Dinar

If you do not mind my asking, why and what maturity? Thank you.

Lenin got power because the Czar was a spineless piece of shit who abdicated in February of 1917, and Kerensky was a spineless piece of shit who would not let general Kornilov shoot communists on sight. Read Kerensky interviews and autobiography.

Agree with everything that you are saying except for Russians will not long tolerate the economic depression that is unfolding. USSR tolerated Stalin - who murdered 10-25% of the population, and jailed another 5-10%? People were literally starving to death thanks to his policies and yet nobody rebelled. I wish you were right though!

The government's explanation will be really simple: The world hates Russia and Russian people, and this is why the West is doing it. After all, look at what the US did to: Serbia, Libya, Iraq, et all, and there were no sanctions. There is a double standard, you see. There was an old joke when I was little: an American President says to Brezhnev, your people are starving; the response is: in the US blacks are discriminated against. I lived in the USSR for a dozen years, trust me, you can explain anything and everything. Also, it does not really matter if the people believe it or not, until they rise up in an armed revolt, nothing will change. This is the wrong forum, but sadly in the US today and western world, there is tremendous censorship of unpopular ideas, or at least ideas that are not in vogue with the left wing of the Democratic party. There was always censorship in Russia/USSR but to see this in the US scares me. I am an American citizen who lives here, and this is the only citizenship that I have, and I am beginning to see parallels to my childhood. People are afraid of expressing opinions, even opinions that were expressed by President Clinton twenty years ago. We should take our cue from Elon Musk who refuses to censor unpopular opinions (even the ones that represent the view of the Russian government and make me want to vomit.) Once we lose the freedom of expression, what is to stop us from becoming the next Russia or China?

Parsad, there was Ukrainian guerrilla warfare for nearly a decade after the end of WW2 against the Soviet Union; the USSR with its battle tested army could not finish the Bandera guerrillas for a decade. Russia will defeat Ukraine, I am highly confident of that, but there is zero chance in hell that it will be able to control the territory. If it does win, it will need a local puppet government, not actual Russian control - they will not be able to achieve control.

Guys, I do not have an answer for you, but a number of my friends happen to be either Russians from Russia proper, or Ukrainians from Russia proper, all of whom live in the US. While everything that Gregmal says is true - we did poke the bear, the real problem in their eyes is the fact that Putin cannot tolerate a prosperous Ukraine next to Russia. Same people (ethnically/culturally) thriving while people under his rule are doing very poorly. Are my friends/acquaintances correct? I do not know, but that is one theory. Another, much scarier theory that they expressed is that he has gone crazy. A third one is that he just miscalculated - surrounded by sycophants who told me that Ukrainians would welcome him with open arms and Crimean campaign - a military success would be repeated again. I do think that we are making a mistake. We need to find a way for Putin to save face and claim victory (without actually winning), otherwise I am afraid this bloodshed and destruction will only continue to increase. Russia cannot win this war, but it can cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Bought Safran, and Ashtead.

Spek, what broker are you using to trade Poland? Thank you in advance.

I sold in both taxable and IRA. I swapped 70% into PM. I already own a chunk of SWMAY - 5% position for me.

I think the question is what in the best interests of Mr Putin, Mr Biden and Mr Xi? In the case of Mr Biden, I would think that he would like a crisis somewhere that would deflect attention from high inflation at home. In the case of Mr Putin, I do not pretend to know, but I would guess that he would like high oil and gas price, and hence keep tensions high around Ukraine, but not invade? In the case of Mr Xi, no idea, Chinese economy is much more robust than the Russian one, yet could Mr Xi benefit by invading Taiwan and deflecting attention from the collapse in real estate, assuming there is going to be one? Could Mr Xi decide that reuniting Taiwan with the motherland will get him eternal adoration of the Chinese people and historians? I do not know. I am more comfortable predicting/venturing opinions regarding Mr Biden and Mr Putin than Mr Xi.

Spek, you bring back memories of my German history class. Rosa Luxembourg and Curt von Schleicher say hello.

What makes you think I did not? In any case, there is no point in discussing it further.

Are you asking what would have made sense in the past or now? Today, I would choose Safran today over those two. However, between Aena and Dufry, Aena is a no brainer. Much better business, 7%+ free cash flow yield on 2023 numbers assuming traffic recovers to 2019 levels, real estate assets in Madrid and Barcelona worth 10-20% of market cap to be monetized. Dufry's business is also much easier to destroy.

Aena did NOT dilute its shareholders. I expect 2023 traffic to reach 2019 levels, and free cash flow yield to exceed 7%. You also get real estate assets around Barcelona and Madrid that will be monetized.

Isn't Aena cheaper and a better business?

could you please explain how it works?

I bought their product for years and decided that I will never buy their products again after two super expensive laptops bought in spring of 2021 quickly developed problems and their premium support basically told me to go fish, rather than apologize and offer the money back or fix the situation. So if my experience in widespread, their revenues and hence profits will be impacted. As an investor, I would never touch Dell stock given how Mr Dell has behaved towards shareholders - I doubt that my interests and his interests are aligned. VM Ware is a good example as well.

Historically a great buy signal, except for a couple of times when it went to 70! Still on a two year view probably quite attractive

There is a difference between securities in margin and non-margin accounts.

What do you have to lose? Evaluate the pros and cons. The only downside that I can see is as follows: to lend securities, your securities must be in a margin account. Thus, they are commingled with the other securities including the firm's securities. If Schwab goes bankrupt, then you may not get all of your money back if you exceed SIPC + insurance limits.

Thank you very much, will do.

Spek, I love German wines, if you do not mind sharing, where are these vineyards? Also, do you know of any good place in the US to buy Ice wine? My wife and mother love it.

Spek, Twitter reminds me of the quote about Brazil - it is the country of the future and always will be. Twitter, as Zuckerberg put is, is a clown car that drove into a gold mine. The new CEO was CTO before and their technology was lousy. They need first and foremost someone like Zuckerberg who understands how to run a business. Keep in mind neither Elliott nor Silver Lake have been able to accomplish anything. Convert issuance is crazy. Yes, the fact that this property can be bought for $31bn is insanely cheap - in Zukerberg's hands it would be worth $200bn+. In the hands of the current clowns...

Were you the one who posted the VIC write-up with the same logic on Friday evening?