Xerxes

I don’t go often to NYC, but the two times in the past 15 years or so, that I was in NYC, I was passed by the JP Morgan library. I would highly recommend. Below are not my picture. I just took these from the net. Gives an idea. It is not huge, but just the Red Room makes it totally worth it.

I want to get myself a Lego set of this Dark Eagle for Christmas.

done

In Q4 of 2016, Prem Watsa and team sold off their bond portfolio and shorten its duration. That was around the election of President Trump. Today, the bond portfolio is already short (shorter than 4 anyways), the hedges are already off. And the size of the overall business is just bigger than 2016. Do you believe that there is an event-driven trade with the U.S. election this time around that FFH has up his sleeve. ref: 2016 investor letter

Masayoshi Son invested less than $100 million into a growing, foreign country during the dying days of Deng Xiapoing era. At some point it was worth $200 billion, and I think he sold in various transactions at somewhere around $70 billion, half century later. There were many reasons for the Japanese investor to liquidate his position anytime over 20 years as an investor in emerging market. Tons. Looks easy in hindsight.

The Canada-India dispute and comments on FIH, reminds of how Buffett in his letter kept reminding his BRK investors of the nature of insurance business and that when bad news come, is not the time to acknowledge that it is inherently risky. FIH invest fully in the Indian market all 100% of equity capital. One should always expect to encounter roadblocks, tailwinds and headwinds for a fast growing foreign market with massive potential, aspirations and many pitfall along the way to keep things interesting.

six responsibilities only … what about capital allocation Clearly the McKinsey boys have not read Thorndike’ outsider book

There is also a period of time I think age 71 (I know you are far away from it) when government will force you to dismantle the RRSP. And will tax you accordingly. isnt more prudent to reduce your exposure to RRsP much earlier as oppose to adding to it, as you are doing by shifting from taxable to non-taxable.

That is my source as well. Great book. I read it about 10 years ago. Along with Cohen’ work on Goldman Sachs.

yeap. Not to mention that there was also a spin-off to comply with then regulatory environment, which should also be in the post-JP Morgan (the person), IRR: the spin-off of Morgan Stanley, the investment bank arm of JP Morgan. JP Morgan (the company) was no longer in the business of investment banking up until 1990s, decades later, and only after Clinton-growth era that saw the dismantling of the regulatory environment that saw JP Morgan re-grow its investment bank franchise organically.

yes thank you starting minute 5 Re-listening now. funny how i remembered whatever I wanted to remember. She is clearly “no” on both regular and special dividend, just that the latter scores lower on the sin level.

There was a short CNBC interview with BRK board member back at the AGM, where she made it clear that there will be no regular dividends, but perhaps one day special dividend.

Hasilp i am set to arrive in Delhi in December. Flight booked but itinerary not even started. Then got the news from Trudeau this past weekend. Does this affect your plans ?

Thank you. Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend means, time to catch up on reading. I would say that when it comes Norway, Finland and Sweden, and the Baltic powers in general my history is “lacking”. So i enjoy reading up on tidbits here and there.

This is more of a Brookfield story as the 51% owner of Westinghouse, with Cameco owning the balance 49%

Good read. As always from Byron Callab

I presume you read War and Peace in English. … and not Russian. Even though French is my second language and English being third, I would have a hard time reading books in French. Yet, a French-written novel must be read in the original French. And thus War and Peace must be read in Russian. Yet we don’t have enough lifetime to learn new languages. A pity

I was going to say the same as Infoeisone. As in owned by private banks in the form of non-tradable stock.

I suppose it is hard to justify to “own” a central bank whose primary mission is probably not aligned with its shareholders all the time. I think Swiss central bank was also “investable”. In the same vein, Aramco which has I think 2% of its shares publicly traded, may have great cost advantages and dividend but if one buys those shares, one is investing in Saudi foreign policy and national interest. Nothing is wrong with that, if that is what one wishes, but just to say that it is not purely based on shareholder interest and maximizing value, even if 98% of ownership is with the Government.

thanks Bizaro Did you have TC Energy previously … and kept it post-spin. Or you were just interested in the oil pipeline assets.

Couldn’t find a Trans-Canada thread, I ll drop this here for now. TC Energy spin off of its crude oil pipeline into a new corporate entity called South Bow. Saddle with debt but sports a high dividend yield at current market price with a clear vision of reducing leverage before growing the dividend.

Damn. I stop listening to Chit Chat exactly when you said last year, it is as the name implies “chit chat”, look elsewhere for quality I think it was it AutoZone episode.

Then there is Imperial Oil. Massive outperformance for a “cyclical” company. not the only cannibal in the sector, but one that did well.

Beautiful White Mountains in NH. Got lucky with the weather and timing. Never seen so many pumpkins. Beats Canada.