shalab

Sokol thinks netjets would always be profitable and has increased customers since 2009. Full interview at: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=bca&id=news/bca0211_p2.xml&headline=null&next=0

Pretty big chunk, worth $13.6 billion in today's prices.

When one looks at BH stock price, it is efficient market theory in action. Franklin famously said "Do well by doing good" - we are seeing the exact reverse in action here. The guy mixes investment income with operating income. People annualize the EPS growth (incuding investment income) and assign a multiple to it. The compensation mechanism and the book value consideration for the same is anything but transparent. When I see this, I get a feeling this is not going to end well. May be it is just me. >:(

Looks like some folks are doing their job... Instead, she suggested, “Cut back on cheese, hamburgers, pizza, cookies and pastries. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/01food.html?ref=business

AMZN - amazon.com has a P/E of 66 and a price to cash flow in the same range. The stock has gone up significantly in expectation of outsized growth. The downside risk of a short position is if Amazon beats the analyst expectations, the stock can go up in the other direction by 20-30 points as all the shorts rush to cover.

> would rather that Berkshire pay me my share of the earnings every year without my having to sell part or all of my participation in a great business or later on, a very good business. True owners should have that option. Why not ask Biglari to do that ;D. With BRK, it is highly unlikely there will be a dividend till it regains its AAA rating and WEB/Munger can't find any acquisitions. I am fine with not having a dividend. Even his family (Doris) didnt get a dividend and ended up bankrupt because of some poor trading strategy! Berkshire wouldnt have been berkshire if everyone could do whatever they wanted with their part ownership. cheers!

Microsoft announced its earnings and its E&D division did really well. On the downside, the growth in windows slowed and came in lower than expectations weighing in on the stock. MSFT is clearly a value stock. However lack of growth in windows will hold the stock price in check.

Nokia announced its earnings recently and it is hitting a downward trend. The new ceo, Eloop is going to come up with a new strategy soon to stop the bleeding. The speculation is that he will go the android route or windows phone route or both. RIMM should be interesting as it is still growing but not at the same pace as the market. However, it seems NOK is cheaper and has deeper inroads in emerging markets with traditional phones than RIMM does. cheers!

Looks like book value increased by 2.01% for the quarter, it will be interesting to see how this metric does now the compensation scheme is in place ;D

A few months back, this board overwhelmingly voted for double dip recession. A few months down stream, we have a rebounding market that is clearly relieved that the near term worry on double dip recession will not materialize. Put this poll to see the board's sentiment this time around. Do we expect a double digit growth for SP500 or are people adding more cash? cheers!

This is a thread on the worst investments and what one can learn from them. My worst investment was in a company that was trading below book but had a huge debt burden. While the company didnt go bankrupt, the stock price went no where. I am really prudent now to look at debt and its impact on the company before pulling the trigger.

>changes in reserve currencies Which is the alternate reserve currency? Is it the yuan or the indian rupee? Actually, I like the canadian dollar better than these alternatives ;D. There may not be enough of it to go around.

Looks like BRK sub made an acquisition... http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/news/2011/01/24/jenkins-brick-tile-sells-to-acme.html?ana=yfcpc

swcey.pk

Many here have large sums of money under management. I wanted to pose this question - how many are looking at buying properties in the U.S for bargain prices? There are many things one can do with such a property - e.g: renting or re-selling after fixing up etc.

The market has had a run up for sometime now - let us do a poll to see how much cash do people have in their portfolios.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fremont-Michigan-InsuraCorp-prnews-742570257.html?x=0&.v=1 Seems like the board is doing the right thing here...

Not sure how they finally responded to you but at the very least they should have explained why they could not entertain individual questions or made a commitment to better explain the instruments in the next report to shareholders If a question can't be answered, the company can answer it tactfully. According to "Of Permanent Value, the Story of Warren Buffett", an investor (Carret?) was asking for dividends. Buffett wrote him back with a box of Sees candies saying that the candies are his dividends. Instead of being hurt, the investor turned out to be a big fan of Buffett. Buffett has a knack to writing and public speaking, I think the guy could have done stand up comedy as his alternate career. I am certain the sense of humor helps him enormously as a manager and in dealing with his partners.

I am not an expert in this sector - but with inflation in developing countries, the trend is for more exports from the US to those countries. This being the case, dont think we will have the previous highs in this space...

Looks like 70% of the global wealth in US & Europe still. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/americas-dominance-of-global-wealth-is-slipping/

My own estimate is around 150K/A share. However, the next year I expect BRK to do better and eventually reach the same figure as Tilson.

I wanted to confirm whether the roth coversion can be done in 2011, regardless of AGI limit, looks like it can done. TD Ameritrade says it can be done.

I dont own FMMH or BH. I think Biglari made the initial offer for BH at $19 or there abouts - don't remember the exact amount. Now he is making an offer at $31 roughly an year out. Now, if the management waits another year, the offer may go up to $40. Can't fault FMMH here for holding out ;D

Found this one from Poor Charlie's Almanack and like the "Poor Richard's Alamanack" as well , though this one is from Franklin: "It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronouce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous" - Ben Franklin

Let us do a poll now that 2010 is over. The question is not the growth of AUM ( assets under management ) but return on invested capital. For comparison - the returns on the following securities is as follows: SP500 (US) index: 15.06% including dividends BRKb: ~21% FRFHF: ~6% including dividends RSP - SP500 with equal weight: ~22% including dividends IJS - iShares Smallcap Value: ~26% including dividends