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KFRCanuk

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    Fairfax 2010 Proxy Statement

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    "David Johnston was a member of our Board of Directors and a member of our Governance and Nominating Committee until his retirement from our Board in September 2010, in consequence of his appointment as the Governor General of Canada. In 2010, Mr. Johnston attended 7 Board meetings and 1 Governance and Nominating Committee meeting, which were all of such meetings in the year prior to his retirement from our Board."

    FFH Annual Report is out

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    I'd like to get a copy of the book but unfortunately i will not be at the AGM.

     

    This was interesting too.

     

    "As I have mentioned to you ad nauseam, you will not get a takeover premium for Fairfax as I have the votes

    (unfortunately not the equity interest!!), and even onmy death I expect my controlling interest will not be sold (my

    children are in tears!), so that Fairfax can continue uninterrupted in building long term value for you, our

    shareholders, by treating our customers, employees and the communities in which we operate in a fair and friendly

    way! You of course also know that the multiple voting shares of Fairfax will not be sold outside my family unless the

    same price per share is available to the holders of subordinate voting shares."

     

    I'm going to stick my head in the SAND and wish Prem good health for many years to come.

    Canadian: Life Long Learning Program

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My wife is thinking of going back to school. Now the trick is trying to figure out how to pay for it as she currently works full time.

     

    I looked at the life long learning program from the federal government http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/rrsp-reer/llp-reep/menu-eng.html

     

    I find the withdrawal limits to be low. I doubt I will ever have to use the program so I think I can also withdraw money and put it towards here.

     

    Has anyone taken advantage of the LLP?

    Why Do Non-Value Investors (AKA, Traders) Love SiriusXM Stock So Much?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I also became a huge Stern fan after he moved to Sirius. If he doesn't stay I will likely keep my subscription.

     

    I think the subscription fee is so small that people prefer to keep the service once they already have it. It's like getting winter tires. Most people are like "you don't need them", it becomes a different story once you tried them. People also don't tend to change their insurance companies once they purchase a policy.

     

    Oh yea, I never bought the stock even though I loved the service. Even during the dark days, I couldn't bring myself to buy any. It just didn't seem cheap enough but Mel Karmazin is the man to turn the company around. Great jockey but the company wasn't cheap enough.

    Why Do Non-Value Investors (AKA, Traders) Love SiriusXM Stock So Much?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well, not only do I fail to understand why investors are interested in Siruis, I fail to understand why consumers are willing to pay for the service.  I must listen to the radio for at least an hour per week in my car.  I have any number of stations that I can tune into for free, and mostly what I want are a few tunes and traffic reports.  I can't imagine wanting to hook into some radio station in NYC or LA, and I really can't imagine paying money for that.

     

    Does anyone on this board actually pay for the service (either monthly or in the upfront lump-sum payment)?  Am I the only tightwad here?  When I look at Ford's website, they are really flogging the Sirius and the bluetooth connectivity thing...supposedly people get all ga-ga about it and reduce their diligence in making an astute vehicle purchase (ie, the technology makes me so horny, so I don't care if car XX is truly a better deal than Ford YY).

     

     

    SJ

     

    Ford Sync is pretty darn neat from what I have heard.

     

    I have paid for the service for the last 5 years. I actually got the service before it was available in Canada.

     

    I really like Sirius XM for a couple of reasons

    1) Same channels no mater if i'm 10KM or 1500KM from home.

    2) Lots of content. I don't have a large music collection. I rarely purchase or download music online.

    3) The Sirius radio that I have allows me to pause, fast forward or rewind. That's really useful when I'm going in and out of the car.

     

    I also have an ipod that I use while I'm in the office, shoveling snow, mowing the lawn and walking the dog. It's filled with podcasts. I never use the ipod in the Car.

    Fairfax Quarterly Results!

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    Sounds like a complicated accounting fiction to me, and not the runoff having better than expected development.

     

    Runoff had pretax income of $115.2M in the third quarter, so even if we back out the GFIC gain of $85.9M, runoff still generated income of $29.3M from July to September. (page 26 in the Q3 report)

     

    Btw, when Fairfax aquires GFIC below book, it seems only natural that the book of Fairfax should increase similarly.  Here they naturally choose to put that $85.9M gain in runoff. Seems fair to me.

     

    Another thing is the way the deal is financed, I agree it looks complicated  ::)

     

    Cheers!

     

    Does everybody remember when runoff was costing $25M/quarter, if my memory serves me correctly?

     

    YEP! It would be neat to see at what point runoff is now. I suspect they are still down but hopefully the longtail nature run off will break even.

    Good article on NFLX

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I married into an Italian family.  Sometimes what some people conceive as an abusive, heated exchange, others may deem a normal reconciation process or even a plain conversation.

     

    Just saying.

     

    Haha! I agree, I'm married to an Italian too! My inlaws are crazy!

    BRK.UN Quality of Goods

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    I prefer by far to buy used furnitures. They usually sell for a fraction of the original cost and have years of use to help juge their quality. I sometimes hear complains from relatives who bought expansive new furnitures that got easily scratched in less than a year or so.

     

    What about bed bugs? Do you cook the furniture up to 60 celcius somehow?

    BRK.UN Quality of Goods

    in Fairfax Financial

    Posted

    Well emailed brk.un investor releations and asked them if they had a metric for delivery of non damaged goods on first try. I didn't hear back.

     

    It's really too bad that they have to roll multiple trucks for one delivery. I guess if they get the goods for $40 and charge $400 then it doesn't hurt them as much.

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