bookie71

Folks in our profession are required to get so many hours of continuing education each year. You learn from the formal classwork. but you often learn more from discussions with your peers during the coffee breaks and lunches. Human interaction is very important and you don't get it with computers and books. jmho

Just think how much these bonds will be worth when taxes are raised to pay for health care, TARP, et al.

I believe that I read somewhere that there is a percentage that he doesn't dare exceed or he becomes a bank holding company and comes under a lot of regulations

The ads don't bother me, in fact I really hadn't paid attention to them. I often wonder if Parsad ever sleeps or has another life, he is constantly putting up excellent articles and sites. I would like to thank him for all his efforts. Chuck

It's been awhile sine I looked at one, but the Vickers report showed quite a bit of insider buying.

Another consideration is that IF you think tax rates will be raised, then the value of tax free municipal bonds will increase.

Since a state can't go bankrupt, it can become "insolvent". If that happens and California can't make the payments on its bills and debt, you will probably see a tremendous number of "second" and "third" generation bankruptcies. These are the smaller companies and individuals who do business with the state that can't pay their bills because California can't pay them. We saw this a lot in Alaska in the 1980's when we had our depression, a big company would fail and sometime later a bunch of smaller companies would also fail.

I believe it is a partial return (when it is to your advantage) of old fashioned conservative accounting from the 60's and 70's. Conservative accounting anticipated all losses and recognized no gains until actually realized. It is in the first few chapters of the Beginning accounting books of that era.

How much in taxes did they save by taking write down when they did?

I was an early on member but dropped out as it seemed that they were more interested in a good story than reasearch. If I want a good story, I'll call a broker. ;D CB

Keeping your tenants is very important to your cash flow. When they were building the Alaska pipeline, everyone was raising their rents to the max. I had one client who had about 20 single family homes and his rents didn't go up. I asked if he was skimming, and he stated that when the others had vacancies he would be full. Said that over the years he had found that when he raised rents, a few people would move, then he would have to go in, paint, clean up, etc. This took time and he might miss a couple of months until he found a new tenant. It would take quite a few months to make up the missed rent. He had many folks who rented from him for over 30 years and had actually paid off his mortgages for him. Sure enough when Alaska went into its recession (depression) after the pipeline was built, he was full. He also said that buying was where the money was made.

Don't forget the letters from WEB on the Berkshire Hathaway site (particularly the early ones).

Check out the local or community banks -many are doing quite well. Most dodged the bad loans that the biggies got into (not all but most). Look for banks in your area as you will be more able to evaluate their reserves and you will be more familiar with the local real estate market. Don't expect the real estate market to turn around over night. when Alaska had it's crash in the 1980's it took almost 15 years to get back to where it was prior to crash. Watch the small home builders, they seem to lead the charge.

I have a small office building. I don't do residential as I would be a sucker for a sob story.

How much $$$ has Microsoft poured into Askjeeves and had no effect on Google? That should show some type of moat.

Please remember that Mr. Market does not always follow logic. Our job is to take advantage of the discrepency's. :D

It might be the part of the country you are from, I am from the South and didn't think he talked slow.

Being one of the technically challenged members I enjoy the reminders and site.

Probably he prefers for the quality of management - look at all the lawsuits against Exxon - some are for criminal type things. I don't know about the other companies.

Right on John. Being a dinosaur, I can remember when 18% was thought to be an outrageous interest rate. Now they charge 29+ %, change their terms in midstream, send bill out at different times , etc.

People will let credit cards go and pay on mortgage and car. They have to have a place to live and a way to get to work or job interviews. Check out www.clarkhoward.com he preaches this almost daily oln his radio show.

The more I read about Prem Watsa the more I would like to meet him someday. Not many people I can say that about.

Back in the dark ages when I went to college, I believe that there was one or two chapters in the Advanced Accounting book on the subject. Basically you have to put fire sale values on the assets or try to come up with liquidating values as it is no longer a "going concern"

How much was "mark to market" adjustments?

I believe that they were following the herd (group think) ;D