weighingmachine

"Stalin" by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Highly recommend. Also, "Jerusalem" by the same author.

Paychex 4.8% yield and 5 yr avg div growth at 10%

Thanks to whoever it was that recommended Paatal Lok on here, that was a great acting, writing, and cinematography through the whole series on Amazon. Any others along that line?

when a Unix server goes down you have a bad weekend. when a mainframe goes down the earth stops rotating on its axis.

Story of WInmark - parent co of Once Upon a Child, Play It Again Sport, Plato's Closet, and more https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winmark-resale-at-scale/id1559120677?i=1000652711054

beyond stock and bond screeners, has anyone built/used a cash screener selecting from the TBIL, SGOV, BOXX, and various DIY options of the world? if you were to build one, what options would you use - yield, duration, sources, liquidity preferences, fees, others?

Surviving the AI Capex Boom https://blog.sparklinecapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/sparkline-ai-capex.pdf

How are people thinking about California, Alaska, and other Western region banks, now that Wells Fargo's asset cap is removed? also, here is a writeup on FFBB from Keith Smith: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4720907-ffb-bancorp-stock-truly-a-growth-company

May his memory be a blessing https://www.timesofisrael.com/billionaire-industrialist-and-philanthropist-stef-wertheimer-dies-at-98/

Zeckhauser is always interesting. Here is a book from one of his students: https://www.amazon.com/Maxims-Thinking-Analytically-legendary-Zeckhauser/dp/173534088X/

Bad Sisters season 2 is about as good as the excellent first season. Acting, writing, scenery top notch. Sharon Horgan is a real talent.

agree the post Mick Blodnick era at Glacier has been less than stellar. they still have a unique map though so one to watch

no one has mentioned Glacier Bank (GBCI) but that has been a good one over the years and an attractive niche up and down the Rockies.

@KJP on THVB what is your sense on their bench? The founders have been running it for decades now and not everyone wants to work til they are 90. Do you have any view on the next generation at Thomasville?

Boom and Bust by William Quinn https://www.amazon.com/Boom-Bust-William-Quinn/dp/1108431658/ Devil Take the Hindmost by Edward Chancellor https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Take-Hindmost-Financial-Speculation/dp/0452281806/ some free resources: Concise Financial History of Europe https://www.robeco.com/files/docm/docu-summer-read-a-concise-financial-history-of-europe.pdf Pedal Pushers: the Bicycle Bubble of the 1890s https://lookoutinvestor.blogspot.com/2020/08/blog-post.html Operating Under the Influence: the British Brewery Bubble 1885-1913 https://lookoutinvestor.blogspot.com/2020/11/operating-under-influence-summary-of.html

interesting list for sure, curious your thesis on Denali Bancorp?

anyone have small/micro US banks they follow, e.g differentiated business models (FFBB, Truxton, Hingham, University Bancorp) and/or quality management teams (West Coast Community, Independent Bancorp, Red River Bank)?

FFBB

Did not know the Iran/Iraq Jewish diaspora had such a large fraction moving east to India and China as well as western, great read, thanks for recommendation.

reported at 260 buy and looks like the sell would have been low 100s https://www.dataroma.com/m/hist/hist.php?f=BRK&s=SNOW the more worrisome thing is operational, if you read the tech threads above. Geico fell so far behind in tech by sticking w old school Nicely management for too long gave Progressive room to eat their lunch. now playing catchup and got sucked in by flavor of the month. looks like a mess.

well that did not work out too well for BRK, at least Todd gave some losses to absorb some of the Apple gains. Their dalliance looks pretty bad from an investment point of view, but more worrisome from a tech operations point of view:

On June 4, as part of the “Financial Issues Forum” series, Fordham University’s Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, the Museum of American Finance, and the CFA Society New York hosted a panel discussion on the brilliant career and lasting legacy of the late Charlie Munger, J.D., vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and long-time business partner of Warren Buffett. Lawrence Cunningham, J.D., author of Berkshire Beyond Buffett and editor of The Essays of Warren Buffett, moderated the insightful and entertaining conversation with three of Munger’s friends and colleagues. Over the course of the discussion and a lively Q & A session that followed, Donald Graham, chairman emeritus, Graham Holdings Company; Tom Gayner, CEO, Markel Group; and Ronald Olson, J.D., partner, Munger, Tolles and Olson, shared anecdotes, and reflections about Munger that had an impact—personally and professionally—on each of them.

" If you’d invested $1,000 in the S&P 500 in early 1965 when Buffett took over at Berkshire, you’d have a bit over $300,000 today. If you’d bought Berkshire instead, you’d have more than $42.5 million—a big reason why tens of thousands of adoring shareholders will gather in Omaha this weekend to hear Buffett hold court. If, on the other hand, Buffett had charged hedge-fund fees, you’d have under $5 million—still far more than the market, but about 90% less than Berkshire’s actual results." https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/theres-more-to-warren-buffetts-game-than-just-picking-great-stocks-7b58fe86

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/theres-more-to-warren-buffetts-game-than-just-picking-great-stocks-7b58fe86 spoiler: 10x lower