tooskinneejs

Three questions: Bitcoin et al. are purportedly their own currencies, albeit in virtual form. Are there any other currencies whose prices are stated exclusively in terms of currencies other than their own? I can easily move, exchange, and transact in U.S. Dollars electronically with little or no cost. Aside from non-traceability for conducting illegal transactions, what is the advantage of a virtual currency rather than a real one? Why is buying a virtual coin or token more logical than buying a virutal car, virtual land, a virtual business, or virtual tulip bulbs?

One thing that drives me bananas is when posts "quote" (i.e., copy) a chain of 10 other prior posts instead of just quoting a pertinent sentence or two to which they are replying. Maybe this is something that can be improved in the COBF 3.0.

Sounds similar to what happened in the airline industry in recent years. They all stopped competing so hard on price and rationalized their fleets. Now the real question is how long will it last?

Experts have been predicting climate catastrophes for decades and I'm still waiting for one to come true. See this link for some fascinating examples... https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1109923374568890368.html If we can't predict the weather next week with a high degree of accuracy, I have a hard time believing we can predict the weather 100 years from now. It's ridiculous that everything is now being blamed on global warming climate change: hot spell - climate change, cold spell - climate change, dry season - climate change, wet season - climate change. I remember after hurricane Katrina, experts predicted that due to 'global warming' we were going to start seeing major hurricanes regularly. And then we had no major storms for many years. It doesn't matter how inaccurate their predictions are, the experts just keep right along forecasting doom and becoming ever more fervent each year. We now have young people pledging not to reproduce because they don't want them to suffer through end times that are just around the corner. It's really a sad state of affairs that so many otherwise rational people have joined the doomsday cult that is 'climate change.' I'll make a prediction on this topic though. 11 years from now, when the world doesn't end as AOC has predicted, she'll have a new and improved forecast that says the world is still going to end but that it will just be another 12 years out. Gotta keep the fear mongering strong!

7.9%? So nobody guessed correctly?

"Third, it is likely that – over time – Berkshire will be a significant repurchaser of its shares, transactions that will take place at prices above book value but below our estimate of intrinsic value." Buybacks rather than dividends.

I suspect there is another Holmes out there - a guy who once couldn't get a job as a teacher and now leads a purportedly very large overseas company. His rags to riches story kind of reminds me of the gym teacher who went on to lead WorldCom.

Great video, thanks.

I've always been intrigued by The Buckle based on their long history of nice net profit margins, high returns on equity, and good dividend. And it has certainly gotten very inexpensive relative to pricing in recent years. All that said, I can't pull the trigger on the stock because I went into a Buckle store several months ago and - while I am admittedly not their target customer - I found their merchandising to be pretty darn awful. With the styles they were selling, they are likely to have an extremely limited customer base (think "the guy who wears an Affliction t-shirt"). Looking at their website now, the clothes look very different. Less "i'm going out to see the UFC card tonight" and more "edgy casual." Anyway, unless they swing their product assortment back toward the mainstream at least a little bit, I could see them having a tough road to hoe. Has anyone been in a store in the last month or two? Does it still have the Affliction vibe? DISCLAIMER: No offense if you wear Affliction T's (they are the best, coolest, and most rad shirts ever and I don't want you to come and pound my skull into dust).

You may also want to try the free screener and "maps" at finviz.com

Sorry for my grumpiness. I'm just tired of the anti-productive bickering between politicians and the fact that no one is giving the guy a chance to show whether he will do good for the country. The press should be honest and not focus on petty things and Trump should respond less to trivial matters like this. And yes, I agree that accuracy is equally important on both sides.

"Does it concern you that the very first press conference by the President's team was centered on "crowd size for the inauguration" instead of anything important?" Presumptuous and misleading question. The conference was on truth in news reporting, as evidenced by two examples of dishonest reporting. But it was clever of you to miss the forest for the trees purposefully in order to get the little jab in about it being unimportant. Some people think truth in news reporting is important. Maybe you don't.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Looks like it will be fun to watch.

The best advice when you see companies touting adjusted earnings results: Run the other way.

This board isn't what it used to be. Aren't there a thousand or more other places where you guys could go online and argue about politics without ever convincing your opponent to change their mind? Why ruin this board too?

Hillary made a similar comment about Obama in 2008 (she was going to stay in the race in case someone assassinated him) and even Biden said in 2008 that if Obama tried to take his guns Obama would "have a problem." Neither Hillary nor Biden were really threatening Obama and no one with integrity claimed they were. But when Trump makes a similar joke, all bets are off and its a suggestion to assassinate someone.

Once again, someone projected their beliefs as to another group's beliefs. Kids in Jewish preschools draw Jewish stars all of the time. The symbol is something they are proud of, not an offense.

Eli G, I take it you aren't Jewish. Am I right? Even if the star in his retweet was a Jewish star, which is typically represented by the outlines of two opposing triangles (see the Israeli national flag), it wouldn't be derogatory. The Jewish star is no more derogatory to Jews than the Christian Cross is to Christians because both are symbols of their religions. It is fun, though, to watch people desperately try to make an issue out of something that isn't.

Saying guns are the problem would be like going back 80 years to Nazi Germany and saying gas chambers, not Nazi views, were the problem. Bad people will always find an instrument to cause the destruction they seek.

I recently re-read Buffett's 2013 shareholders' letter in which he recommends an investing approach for non-professional investors as follows (this is how his cash will be invested for his wife): "My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.) I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors – whether pension funds, institutions or individuals – who employ high-fee managers." What would you recommend for a 70 year old grandmother who doesn't know a thing about investing, but is both patient and won't need access to the money being invested (i.e., she has other funds off of which to live comfortably)? Thanks.

I'm not saying he is mentally slowing down. But literally the pace of his answers was very slow, which kind of gave me the impression of fatigue. And he did certainly have trouble catching the gist of some of the questions, although I agree that some of those questions went on and on and on at ridiculous lengths.

I enjoyed the webcast. My biggest takeaway was that Warren seems to be slowing down, unfortunately.

Here is a link to this year's live stream of the shareholders' meeting. It is being streamed on Yahoo Finance. Enjoy. https://finance.yahoo.com/brklivestream The stream starts after the opening movie. Wish we could see the movie too, but at least we get the rest.

The comparison to Hitler came up in response to Trump's suggestion to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the US until we had adequate vetting systems. Hitler wanted to exterminate a large portion of citizens within his own country. By attempting to temporarily ban Muslims immigrants from Syria - some of whom may be ISIS infiltrators - Trump is trying to ensure that a portion of our population is NOT exterminated. In other words, Trump is trying to accomplish the exact opposite of Hitler. Did you know that most of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting were minorities and some were Muslims? Odd then, to compare Trump to Hitler when Trump is trying to prevent another San Bernardino with more US citizens (of all stripes) being killed. Sorry, but the analogy to Hitler is one of the most illogical arguments I've ever heard. And I say this as someone who voted for Obama twice.

I was a long-time user of Turbo Tax Deluxe until last year when they moved the stock gain/loss functionality to the Premiere version which cost about $80. I switched to H&R Block software for about $30 and was able to import my Turbo Tax data from the prior year. Turbo Tax and HR Block software are almost the same in ease of use, but the price difference was huge.