cwericb

"General Discussion: Feel free to talk about anything and everything on this board" "Topic: Question For Those That Voted For Trump" With all due respect, I find it ironic that some posters here are calling for this thread to be locked. The title is clearly political. Why would you read? Why would you post? Are you in favour of censorship? Why stifle free expression of opinions? No one here is forced to click, read or comment on this or any thread. Yes, the subject may be divisive, but on the other hand it does tend to reveal the thought processes of posters on which one might rely for investment opinions.

Value^2 is the pet board troll. Sometimes we humour him so he thinks we appreciate his 'brilliant' comments.

Make Canada Great Again! YES! And Donald Trump will do that as he drives skilled people out of the U.S.

Donald is making poorly thought through decisions, with no concern for consequences. In business and in life he could simply walk away from those poor decisions. The leader of a country does not have that luxury. “Every night, every comedy show on the planet lampooning the Donald, and all of them getting progressively more ambitious.” DT is a narcissist. Watch as this develops into paranoia.

The Donald’s biggest problem is that he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth with a large helping of entitlement. Because of that, it seems that DT has never had to cope with the consequences of his bad decisions. When he made bad decisions in business, he just walked away and let the businesses go under. It will be the consequences of, and the retaliations for those bad decisions that will lead to his undoing. He is way in over his head and probably will never learn that a president can’t shoot from the hip as one may do in private business and then just walk away from your failures.

I hate to harp on this subject, but if Trump is so detached from reality that he doesn’t understand that instituting a 20% tax on Mexican imports would make Americans, not Mexicans pay for his wall than how dumb is this guy?

Still haven't had an answer to the question I posted earlier: Can someone explain to me how slapping a 20% import duty on Mexican goods coming into the US is going to collect money from Mexico to pay for the wall? “The White House on Thursday said President Donald Trump is considering a 20% tax on imports from Mexico to pay for a southern border wall ...” Now I’m certainly not the sharpest tool in the shed, and obviously I am missing something because I thought that if an import tax was placed on imports from Mexico then U.S. taxpayers would have to pay those taxes.

This stuff just gets surreal. Can someone explain to me how slapping a 20% import duty on Mexican goods coming into the US is going to collect money from Mexico to pay for the wall? Compared to the United States, Mexico is a small and very poor country. Why is Trump constantly trying to bully Mexico? He obviously dislikes Mexicans as was plainly evidenced by his remarks when he tried to influence the court decision on his Trump University scam. And of course he wants to blow 10-15 BILLION of US taxpayers dollars on a (and how do you say this without snickering) 2,000 long mile "great wall". Should it ever be built - which it will not - it would become a monument to stupidity likely known by future generations as "Trump's Folly". Then he wants to start a trade war with Mexico which is one of the US's best trading partners. And in doing these things I am sure he has managed to insult every single Mexican citizen. Yeah, I think he will make a great president and diplomat.

And PS. I am not a Trump fan. I do not like him. I think he is a dangerous buffoon. However, I hope to be proven wrong and I sincerely hope he becomes one of the greatest presidents ever. But like him or not, he is the democratically - elected - president - of - the - USA and to those of us didn't support him, give him a freaking chance before criticizing and protesting against him. Three months, six months, a year, from now if he is screwing up (bigly) then go out and protest or whatever. But for crying out loud wait and see what the guy can accomplish before trying to pull the rug out from under him. That's my 2 cents worth.

“... the board would be much improved if political discussions were aggressively moderated. You're right that political events can have effects. But that is not close to what is being discussed here. Most of the posts in this thread have absolutely nothing to do with investing. They are attacks on either politicians or other posters.” Seriously?? Really?? Why would anyone say this? Furthermore, it is not the “board” that is involved in political discussion. Of the thousands of threads on this board, there might be a handful that are directly involved in political discussion. Furthermore, the catagory says: “General Discussion - Feel free to talk about anything and everything on this board.” Isn’t that plain English? There are thousands of threads on the board. No one is compelled to read or involve themselves in any discussion. Sure we often disagree, and sometimes heatedly, but isn’t that what makes a “discussion”. What makes you think our discussions should be censored? Should discussions on FFH and BRK perhaps be censored for negative comments? The value of this board is centered around discussions of the positives and negatives of specific subjects. But if you don't want to be involved in a political discussion, why would you click a title that says “Question For Those That Voted For Trump”? Why on earth would you not expect there the thread just might be a little political ? The election results were controversial, Donald trump is controversial, so why wouldn't any discussion involve some controversy? This is not a children's board. We are adults having adult discussions and the idea that we should have our discussions censored by someone is really just a little over the top.

If anyone thinks this is mainly a political discussion board than they have likely been drawn to certain specific threads involving politics, rather than the board overall. Having said that, one might keep in mind that politics in the U.S. has taken a major turn in politics that can and will have a substantial impact on markets both in the U.S. and around the world.

