Zorrofan

I believe WEB once remarked that if you are playing poker and can't tell in the first 30 minutes who the patsy is, you're it.......something for the CBRL board to think about before agreeing to any request cheers, Zorro

I had a brief moment of panic and thought something had happened to Prem! But congrats to Paul..... cheers Zorro

I love when BRK buys yet another utility and I have long urged for FFH to follow suit. But I wonder if this study has an interesting point worthy of consideration when it comes to renewables and the potential for disruptors...... http://www.eei.org/ourissues/finance/Documents/disruptivechallenges.pdf cheers Zorro

Thanks for posting - I am looking forward to hearing about Kass vs WEB. Wish I could see that! cheers Zorro

I think Buffett should make Gates the Chairman and Vice-chairman for Howard Buffett, when he and Charlie are gone. I think that would give more comfort to shareholders and management. Cheers! I agree Sanj - Gates may or may not partcipate in the more hands-on day-to-day operations of BRK but he could help ensure the "corporate culture" WEB has built remains....... cheers Zorro

Thanks for posting all of this - it is much appreciated! cheers Zorro

Thats what I was thinking. Also I may be mistaken in holding cash hoping for a correction only to find out that fed won t let that happen as it will be there buying, in order to support and stabilize market Is it illegal for fed to buy equities? anyone verify that? I believe it is currently illeagal for the FED to buy equities directly, but I am sure they could come up with a work around if they wanted....... cheers Zorro

According to Google Finance, roughly 578MM SPX shares traded today. At the average price range for the day of 1,586, total dollar volume traded today was $916.71 billion. So if global central banks put 10% of their reserves into US stocks, that's 1.2 days of volume. 20%, is 2.4 days and so on and so forth. Seems like a non-issue. Central banks can print money - so in theory couldn't they just print off as much as they wanted to (not just reserves) and buy stocks. An over simplification I know, but in theory this could be a big deal. Or what am I missing?? thanks Zorro

Just like there will always be those who call WEB old-fashioned or out of touch, I supose there will be those who dislike Prem. And can you blame them? I mean really, all of that honesty, integrity and fairness. Treating shareholders like partners? Not taking a multi-million dollar salary and huge stock options? Outrageous behaviour!! So to be fair, I offer to buy your FFH stock for $0.01 - just to take it off your hands. This is a time limited offer so please act fast..... ;D cheers Zorro

WEB once said that he would be disappointed if the share price didn't drop with his "retirement" but given that BRK now has a share buyback program in place how deep or long would any drop last? not long IMHO..... cheers Zorro

What are the best ways to play this major trend? We can buy gas producers with the lowest cost, like XCO and UPL. We can also buy oil producers with a lot of gas in production, like SD. What other options do we have? Pipeline construction companies? Auto companies that will launch nat gas trucks? Thanks! WEB plays the oil boom via rail shipments. I recall reading many years ago that the people who got rich during the gold rush were those selling shovels....we need to find our "shovel" ;D cheers Zorro

Are there not several export terminals coming on line over the next few years? I believe one in Canada starts in 2015 and there are several in the US with start up dates in 2017? When you are old like me 2017 is not that far away..... cheers Zorro

I really am enjoying this thread, so here is my small contribution. Love him, hate him or ignore him, this chart is from Zerohedge.... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-28/chart-day-deja-vu-all-over-again cheers, Zorro

Sadly, few CEO's follow WEB's example and far too many follow TW's........it will be a sad day when WEB now longer runs BRK. Cheers, Zorro

The only difference is that the Government of Ireland actually took measures to fix the country's problems, while the Greeks seem to be more interested in denying/delaying. Buying into temporary disorder is potentially interesting, but buying into perpetual chaos? Not sure this is the best idea! SJ Greece is certainly not as strong as Ireland. Still this is interesting to study. I remember in 2012 Q4 letter, Dan Leob also pointed out that they bought a ton of Greece national debt and feels bullish about Greece's future. Ireland wasn't as strong as Ireland two years ago. There are preferred shares NBG.pr.a that trade in the US. The dividend is non- cumulative, and suspended. I am going to look at the prospectus when I am flying in two weeks to see if they can issue new prefs before they re-instate the dividend on existing issues. They have also been tendering for prefs that are cumulative. I did very well on RBS preferreds. IMO, it's not really about whether Ireland was in better shape 2 years ago than Greece is now. Rather, it's a cultural thing about whether a country has a propensity to have an adult conversation to acknowledge the situation that it's in, identify practical solutions, and then accept the bad tasting medicine. Canada did it 15 years ago. Ireland did it. The United Kingdom is doing it. I have faith that the Americans will eventually have that adult conversation and make adult decisions. All of them are primarily anglophone, advanced economies. On the other hand, I am completely unconvinced that the southern european countries are able to actually have that adult conversation and actually take the bad tasting medicine. I hear ridiculous denial from people when I travel to France. In Spain, I wander around in disbelief about how things are run...or are not run. The Greeks that I have spoken to point the finger at the Germans for their problems. All of this is unbelievable. Maybe I have mis-assessed our southern European friends, but I just don't think that they have the collective emotional maturity to take the bad tasting medicine. Sorry to all those whom I've offended. SJ SJ I don't disagree with you but I would like to add one comment. Germany did help in this whole process and benefited greatly. For years they enabled the southern countries to purchase goods from Germany (they are a major exporting country) and only now when the southern countries can no longer afford to purchase German goods do we hear talk of austarity......so they did have a small role in all of this. I trust FFH has thought things through and hope we end up with a big chunk of a large, profitable Greek bank one day. First Ireland, now Greece, FFh may end up as the largest "Eurobanker" when this is over! Cheers Zorro

