beerbaron

No it isn't an eye in a triangle or anything, it is a a capital "A" with a circle around it. I believe the A stand for Anarchy. Dollar / Anarchy

I'd be curious to know the geographic locations of my fellow board members. I already know the following, Parsad is from Vancouver Canada, Ericopoly lives somewhere in a farm in the US or Australia and I'm from Montreal, Canada. Where do other members live? BeerBaron

What's the company that the Daily Journal bough a huge amount? BeerBaron

Lol, that is the reason why I buy stocks. Not buildings I'd like to do other things with my life then to repair walls!

American life companies don't do as much or as high in guaranteed rates as Japanese life companies. They are also much better matched. They have been also raising prices. Don't pass these judgments so fast. I just purchased a 20 year life insurance (150k, 19.50$ per month) for me and my girlfriend. There is a 2.8% chance of my girlfriend dying in the next 20 Year and me a 6.7% chance for a total of 9.5%. Based on a 5% annual interest earned on my premium you could see that the money they would earn would be around 7000$. Divide 7000$/0.095 and you get 73 000$, which means the lifeco is running an actuarial deficit of 77 000. *Please note, this is a rough calculation, we are both non smoker so the death rate should be a bit lower. But on the other hand I'm not calculating the brokering fees on the lifeco side. Plus, something tells me they still use a 7% return rate on their assumptions, if you paid yearly for the premiums you could save 7%. 7% seems very high in this environment! P.S. For those that are EL. Financial shareholders that does not looks good since the insurance policy was from Empire Life. I've kept EL Financial on my watch list up until I got that insurance contract from them :)

gurufocus.com

Why does every iteration of a product have to be a game changer though? This is the third generation of the iPad, and there has yet to be a competitor to come out with a tablet that even rivals the original iPad. The iPad itself was a game changer, and it's only been out a couple years. Now they have to continually improve it to make sure it remains the best tablet available, which they've accomplished so far. It does not need to be a game changer at every iteration but every time you release a improved version that's not a game changer your competitors are getting closer. Imagine widget A and widget B. Widget A is a game changer at year 0 and increasing it's consumer intrisic value at say 20% a year. Widget B is a copycat but since it's basically copying Widget B it can grow it's consumer intrinsic value at 30% starting from year 1. Widget A Widget B Widget A/B Year 0 100$ 0$ Infinite Year 1 120$ 50$ 240% Year 2 144$ 65$ 222% Year 3 172$ 85$ 204% Year 4 207$ 110$ 189% So each year that is passing by the intrinsic consumer value differential is shrinking so is the pricing power. After 10 years the pricing power has became a commodity. And to be honest I don't think the A/B after 3-4 years of iPad/Android is 189%, it's probably more like 150%, but's it's just an example to expose the facts. In the end everything is a toaster! BeerBaron

Was I asleep in the last year? When did they start Pacific Insurance (Malaysia)? BeerBaron

I have to be on Parsad side here, a great screen is not a game changer. Having the best technology does not make the best devices. The 4GS was an Ok upgrade from the 4G with Siri. But so far I have not met anybody using it as a personal assistant like it was advertised. So who knows, maybe it won't pick-up as expected. Also, I work in product development myself, and I can tell you that the vision of the leader has a huge impact on the success of the entreprise. Some companies will have billions of ideas but with little focus to each of them. Apple's great advantage was that it had very few well finished products. BeerBaron

I'm glad as per Pabrai my IQ went up from 70 (Index investing 4 years ago) to 90 (Guru copycat). If only I could compound my IQ at that rate :) BeerBaron

So if I understand properly you are counting that in say a 1 year timeframe there will be some shock to the system that will add volatility? Would the CRA allow us to be long RRSP and short in TFSA of the same security? BeerBaron

Nothing new here... just more pollution in my RSS feeds >:( BeerBaron

I too looked at Le Chateau before Christmas, they had what was supposed to be a brand new concept in the shopping center next to me. Went there and it was the same merchandise then in their other stores but with more expensive displays. Passed on it after the experience. BeerBaron

Parsad, does it pain you to admin Chanos was right ... ;) BeerBaron

It seems to me that our friend was overbetting and got lucky. Some might suggest to learn about the Kelly formula in order to optimize wealth creation. BeerBaron

That's the quote of the week IMO! BeerBaron

I presume it would just come out of reserves. Would it? My understanding is that reserves are put up based on current NOL and past default rate. If you refinance users that are not classified in NOL then you take a direct hit. Maybe someone with more bank accounting knowledge could help... BeerBaron

Lol, what kind of weight can you put on a bookshelf when judging someone... my guess is it should be totally irrelevant. There is the operating metrics, then the intangibles and finally the silly things. A bookshelf does not even fit the third. BeerBaron

I hate lifeco so much in this interest rate environment. Was it something like 6-7 years after the crash in Japan that LifeCo went bankrupt.. So if the Fed renew their commitment for 0% interest rate until 2015 we can expect blood in the streets. BeerBaron

Can someone explain how that would translate in their books? From my understanding they are not looking to refinance under-performing loans so we are talking 100% asset write-off. So by definition The big 3 would need to take a direct hit on their equity by the same amount... BeerBaron

I don't see the value of that comment. Can you precise what you mean? BeerBaron

Football is a great game but I've always found that one game to determine the champion of any sport is ridiculous. How can 1 sample be enough to untangle the most skillfull VS the most lucky? Human brain is a funny device at this point all the New-Yorkers are celebrating that their teams is the more skillfull while statistically it's far from being proven! BeerBaron

McDonalds was really hated for a while... BeerBaron

Those bright individuals will finally have an opportunity to do something useful for society besides shuffling securities and papers around.

Depends on how you see it. Some might argue that the fact that a user on iTunes cannot take it's songs library and transfer it into another system is a monopoly. Or that you can't buy the apps outside their environment makes the software suppliers captive and unable to compete properly. BeerBaron