cwericb

“You took Pearl Harbor seriously? I think you're the one that watched too many war movies. A certain one by Michael Bay in particularly. Pearl Harbor was how the US got rid of their outdated fleet.” Ooooooookay. Those who ignore history may be bound to repeat it, but those who deny history are in a whole different category.

"The US won 2 world wars in the 20th century." Don't you mean "The US helped win 2 world wars?" “No the US was clearly the main victor. The war wasn't on their shores at all. All the other participants lost, some more than others.” Well that statement simply demonstrates your lack of knowledge of history. You must have been watching far too many US war movies. :) “ All the other participants lost, some more than others.” Now that’s just funny. :) :) :) PS "The war wasn't on their shores at all." You must have missed that little incident in Pearl Harbor.

"The US won 2 world wars in the 20th century." Don't you mean "The US helped win 2 world wars?"

tooskinneejs : “Sorry, but the analogy to Hitler is one of the most illogical arguments I've ever heard.” Well I wasn’t necessarily comparing Trump to Hitler. I simply stated some of Hitler’s campaign platforms that brought him to power and let the chips fall where they may. I simply mentioned that Donald had to change his method of waving to the crowd. Actually it was you that made the comparison between Trump and Hitler. “Hitler wanted to exterminate a large portion of citizens within his own country.” He certainly did. But he never campaigned on a policy of exterminating the Jews. Therein lies the problem. When politicians say they are going to do something and do not say how they are going to do it, you write a blank check when you put them in power. “By attempting to temporarily ban Muslims immigrants from Syria” Where did you get that idea? Mr. Trump initially said he wanted to prevent ANY Muslims from entering the country “...until we get this thing figured out”. Then someone asked what he intended to do about all of the Muslim US servicemen serving overseas and other Muslim Americans returning to the US. I’m not sure he ever answered that. However, that is typical. Trump makes rash sweeping statements that sound appealing at first glance but never outlines how he intends to do them. Not only Muslims, but you omitted Trump’s desire to expel all those Hispanic US residents.

"The best outcome possible is for people to think of politics as a nasty process that is irrelevant to their lives and to dismiss it completely." That is pretty well the definition of anarchy. I hope you are not serious.

merkhet re changing vote. I thought I had checked a box allowing a vote to be changed. other than that I don't know. eb

"If you have a better information source than the "research" by John Oliver, I'd like to see it." But facts are facts no matter who presents them.

In no way I am predicting this will come to be, but they do say that those who ignore history are bound to repeat it and the similarities here are rather remarkable. But who is he ? ............. He was very egotistical - to put it mildly. He ran on a platform that he would make the country great again. He blamed the Land’s problems on other countries who were taking advantage of his country. He promised to rid the country of certain races and religions. His rallies were marked by outbreaks of violence. He promised to rip up international agreements to better the country. He came to power in Germany in 1933 and his name was Adolph Hitler. I don’t believe in reincarnation, but Trump’s people did have to get him to stop raising his hand in a gesture that mimicked the Nazi salute when he appeared at his rallies.

If this has been brought up before I must have missed it. But I am wondering what our board thinks “The Donald’s” impact would be on markets in the US (and world wide). Perhaps that is two questions, but US only markets for the poll. As a successful businessman promising positive moves to the American economy and committing to run the country like a business, one might think that Trump would have a beneficial impact on the economy. But then, his methods and lack of tact and other issues indicate to others that he could be a disaster. Just wondering what the board thinks. I have set the poll so that participants can change their vote as time goes on if they wish.

Liberty, talk about coincidence. I clicked on your original link posted on page one of this thread back in 2012 and it took me to what is apparently today’s rant on the same subject. I guess if you keep re-hashing the same column year after year it might come true. But after four years of crying wolf Turner might have a bit of a credibility issue.

Never really been a fan of Mr. Turner’s, but let’s go back to the start of this thread. Mr. Turner confidently stated... “The risk of a long and slow real estate decline has never been more acute. The certainty of a long and slow ascent in interest rates never more assured. Smart people will follow the advice set out here often. Sell assets at the top. With real estate, that’s probably now.” That was over FOUR years ago. I wonder what Mr. Turner might say today should he meet one of those “smart people” in a dark alley? Four years later it makes for interesting reading http://www.greaterfool.ca/ eb

ATL & Jurgis - Thank you for that. ATL - Yes I now get the dilution point as it effects ROE, makes sense. Jurgis - Bit of brain fade there, I overlooked that they were in effect setting their own price on the shares at $735/$536. This is why I read this board every day. Much appreciate the education.

If my net worth is $100,000 and I withdraw $10,000 from the bank and put it in my pocket, my net worth is still $100,000. Fairfax sells X number of shares and retains the money earned within the company. The value of the company doesn’t change. So what is the logic behind a 6% drop in share price? What am I missing?

