alpha

NY fined Geico for data breach: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/new-york-fines-geico-98-million-over-data-breach-2024-11-25/ Looks like your personal driver info is worth about $84

Looks like Warren is still bullish on Japan https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/berkshire-hathaway-raises-19-bln-bond-deal-term-sheet-shows-2024-10-10/

Jain sold half his Berkshire holdings as the stock price peaked https://www.barrons.com/articles/berkshire-hathway-stock-sell-jain-buffett-7421346b?mod=hp_LATEST

I believe the US department of transportation has already published drafts of vehicle intercommunication standards and open protocols that automakers will have to implement by law eventually (timeline depending on how much lobbying goes on)

Curious if anyone has done this recently too?

The last time Germany and Russia partnered up, the Russian soldiers celebrated by raping 2 million German women. As far as economics go, East Germany to this day still lags West Germany by most economic metrics. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106687768 https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/11/06/east-germany-has-narrowed-economic-gap-with-west-germany-since-fall-of-communism-but-still-lags/

Just a suggestion... it would be nice to create a separate thread for the annual report discussion and keep this one for general news updates.

Burying power lines is non-trivial, there are parasitic energy losses from the change in capacitance when the wire is placed closer to the earth. I believe this is not an issue in "distribution" lines, but for "transmission" lines it would require changing to a HVDC system which requires expensive equipment and limits distance. From what I have read it was "transmission" lines blamed for these fires. There are numerous other factors to consider too; for example I believe above ground lines have been proven to be more resilient in seismically active areas, etc...

Good Interview Haryana Anyone have thoughts on Sanmar? The Q3 valuation seems odd considering Lubrizol moved forward with construction of the largest PVC plant in India back in October.

Another Flying J in Kansas received federal funding to install EV chargers. It will be interesting to see how many of the stops qualify for the federal grants and how their electrification strategy develops. https://governor.kansas.gov/governor-kelly-announces-more-than-4-6m-for-six-fast-charging-ev-locations/

https://cstoredecisions.com/2023/12/05/pilot-opens-first-stations-in-coast-to-coast-ev-charging-network/

RIP

FT had a piece on the Indian markets this week, surprised there hasn't been more demand for FIH shares: https://www.ft.com/content/b8d901f4-7306-4b8d-8ce2-4589f7e3f3f1

Howard Buffet is meeting with President Zelensky in Ukraine -

I don't think you can compare the 2 markets without factoring in a bunch of issues like: immigration rates, vacancy rates, building codes, property taxes, landlord/tenant laws, financial regulation/ money laundering laws, environmental laws, government lending programs, etc... pretty much all of these factors favor higher housing prices in Canada. I can't comment whether the valuation should be 2 times higher but currently there is definitely a supply/demand imbalance for housing in Canada.