Dinar

A million Jews were kicked out of places were they lived sometimes for 2,500 years (Iraq) in 1948. Where are the Jewish refugee camps? Oh, wait, they rebuilt their lives. 700K Arabs that lived in the Holy Land in 1948 and their descendants are still unable to do so for some reason... If Arabs are allowed to kick out Jews from places that Jews lived in for 2,500 years, then why can't Jews kick out Arabs from places Arabs invaded 1400 years ago? As for bombing refugee camps, don't fire rockets from a place that you do not want to get bombed. Would you allow me to shoot at you and your family from a hospital, and if so, will you just stand idly by?

@changegonnacome, every opinion poll shows that 75% of people in the West Bank approve of Hamas's atrocities on October 7th and Hamas' call to wipe out Israel from the earth. So actually, it is your Arab friends who are genocidal maniacs! Innocent civilians in Gaza? They elected Hamas knowing that Hamas wanted to kill every Israeli, so how innocent are they? Is killing someone who wants to kill your family genocidal? To me that's self defense. As for calling Netayahu a genocidal maniac, you sure as hell have an interesting definition of genocide. Genocide is wiping out a population, not a situation where population is growing at 3%+ per year. However don't let facts get in the way of your lies.

NYC is not just Manhattan. Saying that you cannot live in NYC because you cannot afford Manhattan is like saying that you cannot afford a car because Ferrari is out of your price range.

Actually if you give up your US citizenship, then you are not. You can certainly live in NYC on $20 per hour wage, I know people who do.

Actually, if you hike tax rates on high earners, they will either work less or leave the country. Who the hell will pay 70% tax rates? Yes, you certainly can live on $20 per hour wage in NY, and sure as hell could have four years ago.

Luca, tax rates are almost 60% in the US on high income people in places like NY, CA, NJ & HI. US needs tax cuts not tax increases. As for infrastructure investment, yes, we need it, but it has to be done efficiently (not like NY underground at 3x the cost of say Paris), and financed via cuts of social spending. When in January of 2020 when there literally hundreds of help wanted adds in NY on every street offering $20 per hour + benefits, 25% of NYC was on the dole; something is clearly wrong.

There is another important difference. In the 1920s, people were ashamed to go on welfare. Today it is considered normal. In addition, today for too many members of society, welfare pays better than an honest job. Education is much worse today than in the 1920s.

@Gregmal, Greg, why do you like Diageo? Thank you.

Sold my Nintendo (I was hedged the yen) and the 17% return including dividend was much better than the rest of my portfolio.

CI at $297 and MSGE at $28.15

If you do not mind, could you explain why you like each? Thank you.

What a humanitarian! Is he talking about Russian bombardment of Ukraine?

I think SBF is a genius with zero common sense.

Why don't you take a look at Transdigm bonds of 2029? I think that they yield over 9% and I think that they are money good (I own the equity, and you got $46bn market cap)

Unless I misheard, on today's ELS earnings call, CEO said in response to a question that a very large proportion if not most of their Florida customers do not have insurance.

That was a better trade than buying stock outright. I should have just sold volatility instead

MANU

Yes

SD, that's just not true. If you listen to the interviews of people from Gaza or West Bank, they do not want to live in peace in Gaza or the West Bank. They state that the entire state of Israel should not exist and the entire Holy Land is Palestinian Land, conveniently omitting the fact that Arabs are in fact invaders who came to the Holy Land in the seventh century AD and continued Jewish presence preceded Arab presence by nearly two millennia. Arabs massacred Jews throughout history, whether in Spain, North Africa, Iraq (where Jews have lived for millennia), Arabian peninsula, and the list goes on. In the Holy Land, there were massacres of Jews in Hebron, Safed, and attempts in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the 1920s. Post 1948, there were constant attacks by Arab fedayeen from Gaza and the West Bank on Israel, with frequent killings of civilians. Jews by the way were not allowed to worship at the Wailing Wall. Israel left Gaza in 2005 and what happened? Hamas (whose charter calls for wiping Israel from the face of the earth) won elections. Rocket fire started from Gaza into Israel. So to say that all people in Gaza want is to be left alone is neither in accordance with what they say they want nor with how they act.

Keep in mind that for something like Remy Cointreau, profits are much higher than free cash flow because you are selling product that was set aside 10-40 years ago. On a replacement cost basis, earnings would be 10-15% lower, and you can see free cash flow is about 20% lower than net income.

Isn't it half of it housing driven, which goes through with a lag?

Any info regarding private placement life insurance? Any companies that you'd recommend? I agree with you that for an institution, or a moderately wealthy retiree bonds look interesting as a part of a portfolio. I would not want to take credit risk though right now, I do not think you get paid for it. I would buy Treasuries/low coupon mortgages for my fixed income allocation.

Howard Marks claims that double digit returns are now available in credit but that omits impact of defaults, and management fees. Once you adjust for that, his 10% yield turns into 6-8%. Adjust for less advantageous tax treatment, and I do not understand why wealthy individuals would go for credit.

You are probably right, and I wish it would not happen. A ground invasion would be a bloodbath.

Really? Arabs have land in Gaza. Hamas was democratically elected, there are tens of thousands of armed members of Hamas, and hundreds of thousands of their family members. Hot headed would be to invade Gaza. How does Israel's refusal to do the ground invasion is not rational? In your opinion, what is the rational thing for Israel to do?