Partner24

Aahaha :D Indeed!

"If you're smart, you don't need it. And if you're dumb, you've got no business using it!" Yes, but he use it himself. Insurance, long term debt, etc. Leverage can be a good thing as long as it is small enough to can handle a catastrophe scenario. Cheers!

Well, to paraphrase someone, it's not that I like panic (frankly, this nuclear reactor problem show once again how this kind of energy can be potentially very damaging), but I like the prices it provide. MSFT, JNJ and WMT are good examples of that. I don't have any single idea how the stock market will goes over the next months/year, but I do like some prices that we're having now. Cheers!

The lawsuit is money well spent as long as it remains reasonable. The truth have to be told to the public and these miscreants need to be punished. I don't have any problem to pay my per share cost of that lawsuit, as long as the legal cost is reasonable.

One top executive at Markel, two years ago or so, called for a hard market. William Berkley did basicaly the same thing. Guess what? We're still in a soft market 2 years later! Take their predictions with a pinch of salt. Nobody knows until it happens. Cheers!

Crip, To be sure, my faults are many, as illustrated to me on a daily basis by the wonderful Mrs. Crip! You too? I guess it's business as usual ;)

New emails from Loeb and others released Wow, they are very elegant (outragously racists and full of hatred).

There is some value trap, growth trap, jockey trap, etc. I've got a new one. Sardar Biglari is a good case study of "Shareholder's letters" trap. Don't be fooled by shareholders letters that are written in the Buffett style. The SB case might be resumed by these basic steps: 1- Promote myself by well written shareholders letters. 2- Make some noise to remove actual management of a public company and take their job. 3- Have some very rich compensation. 4- Adopt some procedures to still be very generously compensated if someone like me want me to taste my own cooking by repeating steps 1 and 2 against me. I guess that one day we'll more or less stop writing about him. Life is short and we have more productive things to do.

I can talk about Crip since I've "known" him and interacted with him since several years on this message board and other message boards as well. He's not only a focused long term fundamental value investor, but also a down to earth person. As far as I know, he has a rare combination of being neither a follow the crowd or being a contrarian person. He mostly stick to hiw own beliefs. In my book, he's the perfect shareholder, since he's long term oriented, focused and very patient, while being able to keep a critical view. He does not post as often as some of us here, but I really appreciate his contributions. We should have more Crip and less "Wall Streeters" in this world. Cheers!

Yes and no. It's a case by case situation. I don't take a look at the overall market to determine what I will do with my individual stocks. Take a look at some big companies like Walmart and the like. Do they sound that much expensive? Not to me! Some P&C insurers neither. If my strategy was to invest in indexes, that would be a different story. Regarding your question, I don't think that people learn that much. My father has played golf since the last 5 decades and businessmen sometimes talk about their investments strategies on the golf field. Two years ago, everybody was talking about government bonds, now they talk about oil. If they would have talked about oil or stocks 2 years ago and government bonds now, I would have answered "yes" to your question. "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful". 12 words that cost nothing but are worth a lot of money. Cheers!

Back to the basic question, frankly, I've always seen this message board as a group thing. Furthermore, it's the quality of the posts that get rewarded, not your brand new flashy Toyota Echo, the thousands of dollars (or cents) in you bank account, the fact that you come from Santa Banana or not, that you have a stick that can predict rain or not, or whatever very rational way to discriminate people outside of their brain and wisdom. That being said, sure there is posters who will fit more with you than others (we're humans, not computers after all), but this board is something that magnify the individual talents ot it's members by the contributions of others. Cheers!

My favorite poster? Unfortunately, I don't remember his name perfectly, but it was someone in 2005, 2006 or 2007 and was probably a paid basher. He was always ending his posts with "But then, what do I know? I'm just a nose?????". Some remember him here? He's been banished for good ;) Cheers!

I would definitely like to hear more about your experience. A dishwasher pump broke just few years after service. I had water on my floor. Called the customer department. They first said false legal things (it's not under warranty anymore and there is no general warranty that can extend it...this is false at least here in Quebec). Then they said this was not their problem since their warranty was expired. I sent a written legal letter claming to repair the dishwasher. A representative (probably cheap labor from abroad wich had an accent and was sometimes difficult to understand) called me. Instead of sending me a technician for free, she tried everything to let me say something that would be a nuisance to my request. Things like "Sir, you bought a Kenmore dishwasher that costed xxx$. Didn't you expect that it would last? ANSWER: Mam, I bought a Kenmore dishwasher just approximately 3 years ago and I did expect that it was a quality brand it would last longer than approximately 3 years, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. Furthermore, your chairman looked like he did care about customer experiences at Sears. She did say false things about the applicable law here in Quebec and tried to convince me to pay for the fix. Frankly, I didn't want to go in court even if I had a good case. I did want to wash as soon as possible so I called a friend and he repaired the dishwasher. He told me that most appliances today are made to last shortly. I went to the Sears website and tried to write a negative review on the dishwasher just like you can see on Amazon or Canadian Tire websites. People should know that this diswwasher is cheap and not build to last. They refused to publish it. When I asked them what in my review was making them refuse to publish it or how could I write it so it would be published, they didn't want to answer. I told my wife that if she see me again in a Sears store, it's because I may have lost my mind. That's the kind of behavior from a retailor that will add to the bottom line in the short term at the expense of the long term profitability.

