Castanza

Instead do them at a too big to fail bank

SBF sentenced to 25 years oof

SCHD

I almost pulled the trigger on some more, but don't really want to size this any larger unless it gets ungodly cheap. Wouldn't mind seeing some more insider buying like last year as well.

RIP Richard Lewis

The problem with your argument is that it’s completely human centric. If the universe is billions of years old who says that timeline of “advanced beings” started with us? Idk about magic or angels or advanced alien space crafts and their source of energy. All I know is that if you took an iPad in a Time Machine and showed it to someone 250 years ago they would probably hang you for witchcraft. It doesn’t take that much to make something seem like “magic.” I really don’t care nor do I have a dog in the fight. But I think taking a hardline stance based on what we know, have and understand regarding physics as the litmus test/basis for every other potential is a bit biased. And I agree with @rkbabang which is really my only point. Regardless of what’s “true” or “possible” the pathological lying government isn’t going to be my basis for fact and opinion.

I'm on the fence as to whether they exist or not. I spend next to no time thinking about it. Statistically it makes sense...after all we are here. _________________ Incentives matter... If you want to hang your hat on the government as your personal standard of truth, by all means...go for it. History past and present would vehemently disagree with your assessment. "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

People who constantly worry about this shit are either too leveraged, carry too much personal debt, or have a job/skill that's not really that valuable and could be replaced with the snap of a finger. Manage those three things and you'll enjoy life a lot more. Tomorrow is never a guarantee. I'll be damned if I find ways to create more "worry" in my life. The only difference between the guys on Wall St. constantly spouting end of the world black swan events and the guy standing on the corner of NYC yelling at tourists is a fancy suit and choice of drug (coke vs meth)....

Who knew it was as simple as asking for a Pentagon report and then coverage by NPR

No dog in the fight but an interesting podcast. Bass is a bit sensationalist, but there is some good info scattered throughout. Hong Kong markets down 50% since Chinese takeover. China grew GDP by 500% over the last 15 years yet if you invested in the Shanghai Schenzen 300 index you would have lost 1/3rd of your money. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-study-billionaires-the-investors-podcast-network/id928933489?i=1000647605114

I rarely eat at MCD's but the wife and I were road tripping and stopped for a "quick and cheap meal." Small fry - $3.69 Large fry - $4.95 Quarter Pounder meal - $13.69 McChicken - $3.99 McDouble - $3.19 4-Piece Nugget - $3.69 We kept driving...absurd prices for borderline garbage food. Can go to a local sit down burger joint for those prices.

37k inflation adjusted Those margins can come down anytime!

1 billion repurchase program and ticked away about half of that since Nov 22

Lots of red tape around AI implementation in "knowledge" industries. Example: ASTM currently prohibits all use of AI in any capacity. So anyone who creates reports, or utilizes these standards also cannot utilize AI. I imagine other industry standards are similar (accounting, law, medicine, etc.) but not sure. Artificial Intelligence Policy: ASTM International prohibits the entry of ASTM standards and related ASTM intellectual property (“ASTM IP”) into any form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT. Additionally, creating derivatives of ASTM IP using AI is also prohibited without express written permission from ASTM’s President. In the case of such use, ASTM will suspend a licensee’s access to ASTM IP, and further legal action will be considered.

NNI, MAA, AIRC, JOE @Lance What do you like about UMH? 96% FFO already utilized for payout with not much room for growth.

Looking at Treasury Direct it says actually says "Max Purchase"...so maybe that's actually just per transaction. If that's the case then Ol'Roaring Kitty could be sitting pretty with ~1.6m coming from t-bills....not a bad way to make a living. Although I think there are a few on this board with deep pockets likely not sitting in t-bills or fixed income. To each their own I guess.

LOL who needs to or wants to be the next Buffett? Dude make billions so he can eat at Dairy Queen and Mcdonald's. No question he is the GOAT when it comes to investing. But his lifestyle choices are no different than someone making 100k a year living in the Mid-West (maybe minus the jet). No clue on how much of a hole that money is burning in Roaring Kitty's pocket...7.8m house and a bunch of cars? Seems to be a little....But he did seem pretty squared away when it came to finances. I don't picture him blowing it all. Obviously we can't be sure what he made or how much he has left, but rolling short term T-Bills at max allocation (10m) every 3 months at 5.38% currently netting you ~500k isn't a bad way to live haha....I'd take half that and call it a day.

I don't think he ever disclosed it, but he did say it was "life changing money" for his family. Some sleuths out there found that he bought a 7.8m house in Mass and has 6 luxury/sports cars (Aston, Porsche etc.) registered in his name.

Prohibition of any kind has never once worked in all of recorded human history. At most it creates short-term headwinds for those products and created black markets (self hosting nodes in this case).....this is why if you choose to own it, you should size accordingly. A "short term headwind" of 10-20 years would be no small issue to deal with if you had a large portion of assets you need now tied up. the U.S. Treasury owns 5b of BTC. I know for a fact the NSA utilized BTC for specific situations. So does the FBI...it's useful.

Governments are the largest cartels

I also think it's worth noting that we don't need to understand fully the future impact or utility of BTC to understand it's current "value." Much like the internet, the value is found in the utility derived from it's existence and the well spring of use cases that come from it.

@Cigarbutt A few books if you have the time (below) . I think to understand Bitcoin you have to understand the perspective and reason for it's existence. A large degree of BTC value is derived from the fact that it is NOT institutionally backed or that is does NOT require government entities to maintain, defend, or secure it. History tell us that ALL centralized currencies trend towards zero in terms of value. History tells us that no country or empire lasts forever. BTC offers the truly first alternative to assets and wealth being tied to said institutions and governments. Now you can believe the above and also believe that BTC is not a good investment for a multitude of valid reasons. Time for one may not be on the side of the BTC investor. Governments could issue bans on it which would most definitely hamper it's adoption and make conversion to your relevant currency impossible. This could last your entire lifetime and is a REAL risk. However I think with some advancements in tech and the ease of ability to host a node yourself this defeats the above actions in time. Lastly, if your end goal of owning BTC is only for the conversion rate you might obtain some years down the road then I think that is a view lacking depth and scope but is also reasonable if viewed in the context of your lifetime. It's all about managing your own risk and sizing accordingly. Gold -> digital gold is the first step BTC will conquer in my opinion. There is not a national currency that is backed by Physical gold. As the older generations move on, there are fewer individuals who will consider it valuable. Gold has 5000 documented years of being used as money....Some point to this as a staying power. But I look at the other end of that and think that history has 5000 years of life without computers. We truly live in the beginning of a new age for humanity and a lot of people really fail to grasp that. It's only logical that our Analog stores of value move to digital variants. - The Bitcoin Standard - The Sovereign Individual - The Network State - Softwar (The PDF can be found in this thread)

Thanks for sharing that Parsad! Definitely understand your point on wishing they held far more cash. What are you thoughts on reasoning for such low volume in Fairfax equities? It seems like everyone both knows of and doesn't know of Fairfax at the same time...But being young as I am, I welcome the low coverage/volume as it gives me more time to accumulate for cheap!

Good read thanks Saluki

Wow wild story for sure! What caused them to go after Fairfax to begin with? Pretty cool to see this board or at least the members on here play a role in all of it. btw - I'm in my early 30's