nodnub

looks like Spring 2007 http://www.google.com/search?q=buffett+cundill

Adding 20,000 shares is not a particularly strong vote of confidence.

Seattle Post Intelligencer did this a few months ago, continuing with much smaller staff running a website only paper.

20ppy B shares can not be converted to A. No investor or brokerage can do this. Hypothetically, I would imagine that the company could buy in B shares, cancel them, and issue 1/30 as many A shares in their place, if deemed necessary or useful. Your second question is somewhat vague. It is logically similar to: 1) Why does any stock maintain it's price? Or perhaps: 2) How does any company that does not pay a dividend maintain it's share price? The answer is that investors have faith that their electronic record of share ownership represents a share of a business, and that in the future, their prices of the share will grow or shrink along with the success of the company. If you don't believe in that idea then I am afraid you may be on the wrong message board. Voting control at Berkshire is irrelevant in the near future, so there is no sizable premium for A shares (which have greater relative voting power per dollar of share price) Apologies if I have misunderstood your questions.

thanks for the response. I like the idea of comparing it to the historical price/sq.ft. in the area. How far back do you look? It would be interesting to see data for any area from 1900 onwards.

I don't understand.. Do you mean you blame management or you blame the lenders for an unconscionable deal? When lenders are in short supply, willing lenders with available capital can dictate their terms. Throughout history this has always been the case. Don't you agree?

hey kawahiko, with respect to the $899K house on the water in Santa Cruz that you mentioned: Do you know how much would that house or a comparable houses would rent out for right now? How much are the property taxes?

I do not mean to present holding that much cash as an enviable position. I have been fortunate to be occupied with work for the last couple years, which led to a cash buildup and very little time for investment. It was 85% going into Sept 2008 -I am bringing the cash level down gradually - but incoming paychecks are working against that. However, the equity investments I made in October, Nov, Feb and March have more than doubled my equity on a contribution basis, (and greater than that on a capital+return basis). Not everyone on this board runs money for a living -- many of us have day jobs in other fields. At this point, the return on time spent on work for pay usually exceeds the ROIC for my portfolio, even if I was 100% invested and managed to return 20% per annum. In the future, I expect the balance will permanently tip in the other direction. Until then, I slowly plod along and invest my cash bit by bit.

66% Cash (growing bi-weekly) 5% BRK 4% FFH 3% ORH 4% WFC pref 5% basket of Canadian dividends 4% A value fund trading near my cost and well below high watermark level for fees. 6% Small positions and blowups. Good exercise. After reviewing my holdings I added to a few positions today.

To make myself clear. I generally believe very firmly in personal responsibility. However, our North American society trains us from a young age to rely on warning signs and safety measures rather than common sense.

When something like that happens in a country where litigation is a favored resolution mechanism, any potential plaintiff will see dollar signs. The mother obviously is posturing to keep her legal options open, regardless of who she truly believes is at fault. This was a screw-up on the part of the workers but I think in many other countries you would be S.O.L. if you fell in an unmarked, open manhole and died. IMO, the fact that she was texting only makes her partly responsible. Let's be fair, have you ever walked on a sidewalk or around a corner while looking across the street and bumped as a result into a person or a pole. This happens pretty often. Would you leave a washed out bridge unmarked and unsigned and blame a driver that died after failing to notice that the bridge was missing? I think we have an expectation in North America that dangers are mitigated by warnings and flagging and barricades everywhere you go.

I think Snailslug got it right with his comment. However, I agree Microsoft does face some strong competition headwind and I will not be surprised to see them lose market share. I think it will be death by a thousand small cuts over a period of years rather than a apocalyptic crash in their market share.

This is not a transcript, but there are some notes here: http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_(A_to_Z)/Stocks_B/threadview?m=tm&bn=2598&tid=452592&mid=452592&tof=16&frt=2 There are broken up over 8 successive posts by sin_nickle1 Cheers

More likely that Gladwell just doesn't know what an eigenvalue is. :)

True, but incomes in Vancouver are nowhere near what they were in Manhattan for the last few years.