But are they really so different. FFH has invested billions in the last couple of years, while holding the hedges. Alot of investment has been internal, expanding the insurance empire. With cash dividended to holdco, and subsiduary holding company cash they have been buying private businesses that are certainly going to suffer if another recession hits. It is looking more and more like a mini berk, excepting the hedges. Prem, like Buffett is always opportinistic. I expect they no longer have to take the value garbage such as fbk going forward. Buffett has been doing the same, using his operating cash flows as his hedge. Quite frankly, Buffett must have the best real time economic data available of any private investor on Earth. Berkshire is a microcosm of the worlds supply chain. I love the idea of FFH following WEB and becoming a mini-conglomerate like BRK, but I hate the businesses Prem has bought - flatware, sporting goods, restaurants? FFH needs to follow BRK into more essential services. Buy quality not cheap crap!! Why not buy a large stake in a small utility company, and grow the position over time when prices are favourable? But buy something better than flatware!! There, I feel much better having vented....... cheers Zorro

I am having a difficult time reconciling the difference between TW’s actions, which one could call questionable at best, and Prem’s apparent support, given the ethics and standards Prem conducts himself with. Perhaps Sanj, who knows Prem better than most on this board has some insight? http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/02/06/exclusive-sandridge-gives-ceo-wide-scope-to-cut-his-own-land-deals/ Cheers Zorro

Should be an interesting time! cheers Zorro

Hi Myth, Always good to get your thoughts..... The TPG letter raised some rather good points. Recent revelations about the amount of compensation TW has received in the past few years and the five corporate jets have among other things shaken my confidence in management. The sudden decision to sell the Permian Basin doesn't inspire confidence in management either. Part of me would like to see SD put up for sale, and frankly IMHO it will be. Rumors abound the either Devon or Repsol are interested in a buyout. However I want more than a fire sale price. I think that if new management is installed we would see better returns over the next 3 or 4 years than a quick sale would bring. The best option would be to install a new board, remove TW, and have a new management team start working on maximizing asset values by laying out a new, coherent strategy and sticking to it. Reduce expenses to the bone - sell off the new HQ, cut head office staff (really do we need hundreds of people at head office?) and sell the jets. Maybe look at funding development of the assets through a joint venture with someone like Repsol. SD is likely worth $30/share and I would like to see around $20 of that if possible so I advocate a slower process to maximize value and not a quick sale. Prem is the wild card. He can help TPG and move the process along or he can support TW. However IMHO it is only a matter of time before something happens as most shareholders at this point are not going to back TW. IMHO of course..... cheers Zorro

I had posted this on the SD thread. I am not sure why Prem is supporting TW. Here is an interesting article by Devon Shire, who posts on this board, but under a different name (that I can't remember ) http://seekingalpha.com/article/1015741-sandridge-shareholders-don-t-owe-ceo-ward-any-favors Here is an interesting point that I wasn't aware of.... One fact summarizes the appalling corporate governance practices of SandRidge - despite the single worst stock performance of any energy company, and among the worst stock performances in the entire US market, and massive discounts applied to the company because of management…payments to Mr. Ward from the company have totaled approximately $150 million over the past five years (astonishing, given the $3 billion market capitalization of the company). - The most disturbing example has been the Executive Well Participation Plan, (similar to the founder well participation policy at Chesapeake Energy that caused enormous outrage earlier this year). When concerns regarding Mr. Ward's ties to Chesapeake Energy arose this spring, Mr. Ward repeatedly asserted to us, other shareholders, and the media that SandRidge was different, and that over time he and the company recognized the inappropriateness of this practice, and eliminated it to avoid any appearance of impropriety. We investigated his claims, and were appalled by what we found. It is true that SandRidge has eliminated their Executive Well Participation Plan. However, they did so immediately after the market collapse in October 2008, by then paying over $67 million to Mr. Ward, even as 1) markets were collapsing, and 2) the company had less than $1 million in cash and was facing real risk of bankruptcy. Would love to hear more from Prem on this whole issue. At the very least lets put some new members on the SD board like Longleaf and Carl Ichan did with CHK..... cheers Zorro

I am curious about the board's level of support for TW and the current board. There have been some interesting revelations about TW's compensation package and a lot of confusion over the strategy at SD. I would love to hear Prem comment on this whole matter..... cheers Zorro

Great, now I have a craving! ;D cheers Zorro

Was wondering if anyone has seen an update on WEB's health recently? thanks Zorro

I didn't see Dateline yesterday - I had made plans to watch but alas forgot. And you are correct that "this too shall pass", it is still sad none the less. cheers Zorro

" the record number of Americans living on Food Stamps — 46 million or 1-in-7 in 2011" This is a very sad fact to consider, unfortunately Rosenberg may very well be correct about this being a depression. cheers Zorro