zippy1

Ha! Ha! Ha! That is a really good one!

Hsinchu Taiwan --> Austin TX ---> Plano TX---> Hsinchu Taiwan A 20+ year journey.

Actually, more than one directors of Mr. Wang's fund are connected with this other fund. Also, I do wonder how small funds like these can sustain themselves economically. An asset base of US$15M with 1.8% expense ratio is only US$270K. Now for PRGRX, I am wondering why they did not pull the plug.

Actually he seems to be a humble guy trying to invest well by himself and avoid fame and notoriety. I don't see him claiming to be the "best in the world" himself. Quickly looking at his holdings over the years, they actually have some overlap with stocks mentioned here.

Hardincap, there is your answer. Bac has 12 per share of TBV and over 20 BV, once goodwill can be assumed ok. Rather than waiting for BAC to buy back shares, you can buy as many as you want at a price cheaper than BAC will ever get. you're missing my point. I WANT bac to buy back shares at these valuations alongside me. We are not "missing" your point at all as many of us were through the Fairfax journey. We just don't agree with you that it is the priority right now.

this publicity is going to boost RL ratings. And he will replace that advertising. In fact wait 6 months when this blows over and many will be back. One advertiser, Carbonite (CARB) , is down 9.5% since Mondays's withdraw of their radio ads to "ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.” Lets see how long this interest in civility lasts in the face of falling revenues. http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/06/investors-flee-carbonite-after-limbaugh-announcement/#ixzz1oPzzWTUi Note to CEO's: Inserting your company into a heated political debate is destructive to shareholders and a no_win situation! Onyx1, To be frank, this particular company is losing $1.84 per share. So the price decline may not have anything to do with the CEO's pulling ads. There are 29 companies who withdrew their ads, if on the average they did fall more than the benchmark index(es), then I will buy your argument.

It would not be. Thank you.

Would it be polite to contact the Schloss family, after the grieving period, about getting a copy? Sorry, I am a foreigner. I am not sure such things are typically done or not.

Did Buffett make this kind of statement? Are you just putting words in his mouth? I happen to agree with Buffett. Should I also just write a check and shut up, too? Should everyone who happens to agree with BUffett also just write a check and shut up? If you don't want to hear from us, why do you bother getting on this board considering you have "one" post about investing?

When one subscribe to OID, the interviews are included in the free back issues in a spellbinder.

According to Bloomberg, it is arond 14-15. http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/PESHANEW:IND/chart/

Is J.P. Guerin related to Rick Guerin of the Pacific partners in any way? I remembered seeing an article on Forbes years ago about J.P Guerin investing money in movie industry... http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/0612/6514414a.html

His aunt goes to the same church as we do here in Hsinchu. Plenty of my co-workers are rooting for him once they found out that he is playing in NBA. I guess the question on the value board should be "is there something similar to the moneyball situation that there is some hidden value that no one noticed?"

It not only fulfilled my expectation, it actually more than fulfilled my expectation. I actually bought more than 20 copies of the Chinese version and gave them to the engineers who work for me.

I recall that last time we had a topic like this, we got hit with a major downturn. So I am double checking my thesis on my holdings.....

I pointed out earlier though that under a dividend franking system we could give US corporations the ability to pay tax-advantaged dividends out of after-tax income (so the individual doesn't pay tax twice on the dividend). The individual would then only pay tax if his personal tax rate were higher than the corporate tax rate. I find it surprising that I've never heard this kind of system discussed anywhere in the US media. Scenario A: A corporation that pays no tax will be one where the owners need to pay up to the highest marginal income tax on any dividend. Scenario B: A corporation like Berkshire that is a good corporate tax citizen (pays up to 35% marginal rate) will be able to distribute tax-advantaged dividends that are not taxed twice (individual only pays tax if the personal income tax bracket is higher than the tax rate paid by the corporation). Pretty straightforward solution to this long running argument. Perhaps the players aren't actually looking for a solution? The Republicans likely want a 0% individual tax rate, even if the corporations also paid nothing. The Democrats likely want to tax the dividends twice if they can. Actually, this is similar to how Taiwanese tax system works, I think.

Tim, It would still be far more fair than the status quote, one would think. Are you proposing, instead of what Buffett proposed to move the rate to 30%, to move to 36%, in order for the proposal to be fair? I am confused by your statement. Now, you are saying that since the proposal does not raise the rate on the "super-rich" high enough, by your standard, so it is unfair? And even more unfair than the status quo?! Your line of thought just do not strikes me as logical and self-consistent. Zippy. I am saying that if Buffett truly believes his argument regarding his taxes and those of his staff that he, if he is consistent and truly seeking fairness, must call for his taxes to be higher than all of them. So he should be calling for capital gains and dividends to be taxed at a rate of greater than 41%. I say greater because using Buffett's logic to its ultimate conclusion would also note that it would be unfair to pay the same rate since his annual income is 50 times what his staff's is. Thus his solution to unfairness is just reduced unfairness. That is wimpy. The solution to injustice is not reduced injustice. It is justice. If he truly believes his position, it is inconsistent on his part to argue anything short of a higher rate for him than his staff. If the "wimpy solution" is already so hard to implement with your such vehement opposition, what is the chance of the truly brave proposal to be passed in your view?

In late 90s, for a while, it would seem that Microsoft was there.....

Tim, It would still be far more fair than the status quote, one would think. Are you proposing, instead of what Buffett proposed to move the rate to 30%, to move to 36%, in order for the proposal to be fair? I am confused by your statement. Now, you are saying that since the proposal does not raise the rate on the "super-rich" high enough, by your standard, so it is unfair? And even more unfair than the status quo?! Your line of thought just do not strikes me as logical and self-consistent. Zippy.

I agree that traders and bankers serve a purpose. I just couldn't figure out how hi-frequency trading helps the economy and how allowing banks to become "too-big-to-fail" is necessarily good.

I guess that is the reason why some people are leaving NY and CA and moving to places like TX. People do have some control about which state they live in order to minimize their state tax. However, I used to work in a major semiconductor company in north TX. We always try to recruit from silicon valley. However, my understanding is that it was very hard to recruit people from CA to TX even with the much lower tax rate and much lower cost of living. CA probably will keep charging people current level of high tax rate so long as it can continue to attract enough poeple to come or to stay.

I lived 16 years in both Austin and Dallas, Texas and if I remember correctly, the sales tax rate is above 8% and the property tax rate is the 2.5-3.0% of house value. However, there is no state income tax. What are the sales tax rate and property tax rate in CA? Isn't CA has a very low property tax rate for house? I wonder if CA should abondon income tax and start tax houses at 2.5%-3% of the house value like Texas?!

Sanjeev, Are you out for lunch? Wonder why Fairfax is flying. Happy New Year and thank you for this wonderful board. Zippy1

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Would like to thank Sanjeev and all board memebers for such an excellent board.

I was a foreign graduate student studying in US back in 1990 and saw a book called "1985 Bill James Abstract" in the university library. It really opened my eyes. I did not know at the time that basedball can be analyzed in a structured way. I would not have guessed that it will become accepted by the pro baseball teams. I think reading about Bill James' work prepared me for accepting value investing later. If you can find some of those early Bill James' abstracts, it is definitely wrothing reading for its way of thinking.