Xerxes

awesome. Was looking for the title. I ll go with your guess. thank you https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Express on a different note started to watch White Lotus … Omg !!

Have you read this one ?

Anyone seeen this movie. saw it on FB

It would be fascinating to know what equities Prem holds in his PA outside FFH (which constituted +90% of his wealth) I think Atlas was in his PA, and now it seems BB as well. Stelco ?

It seems we were misled by Trudeau. There was an actual case of espionage behind the arrest of the two Canadians in China. I want and demand compensation from Trudeau for creating negative biases in my head that made me avoid going back in China. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/canada-s-spavor-blames-fellow-prisoner-for-china-arrest-1.2000388.amp.html

The Benicio dude was scary in Sicario. He was great in Snatch as well. Oh yes !! The glorious go-go 90s. It seems so far away now.

BB additional common stock purchase could be close to the end of Q3, meaning that the 13F didn’t capture the rest of it, which could be in Q4. In any case, I am speculating. That said it is peculiar. We don’t have all the facts. Same for Farmer’ Edge. That said the one recent piece of news that I do find interesting is this piece from The Globe that Viking posted. I realize that it says “in personal capacity”, but I just wonder if a coal side project is a best use of one’ bandwidth. I am not sure why Pierre Lassonde find so mystifying. This is Glencore we are taking about with all of the commitment it is making above and beyond purchase price. Not some consortium of three amigoes wanting to get into coal business as a side gig.

^^^^ Here is the actual podcast. As it happened I listened to it several days ago not because of the comment about AI, but rather because it is Brad Gerstner speaking. This guy is my hero. Upbeat, willing and able to make an impact, outside the investment world. It is nice to listen to someone who is on the same wavelength as you. You seem him coming on CNBC now and then. Big bull on Booking (for a long time), Snowflake and others. Also as it happens in this specific episode he talks about Ted W. from Berkshire. You might find that part interesting. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/art-of-investing/id1708212587?i=1000634603785

To think of it, we all made fun of FFH calling the IPO of Farmer’ Edge “monetization”. Looks like it was indeed actually a “monetization”, we were just missing the last chapter, which would mean FFH would monetize on the spread between IPO and take out offer.

oh no. Prem Watsa is pulling a Bruce Flatt. Flatt is bad guy. Watsa is good guy. the narrative now changed. Both bad guys.

I seem to have not seen this (missed this), Stelco declared a $3 special dividend. And the stock largely bottomed in the low $30s.

Lol thank you @John Hjorth the reason why i made the comment is because the Business Insider article referenced John Malone. I figured only AI would randomly pull “recent” cross references (in this case Malone) on a Berkshire related article.

I wonder if that Business Insider article (shown on Yahoo) was written by AI. Prompt AI : write me an article about Buffett. Focus on cash pile. Extract and include recent Mungerism references (if any).

yeah. That would be a fatal blow to Markel’ Berkshire aura. That said I would think that Berkshire investment team’ bandwidth is better spend looking at stand alone operating businesses, where they can bring to bear their expertise. Than opaque conglomerate-like creatures like Markel and/or Fairfax.

Certainly this must be a blow to Markel fanboys. Position cut by 66%. At the end of the day, while Berkshire might be a cornerstone foundational investment for Markel, the latter is just a security/tracking stock for Berkshire. They come and go. Ping me, when there is a +$15 billion position.

There was a time in the 90s, the stated goal was to get a ROE of 20%. That target was downgraded to 15% as the overall franchise grew. I don’t remember when but maybe late 90s. All this to say that there would a time (2030s ?) in the future that the goalpost might change to 10-12% from 15%, as the franchise grows further.

Few folks from my family and friends had also crazy low rate right before Covid, I think all of them bought back the car (exceeded the option) to re-sell as second hand in late 2022-23. Unknowingly all of them were very (correctly) shorting the bond market with their unintentional trade.

The book (and conventional view IIRC) considers the pulling of two army corps and one cavalry division from the outmost right-wing sweeping through the Low Countries as fatal.

i am on a self directed tour in south east Asia. Seeing five cities in three countries. Kuala Lumpur was two cities ago. So already left. Now in north of Thailand in Chiangmai. Will probably do Vietnam and the rest of Thailand in 2024 on a different tour. Hope to be able to do this in India soon. Assuming I can figure out which part to tackle first. The sheer size of India is staggering. But like compounding I guess you never start until you start.

Meanwhile looks like Modi is scrambling to save face with Qatar government after its sailors were caught spying. The eight are facing the death penalty. https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/India-lobbies-for-8-nationals-facing-death-penalty-in-Qatar but worry not a local YouTuber says it is masterstroke by Modi. Came up first on the search engine.

Non-state terrorism “coolness” is cyclical. “Coolness” comes and goes with interest rate. State terrorism is always cool. Must be the use flashy gadgets.

the trailer : https://youtu.be/yAN5uspO_hk?feature=shared

@This2ShallPass this too shall pass

Reading a book that covers the last chapter of the Romanov dynasty. I am half way through the book about when the first war starts. There are some eerily similarities to 2022 and the way it was conducted. ^^^^ …. on the Russian side “the Supreme Command ordered, but the railroads decided” …. ^^^^ the jealousy between the minister of war and C-in-C who was a Grand Duke. The then minister of war in 1914 sound very similar to today’ minister of defense: Shoigu ^^^^ The minister of war holding up ammunitions and artillery shells to undermine the Grand Duke … lol ^^^^^ The Kaiser summarizing von Moltke battle plan: “Lunch in Paris, dinner in St Petersburg”

From WeWork to WeBankrupt