Xerxes

Apologies. I am not on my best behaviour in these type of threads. in fact a while back we agreed to forgo political discussion. lol. Looks like Sanjeev resurrected for I don’t know what. In my own twisted logic and way of thinking, I associate waiving off Israeli extremist in their government as “ignoring” and “bias”. That is just me and my Achaemenid bias. Israel is not committing genocide. War crimes perhaps. But it doesn’t mean it cannot or will not. Was Hamas committing genocide. Yes.

What exactly do you define as “right wing? Because compared to Arab nations, Israel is about as progressive as they come. Right wing ? any people or group of people bent on annihilation or submission of another group of people. Hamas, Ben-Gvir and his ilk, Ali Khameni all fall into that basket. Their hatred can be codified into slogans, into direct actions covert or overt. The excuse that “ohhh look we got Stalin, but it is better than Hitler” is frankly not answer. Nor the excuse that it is “western democratically elected” so it is all good and takes a pass. For Christ’ sake, Hitler was democratically elected. That didn’t make him nor cabinet any good. And yes Hiter 1933 was not the we came to know until 1940s. Women, Children, humanitarian zones, aid uniforms and other disguises have been utilized by many Arab “nations” to wreak havoc on opposing forces. what do I do with this comment ? I am talking about West Bank. I have no clue what you mean or trying to say with this seemingly random high level comment. Would you rather be a Jew in Gaza or a Palestinian in Israel? is that a joke ? Of course I rather be a Palestinian in Israel. Did I pass your test for biasness ? Guess what you didn’t pass mine.

Thanks Ulti, that is very helpful For me it is more like an acid test, if folks in North America cannot even acknowledge some of the unsavoury character in the Israeli cabinet (w/o making excuses), they are just repeating talking points.

I don’t follow (nor care) about campuses that much. It should be a place of learning as far as I am concerned. That said, i rather be a Jewish person in North America* dealing with antisemitic morons than be a Palestinian in Gaza/WestBank with no prospect and to be shot dead depending on the mood of the IDF soldier firing the bullet and/or indirectly by Hamas thugs. The dead don’t care about politics. *Being a minority in North America, that I am use to it. As far as your example of 1930s, maybe you should look into extreme right factions in (elected) Israeli government. Somehow it has become ok to kill “vermins” and to de-humanize a whole population. Fine, it war. It is ugly. Hamas, Gaza, Nagasaki, Hiroshima. Blah blah blah. Go all in. Make a splash. A “few” bad apples shoot unarmed women walking down the street. Ok. Makes sense that is not systematic. So solve me this riddle ? why is the killing in West Bank have gone up. So is it really Hamas, or much more than that. How deep is that expansionary right wing ideology has seeped itself into IDF and their society.

“Spies of Warsaw” on Prime is an okay show. Covers the few years leading right up to Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the invasion of Poland. Sadly much like BBC tv shows, all nationalities speak English for our sake. Except Germans who speak Germans.

It is incredible. Buffett presented the now infamous slide in 2020’ AGM, where he showed the world biggest Japanese companies in late 1980s, and contrasted that to the FANG era, yet he kept and let Apple run for 4 more years and just now he started his “trim” for tax reasons. Berkshire is happy to pay tax, but Buffett is also very happy to arbitrage against potential corporate tax increases and offset with Paramount tax losses.

Two vipers can talk and understand each other perfectly fine. Leave them be.

Bibi has to tip-toe, manage and balance the most racist part of his Government (worse than himself), that want Greater Israel and full extermination. I don’t like Bibi, but I ll give him this: He is between rock and hard place. But sometimes the choice is easy: when Hamas does stupid things, than siding with your own extremists is an easier pill to swallow. The extremists on both sides want one thing, convert everybody on the fence to their hateful ideology. And that takes death and destruction as jet fuel.

It is not Foreign Affairs, BBC World News nor The Economist. Don't look for great analysis: on one hand the Israeli did this, on the other hand Hamas did that etc. It is a clip is about a person expressing a strong opinion and dislike about Bibi. Naturally, filled with his biases. Right or wrong.

When will you guys learn, if you just take one side, no matter what side it is, your so called analysis is worth shit.

