Munger_Disciple

Not so flattering picture of BYD buses' performance in the LA area: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-electric-buses-20180520-story.html Actual range obtained seems to be about 1/3 rd of the advertised range. Only about 50 miles!

rb, You are right that roof-top solar panels reduce the temps by 2-4 degrees, but you would still need AC. You are also right the IRR goes up because the electricity you buy is $0.50/KWh. It would be even higher if the cost per KWh (to buy) is $5.00/KWh.... So you get the gist. Poor and vast majority of middle class in CA do not have solar so they bear the significant increases in electricity prices. They are also the ones to suffer from increased housing costs. You are also letting off the politicians in CA off the hook easily. Their regulations are at least partly to blame for the lack of affordability in CA. If you live here, you will understand better. The utilities are also trying to screw solar customers. They just moved the "peak" rate time from [11am-6pm] to [4pm-9pm] because they know very well you don't produce much solar energy in that period. State regulators approved this. If you want to avoid this new "peak" period, you will need to install battery storage in your house to "time-shift" your own production (which of course will result in more costs).

I live in California (I have roof top solar and drive an electric car) and here are my two cents on this "order": I think this is bad. Already buying a home is out of reach for most of Californians due to very high cost of building a home here and this will increase the cost. And it will lead to more homelessness which is already a huge problem in virtually every city in CA. Already many in the middle class are leaving CA due to high cost of living and this cannot possibly help matters. BTW it costs almost 50c/KWh during peak hours in the summer to buy electricity in CA due to the renewable energy mandates which are really a tax on people and hit poor and middle class especially hard. You can never do just one thing in economics. I predict this will make income inequality worse in CA.

Thanks Spekulatius and jimjam. I have installed StopAd and it works well with Safari but there seems to be no way to enable on Chrome browser on ipad.

Can someone suggest a good (if possible free) adblocker app for ipad? TIA.

I was surprised that there were no comments about the IBM sale & reallocation of the proceeds to Apple and about the on-going saga at Wells Fargo.

Thanks ShaiDardashti. That explains it.

I clicked the link sent by Parsad, but I don't see any pictures. It takes me to Dakshana web site but no pictures. I am using mac os and Chrome browser. Any suggestions? Thx

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/ajit-jain-donates-berkshire-hathaway-stocks-to-the-us-foundation/articleshow/59590739.cms

Good work, racemize. Buffett in fact included rolling 5-year BRK performance results in the 2010 annual report. It serves as a validating point for your thesis.

I too agree. I made the mistake of buying this book and regretted it almost immediately after seeing the first few pages. Did not read the rest. The notes are so sketchy that they are almost useless. If you want the actual transcripts of old Berkshire annual meetings, read OID.

Believe it or not, E*TRADE is the best discount brokerage to set up an individual 401k. They offer both Roth and traditional. Schwab lets you do only traditional. I set up an individual 401k for my son a couple of years back at E*TRADE.

Thanks thelads and netnet for your feedback. I received a free sample and was not overly impressed with the publication. So I think I will pass.

Wow, the silence is deafening.... Is it possible that very few subscribe to Value Investor Insight?

I am thinking of subscribing to Value Investor Insight. I am wondering if it is worth the price. I would appreciate any feedback from board members.

Buffett may be hinting that Berkshire is unlikely to beat the index by much going forward due to its size. He also said (for the first time I think) at this year's annual meeting that if the cash pile starts becoming too big like $150B, he has to think about a dividend.

Congrats Keith!

I wholeheartedly agree with Packer's advice. If you have passion for investing, just start doing it. Assuming you have a logical value investing mind set, strong analytical abilities and good background in accounting, I really don't think you need business school background or a CFA designation to be successful.

In the case of winners as a whole, both the BV and IV increase. BV increases because of the reinvested earnings. IV increases due to the return on those reinvested earnings (in other words, earnings power of the entity increases). But the ratio of IV/BV remains fairly steady. If the return on incrementally reinvested earnings is above average, one dollar of added book value will increase IV by more than one dollar.

Of course, I agree. But year to year, MV varies wildly as evidenced by -12.5% return in 2015 and +23.4% in 2016 unlike intrinsic value. But over the very long term, they do converge as we can see from the table on page 2 of AR. I think % change in BV will continue to work as a proxy for % change in IV imo. If Berkshire has a loser that goes to 0, both BV and IV of the loser go 0.

I found the following item on page 91 of the AR to be quite interesting: Lubrizol’s earnings in 2016 included pre-tax losses of $365 million in 2016 related to the disposition in the fourth quarter of an underperforming business. So it looks like Berkshire sold an underperforming division of Lubrizol!

The gap between BV and intrinsic value (IV) will increase over time as Buffett pointed out in the AR. However % change in BV most likely will track % change in IV over the long term while the absolute difference between BV and IV will continue to grow. Thus % change in BV is still a good proxy for % change in IV. Assuming MV tracks IV over long periods of time, you can actually see this phenomenon at work in longinvestor's table.

Buffett mentioned that he would be writing "a lot" about fees charged by active managers in the upcoming annual letter.

I am kind of bummed that Buffett may have loaded up on airlines. God, I wish he bought back $12B of Berkshire instead.... I know it won't happen but I can dream.

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