ERICOPOLY

They need to stop calling these things "smartphones". They're no more "phone" than "camera", or many other things. Maybe they are "smartbrowsers", or just truly "pocket computers".

Wikipedia suggests that some countries have a restriction on how much Treasury Stock can be owned by the company, as a % of total capitalization -- any idea if the US has such a restriction?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasury_stock#Limitations_of_treasury_stock That restriction would limit this idea of buying back shares on foreign exchange but not cancelling them.

I assumed that would be treated as a taxable repatriation. Otherwise, why aren't they all doing this? Company can then issue shares on the US exchange. Buy back on one, issue on the other. Repatriated cash. No, this must be taxable, that's too much of a scam. My guess is that they'd have to hold the shares in the subsidiary and not cancel them. My reaction, perhaps based on ignorance, is: "so what"? What extra benefit does cancellation bring? None of this stops them from issuing new shares if they simply want the cash moved to the US. The end result is that the non-company-subsidiary shareholders collectively control the company and divide the value of the company amongst themselves -- whether or not the subsidiary shares were cancelled.

I assumed that would be treated as a taxable repatriation. Otherwise, why aren't they all doing this? Company can then issue shares on the US exchange. Buy back on one, issue on the other. Repatriated cash. No, this must be taxable, that's too much of a scam.

Thanks! Care to share your views on relative merits of investing in multifamily properties vs single family? Better yields, better financing terms, tenant diversification, economies of scale in mgmt? Yes, better yields. Yes, tenant diversification. Not sure yet about financing terms. Ideally, best loan would be 0% down negative amortization, but what a pipe dream that is. FannieMae offers conforming 30 yr fixed loan if less than 4 unit property. Not sure about economies of scale in mgmt. I will be going with a property manager though.

What terms of recourse does the lender have in Vancouver compared to Florida which also has recourse financing? And Nevada which does too? What about Caif and Ariz? Recourse? Calif is famously non-recourse. Don't know about Ariz. I just have Florida stuck in my head because I keep hearing people cite non-recourse as a major reason we had reckless borrowing. Actually the Australians like to say that because they have recourse lending their borrowers will be prudent (but in reality they are doing 3% down financing). Florida shows that recourse doesn't seem to matter much when it comes to prudence. I have been playing phone tag with a Comstock Mortgage guy in Sacramento for the past week. When I finally get through to him I'll be able to tell you. I'm looking for multifamily properties.

Some info from a Florida foreclosure defense attorney: http://southfloridalawblog.com/tag/recourse-state/

What terms of recourse does the lender have in Vancouver compared to Florida which also has recourse financing? And Nevada which does too? are you sure Florida has recourse? http://www.loansafe.org/forum/foreclosure-laws/4130-recourse-v-non-recourse-states.html Yes. The banks can pursue deficiency judgements in Florida for up to 20 years (if they renew their right after the first ten years).

What terms of recourse does the lender have in Vancouver compared to Florida which also has recourse financing? And Nevada which does too?

How can you listen to it anywhere? Do you carry around a 2TB drive with you? Slingbox I am heading in a different direction, outsourcing my home IT to these cloud service companies. I don't need to back things up, and don't need to keep the physical backup in a different location (safe from fire and theft). I am paying for making it simple.

How can you listen to it anywhere? Do you carry around a 2TB drive with you? Everyone is an idiot for paying Google to store their files online (Google docs)?

I find it strange that only a few months after the Fed let banks hike dividends and buy back shares, the market is thinking they'll be hit with much higher capital rules. The rumors of Fed intent don't match their actions.

I wonder what their algorithm is for determining whether or not a song is on your disk. They can't simply look at the file header, or can they? If so, point me to a database of file header info and I can write a simple tool to spit out files with those headers. Then iTunes will give me access to the real version of those files? 25,000 songs via iMatch for just $25 per year? Distributing a database of file headers is probably not illegal -- as opposed to distributing actual pirated copies of music. I used to pay for Rhapsody -- but I gave up on it because there are too many artists/labels that won't participate. However, you could see some hackers taking advantage of the iMatch offer -- that's only $2 per month increase over what you pay for Rhapsody, and the iTunes library via iMatch can fill in the holes of the Rhapsody service. So you just need a front end app for streaming music that merges Rhapsody with iMatch, seamlessly. There must be some sort of random file sampling & matching going on -- the file header match would be too easy to cheat. Some hacker will probably find a way to modify the code of iTunes in-memory at run time if need be, to force it to say "yes, it matches!".

This is a completely new way of doing cloud music. Surprised by the "yawn" and "nothing new" attitude.

I like their idea of just letting you use a copy of the music already in their cloud (from any one of your devices) if you can prove you already have a copy somewhere on one of your drives. And these can just be files you ripped from your old CD collection, not necessarily anything you bought via iTunes store. I suppose even if you have a terabyte of music data, it's still only $25 a year. Amazon charges $1,000 a year for a terabyte of online storage.

That was good. He says there is a shortage of housing. I wish she would have asked him why the shortage has not impacted rents to the same degree as negotiated selling prices. That's a question that can't be explained away by the "shortage" argument, because it simply asks why shortage drives one higher relative to the other. I guess nobody gets bullish and bids up rent with cheap credit?

I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald today, found a couple of interesting articles: "Australians had up to 60 per cent of their total wealth tied up in real estate. This is one of the world's highest rates - more than double the US rate." http://www.smh.com.au/business/bank-boss-questions-gearing-20110602-1fit2.html#ixzz1OBD1bCNR "ANZ Bank has increased LVRs from 90 to 95 per cent on most of its loans over the last six months, RateCity data showed. Commonwealth Bank now offers up to 97 per cent on most of its home loans." http://www.smh.com.au/business/banks-offer-bigger-loans-to-homebuyers-20110603-1fjvn.html

Do you still own some C and BAC? Still own C, but traded out of BAC. EDIT: Have some BAC now -- bought the 2013 $12.50 strike for $1.37. Break even point is barely higher than today's tangible BV.

I will probably be taking some msft off the table for WFC if we get another day like this.

MSFT has been a price trap, not a value trap.

Buffett has bought no additional Berkshire shares, but said he might buy MSFT were it not for Gates being so close to him and a director (according to Buffett himself). You're getting nowhere with this insider thing.

Yes *irrespective* of stock price.

How much net buying is going on at Berkshire or Leucadia? BRK at over 17x earnings and close to 20% over BV isn't nearly as cheap as some people on here are making it out to be. It's cheaper than it was a couple month ago, but I wouldn't consider it a bargain. Your 17x is partly the result of consolidating only the dividends of the equity holdings.

How much net buying is going on at Berkshire or Leucadia?

You are already eating lots of insects: http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=795 May as well just raise crickets and meal worms for dinner. It's meant to be very easy to keep them, even if you don't have a yard. Easier on the environment than raising cattle.