else chimed in with an opinion. AAMC is down 85% from peak and RESI is at 77% of tangible book. Even though I have my issues and reservations with both, I would think someone else would at least have an opinion. I tried to get people to look at Forestar ( an owner of energy assets, timber, and lots of real estate that is down a lot at a decent discount to book and undergoing activism), but there didn't seem to be much traction. I personally find it compelling but am waiting for a little more clarity and progress to size it up. No one cares about ACAS, a BDC at 70% of book (75%) after adjusting for full dilution, it will split into parasite co and host co (asset manager and yield pig BDC) this year. No one cares about Tetragon, 50-60% of book (undiluted and diluted), 6% dividend, decent mix of assets, No one cares about Equity Commonwealth, cheap office REIT chaired by Sam Zell The reality is that several of these are either not spectacularly cheap, have shitty or greedy (or both) management, and there isn't a ton to discuss about them so my expectations should be low. I just think the 1/10 of posts on BH and SHLD (which i still read and sometimes contribute to the problem) should maybe make it to other ideas. I will say I often don't have much to say about small cap australian companies or this or that so it's not like I'm part of the solution. EDIT: And there are much better more interesting ideas posted by others that get little discussion, didn't mean to make this a personal rant Thanks for your answer. It was a nice clarification. I thought that Altisource had a ton of discussion. I am not personally interested, so perhaps I am wrong. Other companies you mentioned are also not interesting to me. This does not mean they are bad ideas, just not my circle of competence or interest. OK, let me comment on one company just to clarify why perhaps there's no discussion: ACAS. I am very skeptical about BDCs after last crisis, Einhorn's book, etc. I think that like REITs, management has wrong incentives to grow, does shady deals, blackboxes, so it's tough for outside investor to evaluate and know that you're not throwing money into a dark pit. However, I don't consider myself an expert on BDCs, so I would not go to ACAS thread and say the above to people who may know the company much better than I do. So, I opt for no response. :) The above is just one example of why I - or people in general - might not answer on a thread. Take care.

55 sold! Looks like a great business! ;D Sorry to Canadians and Europeans and Asians. Amazon does not love you. :'(

Can you be more specific? I went through your last 100 post history and all stocks mentioned there have a lot of discussion.

I take a look at every single company that gets a new thread or gets new posts on a thread. However, I usually don't post there saying: "took a look, not interesting to me, thanks". So I appreciate people posting a thread about lesser known company, but I don't necessarily reply, which means that original author does not get motivated to post more. Not sure how to solve this.

I will +1 that the following features would be helpful: - Shortcut to mark a thread read without clicking on its last post and clicking back. My OC self spends a lot of time doing this for every thread that I don't plan to read. :( - Subjectmarks - following specific threads - Peoplemarks - following specific people. I don't use this, but I +1 for others. Possibly useful, but not clear if necessary, so lower priority: - Ignoring posters. This is somewhat available but a bit hidden? Also not sure if it works since I never used it. - Post recommendation that is internal to forum and not Facebook "like", which does not seem to be working correctly anyway?

+1 Grok it. 8) I think others covered the methods, I don't have much to add. I'd really love to have insta photographic memory, recall both in access and in synthesis. It really sucks to forget things, to remember only parts, to have to reread things again and again. I'd love to be able to remember the growth curve of Starbucks twenty years ago, the margins, the issues encountered; or the cost of the barrel of oil in Bakken vs GOM and exactly what goes into the cost, what companies are involve and so on. But you pretty much have to do what vinod1 is doing to achieve that: write, write, write. And for me this is often too much like work to write tiny details and revisit them and so on. It's nice if Munger internalizes things by reading once (?maybe?) and Buffett can recite See's sales for last 20 years, it's competitors and their sales and their margins and so on. I can't.

OT. I don't want to get into long discussion about ethics and morality, but overall these are much more complicated subjects than "Utilitarianism is stupid" proclamations. For people interested in current professional thoughts on the subject, I'd suggest Coursera course - there's at least a couple ( Edit: this: https://www.coursera.org/course/practicalethics and this https://www.coursera.org/course/moralities - unfortunately, neither is currently running, perhaps they will schedule new sessions. ). They usually have reading lists with newer papers too. No, there are no easy answers and universally accepted truths. At best, you can see how complicated the subject is and perhaps pick up some things that click or just raise questions in your mind. Peace.

I am not imposing my position on you at all. You are welcome to hold any beliefs you want. The only thing I said is that others have different beliefs that may be as valid or invalid as yours. Claiming that your philosophical point of view is right as a fact - which you did - does not make it so.

