Blugolds

Sounds like a knock off of a book I read years ago.”The Gift of Fear” https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Fear-Survival-Signals-Violence/dp/0440226198 Was required reading for State Patrol academy at the time I read it and recommended by someone I knew attending. There is something to be said about listening to that “little voice” in your head that whispers something isnt right. I credit this book for a few things, one of which was noticing abnormal behavior of a fella standing behind an elderly lady on the street in Rome, after I walked past him I turned to watch him crawl up behind the woman and reach in and take her cellphone from her pocket. I’ll just say, she got her cellphone back…I dont speak Italian, and he didnt seem to speak English..but there is a “universal language”….

The personality qualities of being an Ahole (or sometimes coming across as an Ahole) go hand in hand with other personality traits. There is a reason that Myers-Briggs, MMPI and several others when taken will yield results that are shared among many of the most "successful" people in human history (depending on how you define successful.) Aholes are capable of getting results out of people and getting what they want, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes under duress. I think its certainly possible to get results without the need to be an Ahole. Several traits of narcissism ie lack of empathy, sense of entitlement, grandiose feeling, dismissive attitude, willingness to exploit others, dominating conversations, manipulation, controlling and commanding all tend to do fairly well in a capitalistic setting. People like Jobs, Musk, certain military commanders in history, any leadership position know clearly what they want, have a vision and will not accept anything less than that coming to fruition and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen, and if that means hurting a few feelings that is acceptable. Also depends on context and priority, Warren said if you lose money for the firm he would be forgiving, but if you lost reputation he would be ruthless. He prioritized the reputation and made that clear, some prioritize results and revenue over everything else, but the sentiment is the same. I also think that the people that are underachieving many times view the person demanding more as an Ahole, that is probably just human nature, if you have a boss thats an Ahole but you are producing you might view it as less than pleasant but its not a huge problem because you arent on the chopping block. We had a football coach that was known to be an Ahole, certainly new players would call him an Ahole, he was brutal and demanded the best and was wiling to push everyone to the limit and find out where that was and then go a little more, no excuses. Regardless of your personal opinion, it yielded results and landed him in the coaching HOF with the most winning record. Guys that got cut said to heck with him, hes an Ahole...those of us that staid thought it was tough and sucked, but at the end of the year and now later in life, can look back and understand why he did what he did, and can think about it now removed and realize that there is a reason for the track record and that it would not have been what it was, and we wouldnt have been as good as we were if he hadnt been an Ahole. Are Navy Seal trainers Aholes during hell week? Sure, but its necessary to get the results they need/want.

I'm sure everyone already has seen it, but just incase someone missed it over the weekend. Yahoo: Berkshire Hathaway speeds up stock buybacks In its proxy filing on Friday, Berkshire said it repurchased the equivalent of 3,808 Class A shares this year through March 6, spending approximately $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion depending on the dates of the buybacks. Nearly three-quarters of the repurchases took place after Feb. 12. Berkshire repurchased $2.2 billion of its own stock in last year's fourth quarter, and $9.2 billion in all of 2023. Its peak year for buybacks was 2021, when they totaled $27 billion. Through Friday, Berkshire's share price was up 14% this year, about twice the gain for the Standard & Poor's 500. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-speeds-stock-buybacks-185257424.html

The Lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of the gazelle

I agree, I would love to see the equivalent of Jon Stewart Daily show but for finance, Make fun of both sides, call a spade a spade, entire show is basically making a mockery of the hypocrisy that is so blatant. There certainly wouldnt be a lack of targets or material to use. Something that illustrated our own personal monologue when watching all these jokers who are self proclaimed industry "experts".

I remember seeing a crime show that had a story about a guy that did this in Toys R Us, wasnt the scale these fellas had and not for as long but remember thinking about it...hmmmm Also worked in a hospital in college, had full access to the entire facility that included several buildings with basements and I had the only keys, several basements had HVAC equipment in them, warm, a little loud, but could have totally built a "nest" and as a broke college kid, save some of that rent money and buy beer LOL, obviously never did it, but the imagination def ran a little bit!

You wont get an argument from me on that...but I've also never heard of cartels rolling over and allowing another cartel to take over control without a fight...especially when it would be easy for them to stop/prevent it.

