QLEAP

He is a total jerk, his parents named him appropriately. A year ago or so ago, he cracked a racist joke on Indians and 7/11 that was in extremely poor taste.

I have a copy of it, actually. I don't think she would mind me posting: Dear Mr. Buffett, Enclosed with this letter, please find a copy of the 6th edition of Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis which features your forward. Rest assured, this book is not for you! I know that you already have two beloved copies of this book, and since I don’t have an original copy with Graham’s notes inside, there is little that I can do to add to your library. Rather, it is my hope that you will find the time to sign this book and have someone return it using the return label provided. In January, my husband is opening his first investment fund, based on the principles of Graham, Marks, and of course, you. Over the last few years, he has devoured any information on value investing and analysis with a passion! I would love to present him with this book, which already means so much to him, made even more special with an inscription from his personal hero. He would be overjoyed, and I will have won the "greatest gift game" for at least the next decade. We both admire and respect you and your career, and I hope that this letter finds you well. Thank you for being an inspiration to so many, especially my husband who has never been happier since finding his own passion for value investing. With great respect and thanks, That's a great letter she wrote! She's a keeper...not only does she actually listen to you about Buffett and value investing, but she got the greatest investor to sign a book for you and mail it back. You won't ever do better than her! ;D Cheers! +100

I dont have the "unedited" version but here it is. If you do get hold of the OID version, I would love to read it ! thanks Qleap Munger.pdf

Congratulations to all the members and thanks for the great forum Sanjeev. cheers qleap

thanks to Matt ! I use real player downloader/converter to download/convert videos to mp3. http://www.nigamanth.net/share/Bruce%20Berkowitz%20CSIMA%202013%20Audio%20%20%20Investing%20In%20Knowledge.mp3

Matt posted Bruce's audio on his website.. http://investinginknowledge.com/info/2013/02/bruce-berkowitz-csima-2013-audio/

I loved the questions as well :-) thanks Gio and Kraven !

Down 6%. Key takeaway from this year - Leverage cuts both ways. Looking at it positively, I learned this lesson early and hopefully won't make this mistake again..

Happy new year to all of you, this is an awesome forum ! cheers Qleap

Yes, he writes well and acknowledges his mistakes readily. He seems to like hairy or levered situations where the risk of permanent capital loss is higher. In my opinion, it's a hard way to make money being an activist in small caps that may or may not turnaround. I enjoy reading about Parsad or James or Allan's investments more but each has his own investing style I guess. cheers qleap

Interesting read, thanks Sanjeev. I wonder if he still holds SD..

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/10/us-household-debt-to-income-debt-servicing-cost-ratios.html Also on Rosie's new presentation - Boy, is it depressing ! http://www.businessinsider.com/david-rosenberg-navigating-the-new-normal-2012-10?op=1

Excellent, looking forward to it. Thank you ! Cheers Qleap

Re: MMT MMT Primer - http://neweconomicperspectives.org/p/modern-monetary-theory-primer.html Modern Money and Public Purpose - http://www.modernmoneyandpublicpurpose.com/schedule.html (starts next week) 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds - http://moslereconomics.com/2009/12/10/7-deadly-innocent-frauds Soft Currency Economics - http://www.moslereconomics.com/mandatory-readings/soft-currency-economics

Plan, excellent post ! thanks for sharing

http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1221485/000122148510000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml http://www.fundville.com/gfsearch.php?fname=BRANT-POINT-INVESTMENT-MANAGEMENT-

On a related note, Goodhaven Funds semi-annual report is a good read http://www.goodhavenfunds.com/media/pdfs/GHF-Semiannual-f.pdf