I don't know what you are getting all excited about in your SUDDEN "analysis", on this fine Sunday evening. You just have to read The Economist (a Western newspaper) to figure out all you need to know about IDF, its government and its mistakes. And yes denying a population food and water, is a 'weapon of war', that sadly both Tel Aviv and Hamas are fond of using. Less exciting and "picturesque" Gulf War of 1991, but call a spade a spade. IDF follows orders from a government, which Bernie describes it best. Bernie is clueless about economics, but nails it with run-of-the mill azzhole like Bibi.

He just meant that Berkshire will hold a substantial hoard of treasury bills, whether they pay 1% or 5%. Naturally it would be better for the Fed to get a lower rate, if the buyer would park money in it regardless. It was meant as a joke.

This is really good. M’lord Boromir is now M’lord Cromwell, the King’ Hand to Henry VIII This is a great mystery, thriller.

I thought clarifying Greg A. as the end-all capital allocator was important. Clearly ahead of T&T. It is a company for Christ's sake with a CEO as the top dog, not a socialist political party with different fiefdoms, where grey zone (potential conflict) could exists between T&Ts and Greg in the post-Buffett era. T&Ts are in fact legacy of the Ancien régime, where Buffett needed help with getting ideas, to incubate and seed large positions. In fact, the entirety of equity investment portfolio besides the very large 4-5 and Japanese positions are not really worth keeping and/or spending time. Greg may or may not keep them, but it is his call to make. I would clear the deck in year 1. Buffett had the best-in-class lieutenants during his time as the benevolent CEO, so he had free time chasing Paramount, Activision and Cable cowboy's tracking stocks etc. Totally insignificant, but it kept him busy. The fact that they exist is a historical to how Berkshire came to be. Greg would be running the business as an industrialist-operator and not as a founder-equity-investor. No time for trading stocks.

1 more just now !

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/value-investing-with-legends/id1459993408?i=1000654410861

Buffett has some big competition tomorrow. It is also Star Wars Day. May the Fourth Be With You.

Berkshire Hathaway 25 years from now. … with Wall Street watching.

to flip this comment, we could ask if Berkshire had $25 billion market cap today in 2024, does one expect it to have a portfolio filled with “Coca-Cola's, Amex's, See's Candies, Apples” and the likes of it. probably not

It is interesting how we the folks in the West are viewing this. Through the lenses of geopolitics .. NATO this, NaTO that, Putin this, Article 5 that, Munich 2008 meeting this etc. I bet actual Russians and Ukrainians are seeing this as a “family quarrel” or a civil war of sort. Geopolitics being secondary to that.

If Buffett ever uses a special dividend at some point it will be IMHO for “signalling” reason telling the regulators to chill-out vis a vis BHE. Better to give back it to the shareholders than “throwing more money at bad money”. I don’t think he will ever issue special dividends for the sake of creating a lower base, to grow from.

congrats sir, Your article is also pegged to the Berkshire stock news. On an unrelated note, I am must admit, i am bit confused on the “architect” difference between BRK (pre-GenRe) and FFH today. Same market cap, but the float size was vastly different as a ratio to each other. Is that in your opinion an accident of history in their life cycle at those points in time or preferred “architecture” whereby in BRK case most of the market cap was hinged on retained earning as oppose to the size of the float.

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/money/other/buffett-favored-mitsui-rises-after-announcing-share-buyback/ar-AA1nXzr4

thank you so much happy you had a great time there

I think it was Koffman who spoke to this more than anybody else. He suggested that neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian armies today are the armies (in terms of composition) that we saw in early 2022, given the high level of attrition. Ukrainian army has lost its youngest more capable, Western oriented generation and today the army is led by more its Soviet-influenced officers, coming out of retirement to backfill. These folks are more top down as oppose to Western style self sustained decision making at unit level that characterize the early days. Also, my understanding was that Western advisors were leaning on Ukraine to use combined-army approach, (land and air forces working in close collaboration to make breakthrough), and that at some point during the offensive Ukrainian high command throw in the towel and revert back to what it knows best: artillery duels. Koffman view (if I remember correctly) was that it was a mistake for the West to lean on them to do something they were yet ready for. Something along those lines. Valuable time and resources were lost. One thing that Ukraine has done really well is waging asymmetrical warfare in the Black Sea and deep within Russia using drones. It doesn’t win your lands back but I suppose you got to keep hitting where it hurts at the underbelly.