Sears customer service? Buy a Kenmore dishwasher, call them just a few years later because it broke and your experience with them will provide far more insight on the company then reading Lampert words in it's shareholders letters.

I'm not a macroeconomical predictions guy. But if the only task in live I could do would be to predict macroeconomical things, I would put my tocken on stagflation too. That being said, I would be worried about my prediction. Things are always clearer in the rear view mirror than the windshield.

Thank you Myth for posting the link. we have our annual meeting in a couple of weeks, Jaideep. Actually our Annual Report comes out in about two weeks then our annual meeting is in April; I think it's April 20th, it is somewhere there in our annual meeting. Why don't you come for that ask all your questions there, because those are a little detailed questions for a conference call. I don't it was a detailed question at all. It was a general question. Why buy cheap messy things instead of high quality things when quality things were pretty cheap? That was a very good general question that could have been answered in the conference call. I'm not complaining at what they have done with their investments. They have their own style and they did overall very well with it since the last 25 years. I agree with them that the municipal bonds were quality things bought cheap, just like JNJ and other investments like that, but the question was not related to the bond portfolio. I think Prem should have answered that question directly in the conference call.

That's a great board Sanjeev. Congragulations! I hope we'll be able to enjoy it over the next years and even decades.

Well, at first glance, that's disapointing, but we've been throught that ride before and we have to take the long term view. Over the long term, their results have been very good so far and I don't see why they suddenly would have lost their talents. No problem with the munis. These are fundamentaly sound and when they bought them, they got a great deal and they'll know when to dispose of them if they have to. But like I said approximately a month ago, I think they should take time to explain their hedges better and to let us know what would happen if we would like a 1 to 50 years to 1 to 100 years event that would be the contrary of what they want to protect at first glance (i.e. huge bubble in the stock markets in wich they took a "downside protection"). Regarding that "overconservativeness" on the reserves, I've heard that since 2003. In the end that "overconservativeness" have to show up on the numbers. But Fairfax is not W.R. Berkley on the underwriting side of the business and I think that people have to realize that. But W.R. Berkley is not Fairfax neither! Both have their own talents. Cheers! Cheers!

Partner, I have ~ 7% of my portfolio in FFH & 3% in BRK-B...would you take 7% + 3% of added cash and add to these holdings? Before the additional cash I am ~ 25% cash. Well, I cannot recommand you to do anything since I don't know your investment profile, tolerance to volatility, when you plan to retire, etc. That being said, to me, some very good P&C insurers are still cheap and deserve to have a significant part of my portolio in them (but that's me and that's based on my own profile).

Some P&C insurers are still cheap despite the overall market increase. I think that they still provide a very decent margin of safety. Some high quality big caps too. Just my opinion. Cheers!

Henry Singleton? I second that. As for one of the best long term stock investor of our times, I would say Shelby C. Davis. As for one of the best conglomerate builder of our times, I would say Brian Joffe.

Definitely Biglari Holdings. Let me bet it's CEO will get a chapter in the next edition Warren Buffett CEO book. It's the perfect fit. I've also got a scoop for you guys..... Forget Watsa, Pabrai, Lu, etc. Biglari IS the next Warren Buffett! :o I'm just not sure if BRK is big enough to buy Biglari Holdings. What do you think guys?

Enough is enough! I understand that hockey is not ballet, but very reprehensive shots should be penalized far more than that. Brain concussion or other serious injuries aren't needed to envoy a great hockey game!

Thank you for posting it again. Terrific post. Cheers!

I've known some people from his firm for several years too. They have their niche. They invest mostly in great companies managed by great people for a fair to good price and sometimes keep the shares for a very long period of time. I know that everybody is unique when there no "next something" or "next someone", but even if they are not the same, their investment style reminds me the one they have at Sequoia Fund. I would feel good to put some part of my family's money in their fund. There is not a lot of investment firms in wich I have that level of trust and confidence! Cheers!