Disturbing.. http://www.johnmauldin.com/frontlinethoughts/a-dysfunctional-nation "Recently, when the current Greek government committed to actually collect some taxes in order to get more loans, a bureaucrat decided that a great way to collect property taxes would be to include them in people's electricity bills, a move that caused an uproar. Lawsuits followed, as the national power company tried to cut off electricity for nonpayment. In a country where it can take a decade for a legal matter to get on a court docket, a court rather quickly took up the case and ruled it illegal for the power company to cut off service for non-payment. This ruling led to a massive financial loss by the power company as people simply stopped paying their electric bills. I assume that by now you have seen the video of the televised debate among representatives of the seven Greek parties. In a bit of poor planning, the very nationalistic Golden Dawn party head, a rather solid-looking young body builder, was seated next to the Communist Party leader, who is a lady. A few insults were exchanged, some water was thrown in the face of a rather pleasant-looking young lady (a representative of a leftist party) across the table from the Golden Dawn guy, there was a slap on his arm with a folder by the Communist Party leader; and then they were on their feet and Mr. Golden Dawn was repeatedly slapping and then punching Ms. Communist Party. If for some reason you have not viewed this short but exciting clip, here is a link: http://www.rt.com/news/greek-politician-slaps-rival-278/ . Or you can Google "golden dawn greek slap" and get a link to a report in your language of choice. If you choose the German version from Der Spiegel, you can hear the word neo-Nazi repeated several times by the German reporter. This exchange provokes a few thoughts. First, incidents of violence and vigilantism in Greece are rising, along with the lawful public demonstrations. Whatever veneer of civility that was left was ripped away by the boorish behavior of the Golden Dawn representative. Whether it be families or nations, such a level of dysfunctionality almost always ends in tears. The "slap" is just one more telling incident in a country that is on the brink of self-destruction. It is very possible that the winner of the election will be a party that wants to reject austerity but believes that the rest of Europe will give them the money they need to continue to pay their public employees, maintain services, and keep the government functioning. The reasoning seems to be that Europe will do that because they need the Greeks to continue to pretend that they will pay off their national debt to the European governments and ECB. Why are we still fixated on Greece? Even though Greece is small, it matters; because if Greece leaves the euro then the markets will immediately ask, "Who's next?" And while a year ago everyone thought the answer was Portugal, the market is now looking hard at Spain, which is on the same path to insolvency that Greece was only a few years ago. Source: JohnMauldin.com (http://s.tt/1dRzK) Source: JohnMauldin.com (http://s.tt/1dRzK)

Sanjeev, Thanks for the long update, amazing what you have put together over the years ! Any chance we get to see the video ? :) It is indeed humbling to see the Fairfax team and the CEOs attend and spend their valuable time with us. Unbelievable ! cheers Qleap

Bangalore -> Charlotte, NC -> Allentown, PA -> Bangalore

The transcript is at http://www.fairholmefunds.com/pdf/FairholmeInterviewTranscript.pdf

China is Apple's largest market after the US. It is a huge success despite being available only on the 2nd largest operator network. There was such a crowd at teh 4S launch that Apple had to stop selling the phones at its stores. Apple is in talks with the largest carrier (China Mobile, I think) to offer the iPhone later this year. Valueinv, You are right about the Chinese market being second largest for Apple. In terms of market share, I think Nokia/Samsung still hold the major share of the smartphone market in China. But I also recognize that Apple does not need to sell high volumes to be a success. thanks

"I don't know much about Window's new phone, but I suggest it may be very hard to get people to part with their iPhone's. Are they addressing any problem that apple does not address or add features that the iPhone cannot compete with?" Shane, that probably addresses the NA/Europe mobile markets only. I am yet to see the iPhone make a dent in Indian/Chinese market - it is way too overpriced where price vs value is a big factor. Samsung with Galaxy/Android platform is beating its pants off in the high end segment in India while Nokia and Chinese clones capture the lower end. I think Nokia/Samsung with Windows platform will be a huge winner in India as well - a third ecosystem and an alternative choice to Android for customers. Remember, China and India are the largest markets for mobile phones and MSFT is collecting license fees from Android phones also.

No more Mr. Monkey Boy http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/steve-ballmer-reboots-01122012_page_1.html

Thanks Mohnish and Prem !