Hawk4value

Another option is to buy Berkshire. Many of its operating businesses are tied to housing and economy recovery.

"...And I kind of resent the fact that you would portray him as "losing it" just because his political opinion is not in line with yours..." Excuse me, I was not attempting to inject politics into the conversation. Although I firmly believe that giving more money to an inefficient, wasteful, corrupt entity such as our gov't is not rational, my main point had to do with my decision to invest in Berkshire in 1999. After following Buffett for years, assessing his behavior, and finally making a decision to invest a good amount of money with him, he changes and becomes a different person. He goes from being a low key, no nonsense, business first, laser focused value investor to a high profile, partisan politico. Not really my cup of tea. I believe his about face is similar to what many people on this board claim Biglari did. This political posturing has a definite potential downside to Berkshire and all its stockholders. Its great right now with Obama as President---But-----what if he loses and the Republicans get in---do you think they will forget?? Would the Buffett of 10 to 20 yrs ago ever put himself or Berkshire in a potentially vulnerable position??

The difference is that people on this broad that invest full time probably worked in a different industry for years to build up investible assets. The ones that do it part time probably work full time in a different industry as well. I agree, young people need to stop shuffling paper around and do something worthwhile with their lives.

Seems like they are squeezing costs to the bare minimum, continue to selectively monetize real estate, and build up cash assets. Will they then redploy cash to other non-real estate investments, a la Berkshire and become an investing holding company????

Would the Warren Buffett of 10 or 15 years ago ever allow an innocent employee to get caught in this political Maelstorm?? I don't think so. For that reason,and I hate to say this, I think he is beginning to lose it. When I bought the stock in 1999 I never expected him to become a political pundit. I liked the fact that he stayed above all this crap, was low key, sotto voce, and concentrated on business. And part of the "business" is to work hard to minimize taxes in every way shape and form. My degree of disappointment in him is quite enormous.

Buffett says that the leader needs to believe in the following: "...What is required is a real belief in what this country can do..." Based on the way Obama has acted in the last 3 years, I believe he clearly has a real belief in what the government can do, not the country nor its people.

What is the downside to an investor buying discounted Sears bonds today assuming the company does not go bankrupt, but the company goes private.

The refutation is that, as income inequality gets too high, the poor/middle class will rise up and kill the upper class. This is very bad for you. I do not believe Income Inequality is a concept that should be addressed by our gov't. What does it mean, that I have more income or wealth then my neighbor??? So what!!! Does that mean that the gov't now comes knocking on my door to take part of my wealth and give it to my neighbor so we are all equal?? It may sound simplistic but this is exactly what the current administration is advocating. In my opinion the concept has no place in America and is contrary to what our founding fathers fought for.

I believe that both Parties are irresponsible idiots. However, I would rather have the party that openly wants to reduce taxes and gov't spending, then the one that wants to clearly raise taxes and increase gov't spending. My interest as an individual taxpayer is to keep as much of my hard earned dollars as possible, period. The more money I have, the greater my wealth, the less dependent I will be on gov't largesse, the more FREEDOM I will enjoy. I believe this is a rational, irrefutable, logical position.

My horns go up when premiums go up substantially. I hope we don't get any reserve surprizes in the future.

I am trying to understand this unusual interest in restaurants on behalf of Fairfax. Typically restaurants are subject to a lot of competition, high cap ex, small margins, and at the mercy of the macro economy. The degree of profitability is usually dependent on the ability of management and so the jockey seems to be very important in these types of businesses. Seems like a high hurdle to climb.

I don't understand how this is "...another shot in the arm for growth...". City workers are paid with money out of taxpayers' pocket (the productive economy/ zero sum game), for services that are non-productive, inefficient, and wasteful. In the private sector these people would not be given a wage increase but would be downsized and streamlined to make operations more efficient and productive.

All the Best to everyone. Great Forum. Great Moderator, Sanjeev. Thanks for your efforts.

I am not in love with Biglari. As a stockholder you have to keep a vigilant eye because the Board is stacked. However I am not particularly upset with his desire to be paid what he thinks he is worth. Do I think the threshholds should have been better: Yes. But lets analyze it for a moment. Biglari has stated on several occasions that investing in BH is similiar to investing in a publicaly traded hedge fund. Now for most of us investing in a hedge fund is beyond our means. In addition the normal hedge fund fee structure (2 and 20) is not something most here would agree to. With BH you get a smart, aggressive, savvy, control investor with a flat 25% fee after a 6% hurdle, where the total annual compensation is capped out at $10mil. Less expensive then your typical hedge fund and completely incentive based. In addition I believe Biglari will do anything possible not to torpedo the stock price because in the long run thats where his big gains will come from, his stake in the company which he is required to add to annually from his incentive compensation, I believe the number is 30%. Now would I rather have a Warren type earning $100,000, yes indeed. But I don't know how practical that is in this day and age.