^ good explanation @LearningMachine Obviously Buffett has said very clearly multiple times, their #1 priority is to protect the base

Was thinking the same thing, also how he italicized that Abel is ready to take over as CEO "now". Taking an opportunity to again instill confidence in the future and eventual handoff. Other things from the letter, yes BNSF issues, but he reiterated that it will still be vital to the country and BRK will still own it. "A century from now, BNSF will continue to be a major asset of the country and of Berkshire. You can count on that." BHE is concerning and legislation disappointing. I have always viewed that as the "perpetual Elephant" a place to park nearly as much cash as they want for as long as they want with tremendous market share and guaranteed "satisfactory" returns, nothing sexy, but with BRK size, and reasonable stable returns, I have always thought of BHE as cruise control and the future crown jewel. That has now come into question and it confuses me because it seems that "going green" is the new mantra, all these things require significant investment in infrastructure, generation, distribution and reliability, either politicians are going to get on board with this and make it attractive to investors or take away all incentive and its just not going to happen. Doesnt give me warm fuzzys and triggers trauma from my local gov actions regarding affordable housing. Attempting to attract investors to build/provide affordable housing and invest, then pulling the rug out from under them by capping rents, taking all the tools away from investors to screen tenants, evict losers etc. The incentives for investors have COMPLETLEY disappeared and the result is obvious, the provision for affordable housing is probably worse now than when they attempted to "fix" it. Never underestimate the gov ability to F something up. I liked his comments regarding Japanese investments. These companies and their management sound very honorable, everything from CEO compensation, cash balances held, hesitation to issue shares and discretion regarding buybacks etc. I think this is a great relationship and I think/hope that the Japanese feel the same. There was a hint of admiration there compared to the way most companies do things here in the States (at least that is how I interpreted it) sounds like they run a tight ship. I was curious how he would mention or pay homage to Charlie, could just be my own emotions around the loss, but I thought it was touching. Ajit continues to prove his worth. Overall tone of the letter I felt was better than years past, at least I enjoyed it more. I also agree that he is setting Greg up, under promise and over deliver, but thats always been his style.

I watched a Youtube video regarding major drug dealers who had been caught, they said a significant portion of their transactions were in BTC. Imagine hypothetically that a cartel has a large amount of BTC, that then balloons to $1M+ each...that is a tremendous amount of power, for drugs, for gangs, for weapons, to say nothing of terrorists who evidently dabble themselves. What is the general consensus on how/when the gov steps in. For every "benefit" I hear of an unregulated currency I always think about the dangers involved and I dont hear much about the threats/potential problems it would cause. I almost think of it as allowed for now, but could/would/should be addressed before it is allowed to cause serious consequences. At what point does that become an issue/concern? Does anyone consider this? What can be done to address it.

Heard about this also, but then also have seen it in multiple stores, additionally there are several suppliers that offer alternatives, for instance Trader Joe’s sells an alternative, to the Siracha purist, perhaps its not spot on, but for someone like myself that uses it on eggs occasionally or other things, it’s certainly close enough. I do find it interesting that it has a cult following, including people dressing upo for Halloween as Siracha, and kids wearing t-shirts with the chicken logo on it.

Fairfax interest rate on lending shares @ Fidelity up to .375% from .25 LOL

LOL was thinking the same thing...the Fins resistance to USSR is what legends are made of.

Logged into my Fidelity account and saw something at the top of the screen telling me that I am eligible for additional income by lending shares of a security. Happened to be Fairfax…Anyone else see this? I didnt enroll, but have never seen that before….thoughts? Not necessarily as to if I should, but why they are doing it? Due to daily volume?

G-Shock FTW, but I have always liked the speedmasters..always wanted one when I was a kid and told myself I’d buy one when I cracked 7 figs, then got there and didnt care. Just not really my style.

You have two of the best investment minds in history with Warren and Charlie, who had their pick of probably anyone in the world to choose as CEO and they picked Greg, to me that says a lot. Also, I happen to like Gregs personality, he's not overly flashy, mostly low profile, coaches his kids hockey team, seen around town regularly, he comes across as an average guy, majority of his net worth in BRK and has the same values as WB and CM. You cant replace the ultimate duo, but I think they made a good choice. Also he's probably one of the best in the world in terms of energy knowledge and heading BHE I think that is the area with the most potential moving forward for BRK investment with satisfactory returns, especially if the push for more green energy continues going forward. I dont think BRK will have stellar returns going forward, but I think they will be satisfactory, and even if there arent adequate elephants available, coasting would be fine too, protect the base, target that 7-10% return and plump it up with buybacks when opportunity presents, I dont think he has to be a genius to do well. I do believe that Omaha considers shareholders as partners, and Warren certainly values the relationship and trust from many of the families who initially invested with him and still hold the majority of their family wealth in BRK, I dont believe he would squander that with poor succession planning.