Ben, I am not sure about local lenders and their lending standards. Canadian Western Bank is the only western-focused bank I can think of off-hand that is publicly traded. They have operations from BC to Manitoba. TSE:CWB and preferred shares CWB-A. I think someone here brought to my attention that Cdn banks are giving zero down mortgages via a mortgage signing bonus equal to the 5% min required down payment. http://scotiabank.com/cda/content/0,1608,CID10969_LIDen,00.html. Zero down combined with low rates may keep adding fuel to the fire.

I had thought buyers were getting more cautious here in Vancouver. Then last week a 1/2 duplex on my street sold for $860k. It sold over the asking price and within 1 week of listing (on the day of the first open house). I am curious as to when people here will regain their senses. It's not happening quickly.

I suspect there are many on this board that would be pretty happy if their average cost on SFK was 30cents. I am one of them...;)

Mungerville, If you don't mind, I am curious... have you used an S&P500 Short ETF? Or something more sector targeted? What ratio of short to long investments did you choose for this arrangement? Have you discovered any pitfalls with this approach over the last two years? (I like to learn vicariously) Thanks in advance for your thoughts. -nodnub

Absolutely agree.

Columbia Investment Management annual conference. http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/students/organizations/cima/conference/2009/c2009.html In the past years I think registration has been open to the public. Not sure if it still is. There is a NY Society of Security Analysts. They have a lot of events. http://www.nyssa.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=programs Not sure if this is what you are looking for.

Leftcoast, I am not a RE expert but it is my opinion that too many Vancouverites have been drinking the Kool-Aid with respect to home-ownership. Many residents forced themselves to buy overpriced homes simply because they were worried they would miss the boat, and be "priced out of the market forever" (that is what fear-mongering realtors would tell them). This scramble to own property at any cost had a negative affect on the rental market. During the boom, new construction added supply (rental suites and condos) and rental demand was lowered by first-time purchasers moving out of rentals. I think as people start to realize that RE prices do not grow to the sky without rest, they will re-consider the wisdom of purchasing a home... and these negative pressures on rental prices will dissipate. I don't think that rental prices will increase without stopping... but I do think that we will see some convergence of rental prices and home values. The home values will either come down or rent will go up or a combination of both--to converge on a more logical P/R ratio. Perhaps all bets are off if consumer credit remains easy in Canada (zero down mortgages as mentioned by EddiePlaysO8 in this thread) Anyone with other thoughts on this?

I think you are right about unsustainable prices. Vancouver comes to mind. Professional incomes are too low in Vancouver to justify the high cost of housing. A purchase price to monthly rent multiple of 150 or 200 might be considered more normal. In Vancouver last year this ratio is often 400 or higher. A 1 br condo that would rent for $1000/month often sold for $400,000 or higher. Now the real estate prices are coming down a bit and rent is going up. The ratio might be closer to 300 now. I think the local system will continue to balance, rent prices will continue to rise and house prices will continue to fall. I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.. Also what are typical rent multiples on properties in other areas of Canada and US?

yu deng, glad to see you made it here from the other board. I think the character of those finance employees at any age can be changed by a change in the stimuli they are exposed to. This change can happen in a relatively short period of time (a couple of years) if they are exposed to new stimuli over that time. To break free of their current mindset they will probably need to lose their jobs. The old maxim that Munger likes is very true: "whose bread i'll eat, his song I'll sing" (it is hard to convince a man to believe something when his livelihood depends on believing the opposite). We humans are adaptable and flexible. If there is a long recession it will teach many people the value of thrift, community, friendships, producing some of your own food (though I'm not saying that laid off I-bankers will be gardening in Manhattan). Many people in the 1920s were free spenders, and I suspect many of those same people learned entirely different lessons during the next decade--lessons that they carried with them all of their lives. Spirit and will are built during long periods of difficult times. There are parts of the US culture that need to change to strengthen the country (less greed, overconsumption, less waste, improved recycling, etc). Obviously, I think most other first world nations have the same problems, some of them in varying degrees. I would be interested to hear other thoughts and responses.

thanks eric! I have often wondered about this myself. --here is a link with the release schedule eric described. http://www.888options.com/help/faq/leaps.jsp?prt=nyse#5