shalab

Question for US based investors - particularly Eric. If you owe the govt large amounts of cash from investment gains, do you pay them in the last quarter or you pay them every quarter? Since there is a penalty if one pays less than 90% of owed taxes - I am asking you for advice. I owe taxes for IRA conversion to Roth in 2011 and 2012. cheers! Shalab

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/warren-buffett-advises-investors-to-focus-on-fundamentals-and-be-patient/articleshow/7790217.cms

More on Buffett visit - doesnt say what the other article said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Im-a-retard-for-coming-to-India-so-late-Warren-Buffett/articleshow/7766499.cms

Good interview with Ajit. Ajit is saying that Buffett has more energy than him ;D Apparently ISCAR has a plant in Bangaluru and Buffett is going to be visiting that plant.

Even from cashflow perspective, it works out after a while. It depends on the entry price though. At the mortgage Iam paying, I can't rent anything in my city. I have been at my home for eight years.

there are factors outside of cashflow - safe place for family, good schools, play area for kids, good neighbors etc.

Although housing prices are local for the most part, the prices in the US are very low compared to Canada or developed countries like Japan, Hongkong, Europe or Australia. Florida population is increasing and it has gained congressional seats. With more boomers retiring ( check out Lou Simpson ) more folks will prefer Nevada, Arizona and Florida. All three have favorable weather and Florida has no state income tax.

Andy has done a service to people who want to understand how Buffett has done things. Looking forward to the 2012 edition which will have all the details on the LZ deal, the preferred deal and the new deals not yet done!

I know there are a lot of lurking Biglari fans in this board who have defended his compensation package - anyone buying with this drop?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-14/berkshire-dangles-48-auto-policies-to-meet-buffett-in-india.html

Looks like the markets are tanking in Japan by about 6% or so - anyone finding opportunities there?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Berkshire-Hathaway-enters-apf-2900235033.html?x=0&.v=2

Berkshire buying Wesco and pricing discussion. I think people who said Buffett overpaid for BNSF should re-evaluate their statements - no one understands railroads better than Graham and Buffett being the best student of Graham can't be far behind. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-07/buffett-says-wesco-deal-may-be-disadvantageous-to-berkshire.html

http://seekingalpha.com/article/256662-berkshire-hathaway-masterful-capital-allocation-skills?source=yahoo

Looking at the compounding rate, FFH has grown by 22.55% for the past five years. Also, FFH already has 10 billion dollars in float which means growth through float is going to be hard. Float is already at 1/6 that of Berkshire. Improving the underwriting discipline can help improve the results somewhat. It leaves two avenues. Growth by acquiring businesses or growth using investing prowess of Hambin Watsa. Fairfax has acquired businesses primarily to increase its float thus far. Adding non insurance businesses can help. The other thing is growth through investing. At the present moment, because of the hedges, deflation seems to be the only way out for the investment story to work out.

NY Times on the billionaires goal. It is in what you eat, not surprisingly... http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06murdock-t.html?hpw

Let us do this poll after Watsa's letter today. The letter was good and covered many topics of interest to the shareholders - including why the hedges are in place.

Yup - the railroad. I think it was Greenblatt who said Buffett did a mistake or doesnt get it or something in that vein. And Alice Schroeder - the person who spent so much time with Buffett and got all the insider material. I mean the person who spent so much time with Buffett doesnt get Berkshire which is sad to say the least. She would have done a great service to the world if she had gone into how Berkshire was built and the value system. No coverage of Munger in that book at all who is rated as being in a different league by none other than Bill Gates. Instead she writes this psycho analysis book there are tons of such books which added very little to a person's knowledge. As much as our environment shapes us, these guys did it in a unique way which was completely lost. I am glad Buffett is fixing some of these through his letters.

>But this of course got me to thinking... why is it okay to put hundreds of millions of bucks compounding tax-free in a variable annuity, but not if you self-manage the investments in the account? I mean, these "personal savings accounts" with unlimited contributions were effectively the same thing, but without the huge expenses that these variable annuities charge and Bush's proposal provided the option to self-manage the account. Do you figure the industry titans that sell these variable annuties and earn these usurious fees lobbied pretty hard to block the self-managed alternative? Agree. Sometimes it is surprising how things are rigged against the ordinary citizen by different lobbying groups. Whenever I see this, I go back to Munger - human incentive.

http://www.rationalwalk.com/?p=11443

The increase in average balances in fido accounts is consistent with the increase in networth seen on this board. The growth was 28% in 2009 and 11% in 2010. Fido has 11 million participants in its 401(k) plans. The total net worth managed by Fidelity is around 800 billion. http://www.fidelity.com/inside-fidelity/employer-services/q4-2011-401k-update http://www.fidelity.com/inside-fidelity/employer-services/fidelity-reports-average-401k-balance-increases-28-percent-in-2009

Kind of interesting to see how this is playing out in Wisconsin - doing something or not doing something is driven by incentive rather than data on both sides.

There is no question that north america will see some inflation in 2011 because of the increasing cost of commodities, food and clothing. The Obama social security tax cut will also add stimulus so the chances of a recession in 2011 or early 2012 is unlikely. However, the picture gets interesting in 2012. The stimulus funds given to states are going to expire in 2012 as is the social security tax cut. This means the states will have to adjust their budgets. The government workers have been the protected class in the great recession. As we are seeing in Wisconsin, it is likely that they will be asked to bear more of the costs reducing the deficit between private and public sector. However, reform in the public sector is badly needed. If the reformists are successful, it is likely to make US productive again as opposed to being a moribund aging economy as is the case with Japan. cheers!

Cheers for another fifty years for this message board!

Looks like BRK made about 37% annualized gains including gains in swiss frank vs us dollar. Also, Swiss Re combined ratio came in at 93.9% which is pretty good. http://www.swissre.com/investors/financial_information/ http://seekingalpha.com/article/253818-berkshire-hathaway-scores-major-victory-with-swiss-re-investment?source=yahoo