drog

The company just confirmed to me that Ben Watsa's comp will be the same as the other non-management directors, i.e. retainer of $75,000 per year plus $500,000 of shares vesting 10% per year. I think at a minimum they should waive the shares in this instance. In Ben's shoes I think the right thing to do would be to refuse all comp, accepting only travel and other expenses. Berkshire pays it's directors $900 per meeting attended in person and $300 by phone - with no options and no D&O insurance.Curious what other people think.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1325824120101013

The underlying portfolios (in UNC & EVT) are very international so there is actually considerable foriegn currency exposure.

Brian is one of those guys who seems to know everything about everything. I love it that his model prices are often right to the penny - I mean he must know alot to make predictions to the penny, right? You know what they say - often wrong but never in doubt.

$10.59 at RBC Dexia, the largest custodian in Canada.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/acdc7fca-bcc1-11de-a7ec-00144feab49a.html

At $103,400 per Class A share, the valuation is 1.4 times the June 30, 2009 book value. In recent years, the stock has tended to gravitate toward 1.5 times book value – while trading in a wide band around that level. Some would have us believe that this makes Berkshire overvalued. In contrast, I believe that book value understates the intrinsic value of Berkshire since the company has many terrific operating businesses that were purchased a long time ago. Buffett’s valuation methodology is to separate the business into two parts, insurance and other. He values the insurance business at a level equal to the value of the cash and investments that it holds (currently $83,530 per share). For the operating businesses, he uses an unspecified multiple of pre-tax operating earnings (excluding investment income). For the 12 months ended June 30, 2009, pre-tax earnings were $3,070 per share. This means that the market is applying a 6.5 times multiple to these operations, which is certainly too low (103,400 less 83,530 divided by 3,070). A level between 10 and 13 times is probably appropriate given the high quality and unlevered nature of the select group of businesses – with even higher multiples warranted when earnings are cyclically depressed as they are now. This means that they stock is worth at least $114,000 (10 times) and likely in the neighbourhood of $123,000. So I believe Berkshire is still very good value at today’s price.