Dinar

I do not think that this is correct. Payment in lieu of dividends is when your shares are lent out. This is regardless of whether you are using margin or not. I used margin last year and none of my dividend income was payment in lieu of dividends.

It is a long-term investment. I have followed the company for a couple of years, but I was not 100% sure that the operating margin improvement was sustainable. Given the size of the tender offer and the fact that the management that owns 12% is not tendering, I figure that not only profitability is sustainable, but that there is either a massive profitability improvement coming down the pike or there is another ace up management's sleeve. Had they bought out all of the shares at $925 per share that they wanted, the stock would have been trading at 9x my 2025 EPS.

COKE - the bottler

With all due respect, where do you get the idea that Todd delivered outsized returns before Berkshire? As for size being an impediment to their performance, first of all, they clearly missed: MSFT, Alphabet, Meta, LVMH, Hermes, Costco, Chipotle, Progressive, Visa, MasterCard, and the list goes on and on. Also, somehow large size did not prevent sir Christopher Hohn from putting damn good numbers.

You mean the Muslims in India are treated the way Muslims treat Christians and other minorities in Muslim majority countries? Actually, Christians and other minorities in Muslim majority countries can't even dream of being treated the same way that Muslims are treated in India. How are Christians and Zoroastrians and Bahai of Iran treated? Christians of Iraq? Christians of Lebanon and Egypt? You cannot build a church in Saudi Arabia. How are Christians treated in Chechnya?

I was fortunate to hear Sonny Rollins live a couple of decades ago in Carnegie Hall. Still love to listen to Coltrane. You got to spend some time in NY for the music - we went an amazing Argentian music concert the other day - Pablo Ziegler.

That's funny, my college suit mate was from Mobile Alabama. Black kid who played the saxophone, although he is 15 years younger than you are.

Belgian?

So, I think that this is sadly very true. Two examples from this week: a) A doctor and his wife, $400K+ annual income in NYC, two kids, late 40s, kids aged 12 and 7. Zero savings, except for $300K in 401(k). Own their apartment, worth probably $800K (there is a mortgage on it), which was bought nine years ago, with the downpayment provided by parents. Spend money like drunken sailors - take out several times a week, camps for kids at $25K total for the summer, three vacations per year including a $20K cruise in 2023. b) A doorman (who just got fired) and his wife, a cook for NYC DOE. The guy also worked a second job. Combined income of about $100K after-tax, two kids both grown and out fo the house. Couple's age is 50. Zero savings. Why? Stupid decisions - no bank account so 3-5% paid on every check cashed, smoking a pack a day ($7K per annum on cigarettes per person) and things of that nature.

The argument is that Allies did not give a damn about saving Jews, and fought Nazis for their own reason and not for the purpose of saving Jews. This does not take anything away from the sacrifice of millions of young men who lost their lives or became seriously injured. I and everyone in the West owes them a deep debt of gratitude. However to say that Allies fought to save Jews when they took every opportunity not to is absurd.

Peace? What are you smoking? Hamas has claimed time and time again that it will fight until Israel ceases to exist. There was peace on October 6th, so if Hamas is interested in peace, why did it attack on October 7th? Hamas has never shown that it wants peace. It wants a break in hostilities until an opportune time to strike again. https://www.answering-islam.org/Terrorism/peace_concept.html. Read the Quran, and read the history of Islam.

What has Hamas exactly offer, besides bombing a humanitarian crossing?

WTF are you talking about? Millions of dead in Gaza? If Israel acted as Nazi Germany, you would not have had this war, there would have been no Arabs in Israel, Gaza and West Bank since 1967.

I cut my position by roughly 80% post Q1 results in February, and I sold the rest today. I just don't think the company is analyzable today, and if we go into recession it can be a zero.

Why? ty

I would like to know is where those losses on equity investments came from. It seems that aside from profit on the swap, return on the equity portfolio was not lousy.

Buy a farm with a supply of water, learn how to raise animals and fruits & vegetables, source of energy - ideally hydro and solar (both) and far away from civilization yet close enough so you can get it from your house.

Actually, I think 25-30 year TIPS with 2.4-2.5% real yield are a no-brainer here for non-taxable and tax-deferred accounts, assuming inflation will get measured properly.

John, I met with an acquaintance of mine yesterday, he is a retired hedge fund manager who had an incredible track record for many years. As many other very wealthy people who made their fortunes in 1980-2010 period, he is very bearish in general given the tremendous US budget deficit. He feels that Norwegian savings banks give him an investment that is extremely low risk (loans are mostly to Norwegian consumers who are in very good shape, and will be bailed out by Norwegian sovereign wealth fund), additional quirks (40% ownership by Norwegian foundations) further lowers credit risk, trade at 10x p/e with 12-13% ROE, 5%+ dividend yields, and possibly appreciating currency vs USD. So call it a 10% return in NOK and more in USD. Saw I was curious if anybody had looked at these things. He did not mention any specific names, and I have not looked into these things yet.

Has anyone looked at them?

@thepupil just make sure that you can deduct margin interest on your tax return. I got hit with that last year, got the deduction on the federal level but did not get on the state level. Painful in a place like NYC

I disagree with you. There are no switching costs, and tremendous customer concentration with customers incentivized to switch.

If you read the article, you will realize that the numbers are cooked, they are simply NOT correct. a) The figures are adjusted for inflation, however not properly. If the money for arms purchases was granted in 1960, but not spent until 1970, there is no adjustment for the fact that 1970 dollar bought far less than 1960 dollar. So when the article translates 1960 dollar into 2021 dollar, it does not differentiate between the 1960 aid spent in 1960 and in 1970. So methodology is fatally flawed. b) The chart does NOT support the $260 bn figure, more like half that.

Dude, I generally agree with you, but your numbers cannot be correct. How do you figure that Israel received $250bn since its founding. From which governments?

I am with you. I wanted to do this during the world cup in 2018, but my wife would not let me (we had a 2 year old and she was pregnant - she could not go, while she thought I'd come back with a girlfriend from there...) The country in incredibly beautiful both nature wise and architecture wise, while we are on the subject of regrets, I'd add Kiev, Palmyra & Damascus. I cannot wait for regime change in Iran - I would love to visit Isfahan, Shiraz, Persepolis, et all.