Cracks me up, everyone gets mad/angry at greedy Union labor or blue collar workers asking for a raise that keeps up with inflation when it was running 10% and the 2.5% or less raises werent gonna cut it, but then when CEOs try to strongarm the board with threats to GIVE them billions, thats just CEOs...CEO'ing. Gimmie a break. Like you said, whats preventing him from doing this again down the road. Its like a kid who blew his allowance on a toy that broke, or wasnt as cool as he thought and now he is threatening not to do any more chores unless you double his allowance...as a parent I know what I tell him. The entire goal/point of having a board is to have checks/balance on decisions in the best interest of shareholders (obviously that isnt always the case) but if Elon can just go to the board and demand that they do/give him what he wants or else, then what is the point of even having a BOD?

+1 It's like arguing about who is the best WWF wrestler, it doesnt matter, they're all characters. The country deserves better than Biden or Trump, who that is I dont know.

My first foray was a penny stock LOL pure pump and dump and I was one of the marks. Very very low dollar amount at the time but also at the time…it was enough to sting. Watched that sucker go to zero and figured I better figure out how to “play the game”. Very similar story as to the research. Your return was better by going to the library, I had a local Goodwill that would basically turnover the shelves every Tuesday back in the day, 10 books for $1.99. I bought every book on investing/business/finance I could, including textbooks on business/management/accounting and in there was a book about Buffett. Some of the stuff was over my head of course at the time but I couldnt get enough. I wouldnt say that “investment” has created any 10 baggers for me, but it got me into BRK much earlier than I would have otherwise and gave me conviction to make it a much larger position than I would have been comfortable with back then. What it also gave me was the a better understanding and ability to detect BS as it relates to money/investing and contributed to red flags popping up on a couple occasions when others I knew were investing significant money (for them at the time) into things I knew were bogus but they had a “hot tip” or “good feeling” about. It defined investing for me and allowed me to differentiate between investing, speculation, and outright gambling. #1 rule is dont lose money right? So I guess if I look at it that way, although I didnt 10x my port, I also didnt blow it up like some I knew and didnt continue down the path I was on before my Goodwill education, in that regard the return was phenomenal.

RIP Charlie, I’ve literally never given a celebrity death a second thought, but then again none of them have ever truly impacted my life, certainly not in a positive way. I agree with the quotes above, Charlie contributed to me having a better life and that is the greatest compliment one can give another. The last time in my life when I felt like I had witnessed the end of an era that I thought I was lucky to have experienced/witnessed was the Chicago Bulls, and “Felt something” when I knew I would never see Jordan wear the red 23 again. I was a spectator, and somehow now, as a BRK shareholder, it felt more like we were teammates, watching the interviews, seeing him in Omaha, reading books, his wit/wisdom will be missed and I consider myself fortunate to have benefited from being alive in his era.

I think the article is making mountains out of mole hills. Chastises him for potentially violating his own policy? Gimme a break. He said he doesn’t want to even provide a hint of front running BRK moves in his personal account. So it would make sense that he would exit WMT if BRK took or increased position in a security he held. Honestly, I think WB is a lighthouse of integrity in rough seas of deceit that is Wall Street. Is he perfect? Nope, does he get it right 99% of the time. Yup. Does he go above and beyond to maintain trust and integrity, absolutely. His reputation is better than anyone else on Wall Street, without a doubt, and a significant reason that Omaha gets calls that others dont. I think some people just have such a hard time acknowledging that he is the real deal that they look for chinks in the armor. If he knew BRK was gonna double WMT it’s reasonable to assume he would exit in his personal account. Not to mention I think they said like a half billion in his personal account as an estimate and they are critical of $25M, thats insignificant percentage holding, to insinuate there is some kind of shady or questionable behavior is a joke. There are so many LEGIT liars/cheats on Wall Street that are actually worthy of scrutiny they would be better off spending time on those. For instance, insider trading via politicians on both sides of the aisle. There is enough there to keep them busy writing articles for decades LOL. No sense in even wasting time in Omaha, Washington has all they could handle. They lost me with: in August 2009, Buffett appeared to move, in his personal portfolio, in the opposite direction of Berkshire’s portfolio. He sold $25 million of Walmart stock in his personal account, even as Berkshire almost doubled its stake (which had previously held steady for 15 quarters) during the same quarter. It’s unclear which transaction came first, but no matter the order of events, it raises the question of why Buffett made one choice for his own portfolio and the opposite choice for Berkshire’s investors. And if he knew Berkshire had or was considering making a move, and still traded, Buffett again risked violating his own insider trading policy.

