Munger_Disciple

It does seem strange. It seems like being appointed to this position is the equivalent of winning the Nobel prize for investing. I am guessing that Li Lu did not want to manage such a massive portfolio.

WSJ reported that Li Lu turned down the offer from Berkshire. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303467004575574630162624198.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

rogermunibond, thanks for the excellent summary.

Does this mean that you can only buy books on Kindle's 3G network but you cannot really surf and check email? It does not seem to me that it is that great Kindle option. I have the same dilemma as some of the other users: I want to carry just one device to read pdfs and ebooks. From wjhat I heard form a friend, Kindle is good for reading books and not that good for reading pdfs.

Ballinvarosig Investors, You mentioned that with Kindle DX, you get free internet for life. Can you please expand on this? I am curious if Kindle lets you surf the web and access email. TIA!

I don't know anyone who got wealthy just by hoarding gold. We see people all around us (or in Forbes magazine) who have gotten rich by owning businesses.

I will let u figure out whether I knew w/o looking up or not.

I am saddened by Mandelbrot's passing. He is one the most important inter-disciplinary scientists of the last 100 years. He did amazing work on fractals, their properties and application to fields ranging from medicine, engineering, geography, finance & computer technology.

The middle initial B was given by Benoit Mandelbrot himself. It means nothing.

If you want to short gold, you can buy puts on GLD or any other gold ETF. It is of course not the same as shorting physical.

What is a really good basic accounting book for investors & businessmen?

I would not touch CHK with a 10ft pole regardless of its upside. The CEO compensation is way over the top and in my opinion totally undeserved. If I recall correctly, there were reports that the company bought "very" expensive art for the corporate office and bailed out the CEO from his margin calls.

Grenville, Thanks for the notes. What are the most recent performance numbers for Pabrai Funds?

kiltacular, Thanks for posting the link. This video made my day. Charlie's mind is amazing.

dcollon, Thanks for your offer to post notes from Munger's talk. Given the time lag in posting the video at U of M, your notes will be very valuable.

In the book Snowball, Alice Schroeder refers to a paper written by Warren Buffett in 1967 titled "Thoughts Regarding Capital Requirements for Insurance Companies". Have anyone on this board have access to this paper? If so, please post it. Thanks in advance.

Buffett also seems to be hedging on the timing of when he may bring in one or more outsiders to manage Berkshire funds.

From my reading of the WSJ article, Buffett while praising Li Lu, seems to be hedging his bets regarding the choice of future Berkshire investment managers. Munger on the other hand seems to imply that Li Lu'0s appointment is almost a done deal. Anyone else thinks this is curious?

In general, it is prudent to avoid margin debt. Even though the current margin rates are low, the brokerages can change the margin requirements in addition to margin rates at any time of their choosing w/o warning the customer. These events tend to happen when there is general distress in the markets (for ex. Q4-2008), so it could come at a particularly inauspicious time for the investor. My suggestion to Myth465 would be to choose option 1.

Thanks for the link.

Does anyone have a copy of the goldman report?

Any comments from board members on the CFO change announced on June 4 by Fairfax? It seems strange.

Most of the "full service" brokers provide "full" service to themselves and the institutions they work for at the expense of the customer. They are basically glorified used car salesmen and get paid to shaft their customers. Aren't these the same folks who sold auction rate securities to their customers as an alternative to cash? Fire the "full service" broker as soon as possible and save yourself a lot of money and useless advice.

Just to clarify my comment, I respect Mohnish's accomplishments. However in these checklist talks, all he seems to be doing is state the obvious: learn from your and other mistakes and reduce the number of future mistakes.

Is it just me or are there other board members who find Mohnish's insights to be rather pedestrian, and not very deep?