I'm such a Luddite that I don't have one. Might you suggest a model? Sorry, this was a bit tongue in cheek. :) I am paper-book-luddite too. I usually lug books with me on airplane and swear at the weight. :) From my limited experience, don't buy Kindle just before you go somewhere. You might hate it and then be stuck with it and with no paper books. Try it beforehand, preferably borrow from a friend. In regards to actual model, I think it's personal. There are Kindle apps on tablets, so some people just use iPad or whatever Android tablet. There are actual e-ink black-and-white Kindles, then there are color-lcd Amazon tablets they call Kindles. What you will like will depend a lot on where you read (inside or on beach), how long you want the power to last (e-ink is much longer), will you want to do other things like Internet on the same device (e-ink Kindles do not work well with that). Other people might have their suggestions. Take care. :)

That's a philosophical and possibly ethical position you hold. You may think that your position is universal, but it's not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism Edit: In my opinion most of Northern European socialistic countries are pretty close to the best systems and places to live. If not for the weather and need to integrate into society, I'd love to live in Finland, for example. But that's just an opinion. :)

Take a Kindle (with satellite link if there's no other Internetz in the cottage) 8)

Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi. ::)

You are welcome to opt out by moving to a place that follows your laws/morality/etc. You are not welcome to opt out by staying in the country and refusing to pay for the services that are provided by the government. Persuade others to adopt your laws and morality or create your own country. Calling it "legalized theft" is just your opinion. It doesn't make it a fact. I suppose not. Democracy is the system based on the theory "there are more of us than there are of you, so do what we say or else". The political manifestation of might makes right. Yes there are more people who think like you than who think like me, and yes the threat of violence from the majority is what keeps me paying my taxes. Force is additive while things like intelligence, empathy, and morality are not. It is the tragedy of the human condition. You are stronger so for now you win. Pray tell me how you are going to build your system without basing it on the force. Completely free market? Free market is also based on force: force of money. Empathy and morality? Whose morality? Yours? That's also a force. To quote you "You are stronger so ... you win". Democracy is not ideal. But at current level of human development there is nothing better. Perhaps in the future we will have Borg, communism, libertarian super free market, but none of these work well currently or in near future. Also clearly some democratic countries are more corrupt/lawless/messed-up-in-other-ways than others. So yeah, there is already some morality/intelligence/empathy embedded in the ultimate result.

Actually, it is. And I am very happy to live in society where it is. Oh, and I would love to live in society where all the members provided resources for the above things on their own volition, but currently that's impossible. Democracy comes close, but clearly not close enough for you. If people change and become more conscientious in the future, perhaps this can be made more voluntary. As for the current system: Taxes are not theft: they have been voted for democratically by the population in most cases. If you don't believe in democracy, well then nothing more to say. You are wrong with your example of agriculture without slavery: it existed way before slavery was abolished. Societies without slavery existed for thousands of years.

Cause obviously you have tons of real world examples of your libertarian nirvana working in practice. Not. You don't have a single one since it does not exist. And hundreds of years of progress in a mixed free market and government regulated economies can be written off as " legitimizing theft and violence by paying protection money to thugs" Nice.

FT article accessible at http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a26068f8-04b0-11e5-adaf-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3bSGE3FBa for free for people who have login (I have non-paying account) and/or via search-engine backdoor. I won't rehash my position about CEO pay - it's all in LMCA thread (edit: link: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/lmca-liberty-media/1020/ ) (although I'd be fine if it was moved here). No further comments. :)

Possibly BKLN/SRLN, though you have some risk of loss if you need to sell during market crash.

I believe Buffett (currently with or without Munger - sorry, Charlie!) is a moat. That's why I have said that I'll very likely sell my BRK position when he dies. ( Edit: reference to a thread: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/berkshire-hathaway/when-buffett-is-gone-whither-brk%27s-intrinsic-value/ )

OK, I agree with what thepupil said.

OK. But then the question does not make sense to me, since you need more info than just return on portfolio investments to evaluate the worth. Perhaps Vinod will clarify what he meant.

Is 7% return-on-book or return-on-current-price? Even if stock market returns are going to be 5%, 7% return-on-whatever is nothing to be excited about. So, if FFH is expected to return 7%-on-whatever, I'd only pay 0.50-of-whatever for it, so I'd have 14% return. Someone wanting 10% return, would pay 0.7-of-whatever.

You don't have to have 100M to answer that question. How many here heavily invest into innovative companies just because they believe in them? :) I have small positions in couple, but it's probably less than 2-5% of my portfolio in total. I think the debate might end up in what different people consider "innovative" ;)

SoonParted, you really have to ask FIH directly. Let us know if you get a response. :)