I am a Trustee of Friends of Danielle, a501c3 charitable organization, which provides funds for medical expenses and therapeutic programs which promote the treatment and rehabilitation of persons suffering from debilitating and/or catastrophic illnesses. It is named for my neice who contracted luekemia when she was 5 yrs old. We help individuals and also partner with other charitable organizations that offer programs that assist the disabled. For example in 2011 we have granted money to an Arts program. We are also in the process of granting money to a therapeutic horse riding program. Our website, which is still under construction, is www.friendsofdanielle.org. I cannot tell you the immense satisfaction one feels when attending a program session and seeing all the smiling faces of the kids. This has been one of the most satisfying endeavors of my life.

I think her comments, referring to women having a special skillset with which to deal with the ongoing European crisis, are out of left field and quite bizarre. I am sure this is one reason she got the invite from Hillary Clinton. Thats Hillary always "selling".

Sanjeev, thanks for your comments. There are some observations that I would like to make: 1. The biggest issue that I have is when Mike sold CCLR's 50% interest in Investors LLC for $575,000 in May 2009. I think understand why he did it (raise cash to stay in business), but since this was essenitially CCLR's equity for the HOA investment, I would have done everything possible not to have done this. I think Mike should have given the existing stockholders a chance to help via a rights offering or convertible or something, to raise the money. I know I would have been amenable to such an offer. Now instead of 6% of HOA we have 3%. Big difference. 2. The other concern I have is the recent convertible at 18% and 1.125mil shares. I would have loved to have gotten this deal. Why was it not offered to existing shareholders. 3. The recent rights offering for the warrants I thought was a good thing and I fully subscribed. 4. The recent offering for the 5mil units I think is very dilutive unless I am missing something. It would potentially add 5mil shares plus 5mil shares from the warrants for a total of 10mil, plus the existing 2.5mil, or a total of 12.5mil, an increase of 400% not 20%. Am I missing something???? Having said all this I am sure that Mike is doing his best in a very difficult situation but am interested in your comments nonetheless. Thanks.

It seems that CCLR is again raising money by a share offering as per below. They also have issued a convertible at 18% which can convert into 1.125mil shares. The convertible was purchased by Michael Pruit and several other investors who probably know Pruit. Sounds like a special deal to me. Anyone concerned about dilution to existing shareholders??? 5,000,000 Units Each Unit consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase one share of common stock This is a firm commitment public offering of Chanticleer Holdings, Inc. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one warrant. We expect that the units will be offered at a price of $3.00 per unit. Each warrant entitles its holder to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $3.25. The warrants are exercisable at any time after they become separately quotable and until their expiration on the fifth anniversary of the date of this prospectus. (1) The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering excludes an aggregate of 4,814,018 additional shares of common stock and warrants issuable under various outstanding warrant agreements with expiration dates between October 1, 2016 and August 9, 2021, and exercise prices ranging from $2.75 to $3.50.

All over the place from $4mil to $350bil. But the bulk of my portfolio is in the $400mil to 8bil category. Currently accumulating what will be my largest initial investment in a $400mil co.

The fall of Rome indeed. Its amazing to me how the citizens of every southern European country are in complete denial of their circumstances. They are bankrupt in the truest sense of the word and yet they riot in the streets for a societal model that is a complete fraud. You cannot borrow your way to a grand, comfortable lifestyle forever, especially if you don't print your own currency. At some point the piper needs to be paid. Well, pay they will, in spades. Hopefully the degree of suffering will be to a point where they repudiate prolifigate borrowing and spending and vow, as a society, to never do it again. But humans being as they are, you can never say never.

The disturbing thing to me is that no European leader is stepping up and stating that the Socialism is at the core of the destructive forces now engulfing the PIIGS. Until there is open repudiation of this concept as public policy, the system in place cannot be fixed.

Eric, I understand what you are saying, however I am of the opinion that if you did not have the "tax deductibility incentive" for IRAs etc., people would not save nearly as much and so would have much less for retirement. Furthermore, lets understand that the savings in these retirement accounts is not just sitting there doing nothing, it is being invested in stocks, bonds, CDs, loans, and in self directed accounts it can be invested in real estate and businesses. This pool of savings is creating jobs, and with jobs you have more people paying taxes. When you throw in the multiplier effect I believe this money is creating more revenue for the government then it would have.

Well I wonder what would happen if the Tea Partyers did the same thing??? I am sure the national guard would be called out and Channel 2,4,7,MSNBC would be howling. It would be non-stop.

Packer, excellent point. In fact in my own case I fanatically try to minimize cap gain tax by making investments in entities I never intend to sell. In particular I try to identify holdings companies run by exceptional capital allocators where the benefit will come from long term compounding, i.e. Berkshire, Onex, BH, MFC Industrial, Fairfax, LUK, L. The higher the cap gain tax the more fanatical I become about my investing criteria. Then again thats just me.

...acquire rental retirement income properties in various countries.... Just curious Sharper, if you care to elaborate, how do you identify these opportunities in various countries??? Do you go physically to these places or use the services of a local broker. Also are these passive RE investments or do you actively manage. I ask because I want to increase my monthly cash flow and diversify from my substantial equities portfolio. I do have some RE but only 12.5% of net worth. Would like to bring it up to at least 25%. Thanks.