“I would have rather Prem and team fairly compensated salary/bonus based on performance wise instead of having to issue a dividend.” I don’t necessarily disagree with that but doing it in this way nothing is hidden, it is transparent and equitable to all shareholders. It also helps prevent some of those obscene bonuses paid out to senior staff in some companies. I also suspect there may be some tax advantages for Prem in doing it this way (?). But why not set up a profit sharing plan for the team and shareholders by extending a dividend based on the performance of the company? Also I would imagine that Prem and team are not the only ones who depend on this dividend. I suspect that there may well be many shareholders who depend on that dividend to provide them with income. That in turn perhaps makes FFH shares more desirable, increases demand and in turn increases share price. There is more to share price than company value.

This subject comes up every year at this time and Fairfax is always criticized by a few for issuing a dividend. Why criticize encouraging management to have a stake in the company and be rewarded similar to the rest of the shareholders? however, I would rather see the dividend based on yearly performance rather than a fixed amount.

Eat at Harveys fperhaps once a month. Food’s decent but service is slow. Eat at Swiss Chalet once a week during the winter. Food is usually very good and have never had chicken that wasn’t moist and tender. Roast beef is not bad and steaks are usually okay but have had a few that could have been better - wife says ‘what do you expect when you go to a chicken place and order steak?’ Clean, very good service, and excellent bang for the buck but a 20 minute wait for a table is normal on Friday evenings. I rarely ever complain when eating out, but did once at Swiss Chalet about a steak. The manager immediately came out and was very concerned and wanted to know all the details and made a correction to the bill.

-1.27% Very disappointing considering I was up by 7% in April. Since the Dow was flat and Toronto was down about 7% in 2015, I guess I shouldn’t complain. But after being up 16% in 2014 it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. I track my results separate from an account I have invested through a financial guy and for the first time ever he beat my results, primarily through currency, which gave me an overall result of +1.2%. I’ve done worse. :) Oddballstocks: Can’t go wrong with the home purchase. Markets could nosedive, housing could dip, but you still have a roof over your head and the home in which you chose to live.

My two cents worth. A few reasons why I have held FFH since 2008: I am not nearly as smart an investor as those running FFH nor as astute as many on this board, so I let Fairfax invest for me. They may make mistakes, but I am sure they have a lot more expertise and access to information on the companies they buy than I do. Fairfax has the ability to force some of the companies they invest in to become better companies, I do not have that ability. Eg, The Brick, Blackberry (a work in progress), etc where they can plug in a manager who can effect changes. I do not have the expertise to hedge, FFH does that for me. It is my belief that Fairfax is building a strong, world-wide insurance company that will prosper well into the future. Everyone talks about their investments, but little is said about their growth as an insurance company over the last half dozen years. It is probably the only stock I hold that I really do not worry about even when it drops. It may not do as well as many, but if the crap hits the fan, of course share price may drop but I don’t think it will suffer as much as my other holdings. November 6/13 their share price was about $440 CDN, Nov 6/14 their share price was about $540 CDN and today price is about $640 CDN. I find it difficult to be disappointed with those numbers. eb

Is there not a flaw in a system where one individual can cause a party to lose an election primarily because that person is so arrogant and oblivious to public opinion that he did not have the good grace to resign two years ago before some of the best people left the party? While he could have left with some dignity back then, he let himself become reviled and fired by the voters. Unfortunately he took a lot of good people with him. Voters need to have more say in who becomes the prime minister. Had the Conservatives acquired a new leader a couple of years ago I would be willing to bet that the election results would have been quite different. But now Mr. Harper is gone and we will see what we have in Mr. Trudeau. I do like his planned Infrastructure spending. Some of our roads, bridges, sewer systems are in deplorable shape and rectifying the situation is quite labour intensive and should give a boost to employment.

Everybody's gotta eat. :)

Yes, as TwoCities said, check out Altius. It is a diversified mining royalty company operating in Canada that is operated by some pretty smart guys with a proven track record. There is an extensive thread on Altius on this board.

I'm waiting for Snoop Dogg to run. Maybe Snoop Dogg / Ice-T ticket, that might even get me to register to vote. But Sarah can see Russia from her house and this could play an important part in Donald's Foreign Policy - which I don't believe he has mentioned yet other than the expulsion of all them furreners.... Sorry for the inane remarks, but they seem appropriate to the situation. Unfortunately.

Personally I'm waiting for the Trump-Palin ticket.

Ditto :)

http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/06/exclusive-interview-with-keith-smith-of-empire-valuation-consultants/ Interview with Keith Smith. Guess this was mentioned in thread about the interview, but it's interesting to see the board get recognition.