shalab
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Posts posted by shalab
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Agree, Canada is a nice country. It is far more expensive than USA though.
You are right that it is easier to immigrate from Canada to USA than the other way round. (for both legal and illegal). Canada has laxer rules for legal immigration from some countries. For illegal immigrants, it seems really hard to get in.
I also looked at the option of getting Canadian Greencard but it wasn't straight forward. I could go as a skilled person or an investor. In addition, one doesn't get social security automatically.
Why Canada is richer than US? I think there are several reasons:
- real estate is more expensive, even in small towns, I found real estate more expensive than the US.
e.g:, this city near Banff national park, https://www.royallepage.ca/en/bc/golden/properties/
nova scotia - https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Real-Estate-Listings/NS.html
- very little spending on military
- cheap education
- almost treated like citizens in USA with similar benefits
- special nafta visa for employment in USA that is very easy to get
- many(most?) college grads end up in the USA for work
So what?
Is this a "Canada is better because..." type thing? You have a very nice country, beautiful scenery, very nice people, clean cities, vast natural resources, no enemies. I've never lived there, but the quality of life seems great.
I only know of a handful of Americans who've moved to Canada. I looked at it, and according to immigration I don't quality in any capacity to be there. Even if I go through the questionnaire and say I'd relocate my company and employed 50+ people I wouldn't qualify. So I'm not sure what it takes to get into Canada. I messed with the little thing for a while and couldn't trigger any conditions where it would work outside being a student or married to a Canadian.
At the same time I know a ton of Canadians who have moved south and don't intend on going back. I've never tried to get into the US (since I was born here), but it must be easier.
Is part of the allure of Canada that it's like Switzerland? It's exclusive to a selected group? Is that why the average is higher?
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Does anyone have notes from the annual meeting?
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Good point, what is the intrinsic value of a hash function like this?
000000000000000....adfcg...fe46518541f4739613b9ce29ecea6b6
I can generate one for you using "shalab" algorithm if you wish very cheaply. It seems tulip bulbs may have had more utility than these digital hashes.
How low could it drop? There must be a floor.
Funny now that they are on sale there isn't a lot of people asking which ones to buy now here lately. I bought more Bitcoin yesterday.
Not to argue that merits of technical analysis, but you might want look at a BTC chart.
Alternatively, build your own if you also want RSI and moving averages.
SD
Technical analysis on a value investing board? Mayorly undervalued is mayorly undervalued.
Just mindful that the current price is below the last trough low (Feb-05) of USD 6,914. For those who belive in the voodoo science, this supposedly means that at the curent price of USD 6,611 it could drop quick a bit until it 'finds' a new level. And given that there really isn't any agreed fundamental value approach applicable to Bitcoin - tossing bones may well be as good as it gets!
No opinion as to whether it is under or overvalued. ;D
SD
What would exactly provide a floor? Technical analysis would suggest much lower, maybe $800-900. Intrinsic is exactly what?
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My son started a company in elementary school (http://www.bluelvo.net/index.html) - we parents just helped him along the way. I do an investing class for him every weekend with different topics. It covers not just basic finance but also personalities, events and history. Obviously Munger and WEB are prominent characters - my virtual teachers!.
We covered BH last week. We read Farnam street's parable first and then I put names into the characters. We then looked at BH and its financials.
When we look at bubbles, we looked at the crypto mania. It is easy to relate as kids in middle school are putting their piggy bank into crypto with the help of their parents.
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cigarbutt - no doubt there are CS jobs in Canada, but I don't think there are enough of them for all the graduates from all schools.
BTW, this was told to me by a PhD from a Canadian school who works in the US. Many of these folks (if not all) end up becoming US permanent residents and citizens.
From your doc, there are about 2000 jobs/year in CS or Computer Engineering in Canada. About 800 students graduate from the university of waterloo alone in CS as seen below. This is not including computer engineering, electrical engineering etc. many of whom also end up becoming computer engineers.
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/about/quick-facts
Here are the job opportunities for people who are graduating. If you are somewhat ambitious, working at Loblaw or Scotiabank is not particularly appealing.
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/future-graduate-students/careers-0
BTW - I don't see anything wrong in this as it is the natural law of economics. It has worked in reverse also as is seen in the case of Turing award winner Steve Cook who was refused faculty tenure in U.C Berkeley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Cook
"Here is another problem - most of the Canadian code monkeys find jobs in the U.S. I don't think there are enough jobs in Canada to support all the engineering grads."
shalab,
Pretty strong statement. What are you implying?
Historically, the "brain drain" (Canada to USA) that has occurred for high-skilled workers has been relatively marginal and has been more than compensated by international net brain gain. I work with the assumption that it is best for a country to have a trade deficit in terms of the brain trade. :)
But this brain drain has been relatively marginal and, in my field, the trend has actually reversed.
One of my children recently started a software engineering degree and her local/regional/national job prospects are incredibly strong.
This anecdotal evidence concords with what augustabound reports and is somewhat supported by facts.
Link:
https://engineerscanada.ca/sites/default/files/Labour-Market-2015-e.pdf
see pages 12(11), 144(143) to 155(154) and 179(178) to 189(188)
The international numbers do not separate the USA and other than USA components.
What stands out is that there will continue to be excess demand for computer and software engineers and it is projected that excess demand will be continue to be met by net positive international migration.
If your post meant that the US will likely continue to be an attraction pole for some of the best and brightest, I agree.
if your post implies that computer and software engineers who graduate (I understand that code monkeys is meant to be recently graduated computer/software engineers) will need to go to the US to find a job, you may want to provide more solid data or justification.