Yup, thats why I like the fast stuff, see something and react. The funny thing was, when I did once years ago try to learn an opening, say the “London” and get a pieces to their “spot” there are so many variables, and I was concerned with playing “theory” or what I was “supposed” to play that it took away my gut reaction and instinct, I actually played worse because I was concerned with the absolute best way to play. That probably is more important when you get into the higher ELOs, one slip up and you’re done, but at my paltry 1400 ish level, sooner or later I…or the other guy is gonna goof and open the door for the tides to turn. I sometimes use chess.com game review just to see how well I played, accuracy levels and sometimes Im high 90’s and sometimes Im low 70’s, low 70’s could still win the game often times, but I figure it depends on who I’m playing. Also I’ve noticed at certain times, weekdays vs weekends, nights, vs mid day you get a lot of people from around the world and often similar locations. For instance if I am 1300-1400 and play at one time I might go on a 7 win streak and think wow, Im on fire today…and then play on a mid day and lose 7 in a row, and get smoked doing it. But like you said, memorizing 10 openings, and their variations, and the names, and the counters, to me seems like work and takes the fun out of it. Probably why I’ll always be stuck in that 14-1500 range, with a little more effort sure I could increase and ELO but would I have more fun doing it? I dont think so personally because IM having fun where Im at now. @Cod Liver Oil I remember Bobby talking about a new type of chess he was proposing, random starting type of stuff, basically removing the ability to have homogenized moves and play more from instinct. Would probably be more fun to watch. I do understand what he is saying about them basically reducing chess to what they are “supposed” to play. Removes that element of creativity and randomness. You will literally never ever see another game like this at the highest levels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObmFR5Dz7Ac The engines and ability to back test 50 different openings/moves and look for the best move based on probability 50 moves deep has changed the game. Its not really all that different than Gary or Bobby used to do years ago, they just did it from past games played, with pen/paper or a board and it took 20x longer because they had to test manually. So maybe they are a little salty that it comes easier for the newer generation via technology rather than back in their day. There are some interests that I have that I enjoy going 110% into, learning it inside and out, because that increases enjoyment, but some things are fine just being middle of the pack. Take for instance fishing, some guys have 100K boat, 50 rods for every possible presentation and scenario, could go tit for tat with a wildlife biologist and a Navy sonar man, some people just sit on a bank and throw a line out with a worm. Im somewhere in the middle and love it. Would be fun to set up some chess games with members online, or a tournament, even if Im dead last LOL. Usually just play whoever they assign me to but might be fun if anyone is interested. Haven’t tried lichess, just chess.com.

I play daily on chess.com, Im not a whiz but I enjoy it. I play 3 min games and sometimes 1 min because I like the “instinctual moves”. I enjoy the game. I have never taken it seriously enough to start to memorize the numerous named openings and its counter etc. I almost feel like that would take a little bit of the fun away from it for me, everything I have learned to recognize has come from falling for it multiple times until I figured out something that worked most of the time. Start to recognize patterns, much of the opening moves and counters are very similar after a while, the middle comes fluctuate, and the end game comes back to tactics that help if they are learned. (something I should spend more time on haha)

Agree, thanks to @Viking for pounding the table on this, and his above and beyond work/write ups.

Just like lotto winnings (aka sneak tax on the poor), Uncle Sam is the REAL winner. RE winners…. Realtors higher commissions the last couple years? Pssh, land owners? No, title companies? HA, lenders, nah, builders/remodelers? NOPE…Good ol’ Uncle Sam adjusting property taxes up and up (some in our area doubled) in perpetuity. Oh wait though, primary residence capital gains exclusion right? That’s great, unless you’re a single guy who already had equity in his property knocking on that $250k and now either pays the higher property taxes, or sells and pays the tax to Uncle Sam on the “new equity” value. Heads they win, tails you lose. Who do these things hit hardest? Middle/lower class.