I tend to get frustrated with those who complain about FFH because I believe they actually do know what they are doing. But no one is right every time on all things. I have a large percentage of my portfolio in Fairfax and have been that way for about 10 years and I am quite satisfied. Yes, I had to grit my teeth in the recent slide but when I look at my portfolio as a whole it was pretty well evened out by my other holdings - holdings that I probably wouldn’t have owned if not for my belief that FFH offered some protection on the downside. Petec and I are on the same page “Then again, a big position in FFH was what gave me the confidence to have the rest of the portfolio in stuff that has gone up recently, so the position has done its job for me.” And again when you says: “The hedges were always justifiable IMHO based on 1) long term equity valuations (even if they were dead wrong) and 2) protecting a levered company (they were insurance and were repeatedly explained as such)” The last part of this quote is 100% correct and yet many investors still couldn’t seem to grasp this no matter how often and clearly it was stated. In general, over the past years when markets went down, FFH went up, when markets went up, FFH slid, maintained or went up. It has also provided me with a balance against Canadian dollar depreciation. To me, Fairfax has been insurance of another kind.

Haha, I was thinking that Cardboard. :) While I find DT's methods and rhetoric offensive I am all for giving him a chance to see how he handles the next 4 years and sincerely hope he is able to convert me to a fan. This is why I was very much against the protests that were spreading across the country. The guy was voted in democratically so those who were protesting against him need to suck it up and see what he is actually going to do in the coming months before complaining about it.

Not to hijack the thread but... “Two major reasons for that is abuse by patients with many still going to see their doctors for minor scratches, colds and doing things that they could do on their own such as blood pressure. Also, how much is spent each year on free and repeated STD's detection must be out of this world. People paying a little bit for each visit would help a lot.” This is a pet peeve of mine. I have always thought that the Canadian medicare system could be drastically improved if only we had a small basic charge. Even a $10 or $20 charge per visit with a maximum of something like $100 per year. It would stop many of those nonsense visits that consume doctors time and the revenue produced would help defray other costs. For those concerned about the fee increasing and eroding free medicare, require an act of Parliament for any increases, or tie it to the inflation rate. Or does this make too much sense?

"The irony here is that I bought and held Fairfax mainly as protection against a market correction. Turns out that the only thing that corrected was Fairfax while the market soared. " Ditto. I don't know about you but I am starting to run out of antacid.

I agree. But I wonder how Trudeau can back off on the carbon tax and not lose face. I also think Trump tends to look favorably towards Canada and that Mexico is his primary target for the time being. Also - people can say what they want about NAFTA, but every agreement has benefits to both sides. It is easy to use it as a target politically, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty there has to be advantages to the US as well in that agreement.

"15% tax on foreign buyers since August 2 and major tightening around mortgage rules. If the real estate bubble deflates or worst pops, along with still weak oil & gas activity, what is going to be supporting Canada's economy? Imagine the effects of a banking crisis... " Add to this possible changes to NAFTA, softwood lumber deal, the auto sector, etc.

"USA hopefully." Haha, I was thinking the same thing. On the serious side, we will just have to wait & see.

Is this of any use? https://ycharts.com/companies/FRFHF/price_to_book_value

“When you become reasonable enough to understand that someone who did commit something vs someone who could commit something is different, then maybe we can discuss.” I have yet to see any proof as to what the Clintons did that was illegal. Specifically, to what are you referring? As far as getting an introduction to a politician in exchange for a charitable donation, that is certainly nothing new and is the way many charities work. The Clinton foundation has used that money to give hundreds of millions in aid world wide. On the other hand, is it true that the Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to the re-election campaign of the Florida Attorney General? Is that a charity? Could it possibly be connected or is it just coincidence that this same Attorney General then dropped the criminal investigation into Trump University? And then of course, there is the whole issue of Trump U.

So you're okay with continuing and expanding the practice?

"I am making a concerted effort to go 4 years without hearing Trump's voice. " Yeah, well good luck with that! :) Should we now start a new thread: Donald 'The Wall' Trump's campaign promises. Hillery is no longer going to jail. The great, great wall is being downgraded to a fence. Obamacare is not being repealed but tweeked. And how's that process of "Draining the Swamp" coming along? So what happens when the redneck portion of his supporters finally clue in that they have been duped? Now to look on the bright side of things I have to admit I would prefer watching Melania and Ivanka rather than Hillary for the next 4 years.

As that old Chinese curse goes... "may you live in interesting times". The next few years are bound to be interesting. :)

Something that confuses me. How can Trump turn over his businesses interests to his children, shouldn't the businesses be put into a blind trust? And now Trumps wants his children to have secret security clearances.

Agree with your sentiments on Rudy 100%. He gives me the feeling he just escaped from some horror movie. I have no problem with protesting, I just don't see the point at this particular time. Wait for a few months or years and see where things are going to go. But what really concerns me is that I can't help wondering how you turn over most of the western world's top secrets to people like Trump, Bannon, Giuliani and all of the rest of Trumps crew. How do you do that and ensure these guys will not use the info for their own personal and political uses? I wouldn't trust Steve Bannon with the White House's phone number let alone state secrets.