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why not? it is here in the AR - page K-62:
Investments in The Kraft Heinz Company (Fair Value: 2017 – $25,306; 2016 – $28,418) ...... 17,635
Almost 8 billion is not showing up in book.
shalab,
If one do that, then we aren't talking about book value any longer.
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Starting the thread to discuss this. Sempur Augustus says 33B/year in earning power. With a market cap of 500B, the earning yield is 6.6% to begin with. Looks like this is the stock to own as interest rates are raised - the 110B cash will start earning something. If there is a market downturn, there is plenty of ammunition to buy on the cheap.
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I don't think FFH is attractive as Berkshire. In Berkshire the managers have complete control and are not bothered by the HQ. I don't know how it works in FFH land but looks like HQ tells people how to do things. (e.g:, committee for insurance).
A few thoughts,
If I heard correctly in a recent AGM, I thought Prem mentioned Ben's investment performance was better than his (over what time period - I have no idea). I am speculating, but perhaps Ben's investment style is different than his father's (i.e., less dog stocks, more quality). In this case, it would make sense to diversify to other investment managers. Again, pure speculation.
I understand the arguments against the FFH culture (re: voting shares etc..). Viewed from a certain position, the arguments have merit.
I am also interested in what other companies think of the FFH fair and friendly culture. For example, if ABC company is going to be taken over by Onex, KKR, or FFH, do they have a preference? Do they care, as long as the price is right?
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Anybody have notes to share?
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Is AMZN undervalued, overvalued or fairly valued? Let us do this poll to figure out.
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Starting this thread to discuss great Canada based companies. In this board, we have primarily discussed FRFHF. I am also familiar with BB. I am sure there are many others.
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In Indian business houses, control is passed from one generation to the next - shareholder is a lower priority - that is all.
CPI derivatives - let us see how things look like in Q4.
I still own some FRFHF but the number is significantly lower than it was a few years back. It has been a good decision. I haven't bought back yet.
i think he's saying it deserves a big discount because it will be handed over to watsa's son who may not be the best steward?
thanks for your posts Dazel, I'm learning a lot.
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FRFHF still has CPI derivatives on which it is losing money. Furthermore, FRFHF is a family business in the mould of Indian business houses. If you look at Tata, the family has owned it since 1800's. SD has done some good analysis on how these are setup so the next generation will benefit.
I once again disagree. Dutchman.
Can you tell me how Markel got to a $1000 a share? What investment genius decisions did they make? They have very good insurance operations and a decent investment return on the investment portfolio.
New Fairfax is an operating company that do not need spectacular macro calls... they do not need a lot to go right to perform well. Will they have a great investment in the next 5 years that will standout and pop the shares probably...5% return and underwriting profits will take pretax earnings to around $3b. That’s this year...not the next 5.
The math works.
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Very surprising no one is planning to buy crypto currencies this year - I was expecting thumbsup for some as we are in the second inning of this ball game. May be we need more people to participate in the poll.
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It is no surprise that cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm in 2017. This poll is to figure out how to play this phenomenon to make money. Please "write in" to specify the best option(s).
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It would be nice if they increased the dividend in Jan.
In addition, I think they should wind down their CPI bet - clearly, it is losing money and likely will continue to lose money for another two years atleast. (till the next recession) In retrospect, it was smart of them to wind down their equity hedges, they would have lost another couple of billion if they had kept their bet alive.
My thoughts are that the excess cash sitting on the sidelines will probably be used for bonds/fixed income investments. I guess they are waiting for interest rates to peak (I have no idea when that will be).
I believe the cash from First Capital will be moved to the Holdco (I think I read that somewhere). Since the holdco already has more than the desired $1B (it was at $1.5B at last look), it is basically surplus. To my knowledge, surplus cash at the holdco has never been invested in Bonds. Heck, they already have $15B in bonds and another $10B in short term investments in their portfolio's at the operating companies. All their major bond moves have been done with the cash that are in the reserves at the operating insurance companies. They have debt at the holdco at 4.5+% or so, so I doubt they will invest in bonds when they are paying interest on them as well. They will likely buy marketable investments or entire companies (like Allied World, AIG Chile, etc.) or do unique lending that has an equity kicker attached to it (ie. lend at 8% to a distressed company and then have equity warrants of some type). I would think they will be targeting something above a 10% rate of return, certainly not 5%.
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I am surprised no one voted for PGNT - for Sham Gad.
For PDH, All Parsad has to do is call his firm - Premier BlockChain Holdings as the premier Canadian offering of blockchain. The stock will soar!
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I am reading this book now - in the last page (page 348) - it has a table of real returns with passive and active returns. The active management returns are astoundingly low in taxable accounts:
large compnay stock - after tax real returns - 2.0%
small company stock - after tax real returns - 3.4%
everything else is not worth writing about
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What is the reason for no bump? Is it because FRFHF has no capital gains (only losses) or because it already has a low tax rate as a foreign company?
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We have some interesting prospects and let us use this poll to figure out what the board thinks about these
Average Canadian richer than average american
in General Discussion
Posted
Here is some more data,
usaid - the government agency that distributes aid, hires in Canada. A poorer country by average income and average net worth providing "aid" to a richer country. One of the goals of this agency is to expand "American values"
https://www.linkedin.com/company/usaid-canada
https://www.usaid.gov/careers
To make things more interesting, usaid was also distributing aid in Canada. In 2017, it gave 28 million dollars in "aid" to Canada.
https://explorer.usaid.gov/aid-dashboard.html#2017
Companies like MSFT hire from Canada as they would in the US.
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/cdndevs/2015/09/22/student-jobs-at-microsoft-faq/
And then there is the quora post:
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Canadians-leave-Canada-and-move-to-the-US