Ballinvarosig Investors

Shalab: BH is trading at about 10x FCF. That to me says that the market attaches no premium to the abilities of Biglari, his capital allocation skills, or his ability to grow the Steak n' Shake business.

Incredible results, look at the free cash flow, astounding. Company still looks undervalued even at these prices because there's nothing to suggest that Biglari is slowing down.

There's only one bank worth reading about - Trinity Bank.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271245/000119312510254103/dex991.htm More crappy underwriting results from Fremont.

Mary Buffett too.

That's my experience too, the Kindle simply makes reading a pleasure. Don't forget, that the Kindle opens up a lifetime of completely free reading at Project Gutenberg.

Position sold out. Interesting!

CNA Financial bids $22 a share for rest of CNA Surety.

Maybe someone here is one of them :o Who is "them", then?????? ??? :P http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1392 Back to Fremont Michigan. I see that FFH have bought FMR for 1.22 times tangible book value. That kind of offer applied to Fremont would give it a value of $32.65.

I am still waiting for my "Necker Island" moment. For those of you that aren't aware of the story, let me quote Wikipedia. Now I'm not saying that I'm looking for a Caribbean island, but I think the time to snap up a bargain will come. Having patience and the means to act quickly will be key.

Maybe someone here is one of them :o

http://www.chanticleeradvisors.com/files/102081/chanticleer%20investors%20ii%20-%20q3%202010%20letter%20to%20members.pdf

I don't really see a point in them, or the ipad for that matter. For me, I have a Dell desktop PC in the office for the day to day work, lots of memory, fast cpu and dual 21" monitors. If I'm traveling, I have a 13 inch MacBook. It's just as portable, does everything the ipad does and much, much more. My phone is my personal organizer/diary/mp3 player/feed reader/internet on the go/etc. device My ipod and netbook have been demoted to dust gatherers.

How did the DX handle the charts, tables, and graphs in a typical annual report? Did it read generally as smoothly as it would on paper? And, to finish my interrogation, how were the annotation capabilities? Anyone have experience with other e-book readers used for this purpose? The Kindle will do charts, tables and graphs just fine - no colour though. The screen really has to be seen to be believed. Just take a macro lens to both and you'll see why the Kindle is just so good. As for annotations, the Kindle lets you annotate everything but PDF. Like I said, the Kindle is a dedicated reading device and it does this very well. If you want to be able to "do more", then you should really consider a laptop/netbook/ipad.

I have had the lend of a Kindle DX and an ipad for the last few days. Two great devices, but they do different things. If you're looking for a device purely for reading, then the Kindle DX is the only way to go. The e-ink technology really is like reading off paper, I read annual reports off it for a good 5 hours on the trot with no problems whatsoever. Don't forget, when you buy a Kindle, you have free internet for life too. That is incredibly handy if you're on the move. The ipad is a more all-round device. If you're looking for a colourful, contrasty internet browsing experience with full multimedia, then it's great. You can watch films on it, muck around with apps, etc. the sky really is the limit. While reading off it is perfectly fine, my eyes just felt so much less strain with the Kindle. Personally, I have just ordered the Kindle DX for reading, and will stick with my laptop for day to day work. If you're a heavy-duty reader like me, your eyes will thank you for the Kindle ;D

He's gotten quite a bit of castigation for not being a "value investor", which is a little ironic considering some of these people engaged in shorting, a thing that even Ben Graham gave up on.

Harry's a good guy. Even though there wasn't much in it for him, he took a few hours of his time to have a chat recently. The guy is independent, focused, and very driven - so I can see why he would clash with some folks on here. Unlike a lot of stuff out there, his ideas are original, which counts for an awful lot in my book. Things like NFLX and CRM aren't for everyone, but his writings on Fremont Michigan and on insurance were informative and quite frankly brilliant. All his stuff can be found on Google, and is a must read for anyone who has any interest in the subject. This place would be a poorer place without the debate that he generates.

The carpetbaggers have arrived! Proxy fight! Will the people pushing for the sale have enough votes? (remember, they need 66% to approve a takeover) People for the takeover Biglari has 9.8% Frank Kavanaugh has 6.7% Loeb now have 9.1% People against the takeover Dunning + Board has 15.2% Mitchell Partners, L.P. have 10% - but their intentions haven't been stated - has anyone called to find out? I'm guessing they would vote for the sale.

I agree with you on this - Bank of America scares me, quite frankly. Just to preface my comments, these are concerns, I have no idea whether they're valid or not, but they worry me enough to keep me from investing. I think there are other banks out there that are a heck of a lot safer, with (possibly) marginally less potential performance. With regard to Wells having a high interest rate margin, part of this stems from just how aggresively they are actually making loans, almost every penny they have on deposit is lent out. Now, this is all well and good during boom times, but when the business environment is poor and there are bad loans everywhere, then you've got to be absolutely sure that the loans you're making won't default. Given that Wells' NPA's are still rising - I have serious concerns here. While net interest rate margin is important, I think that the level of loans to deposits as to be looked at in tandem with this. In my opinion, sometimes it's best to be safe, rather than sorry. If you can't find suitable credit risks, then it's best to simply take the hit to the net interest rate margin and invest in lower yielding investment securities. Secondly, you talk about Wells returning to normalized earnings. When will we see this happening, months, years, will they ever? I have no idea, but I think it's silly for anyone to take a stab at guessing. With that said though, instead of investing now for the turnaround, why not look at other banks out there that are doing better ROA and ROE than what Wells are doing? Who said the war ended? ;D There's still a heck of a lot of bad loans out there and more deleveraging to come.

Non-performing loans are still increasing. Dec 2009: 3.53% Mar 2010: 4.03% Jun 2010: 4.30% Efficiency ratio is creeping higher. ROA/ROE is nothing to write home about. Free cash flow has been static when we're supposed to be in recovery mode. There has been share dilution. I do not like the growth by acquisition model for banks, you mix turds with anything and you just end up with turds. High loan/deposit ratio. But hey, Warren says Wells is a wonderful bank, so pile in.

Munger has fallen for the propaganda of the Chinese government, hook, line and sinker. Centrally planned economies run by politicians are always going to fail, as a student of history, I am surprised that Munger has neglected this. Anyway, Vitaliy Katsenelson has recently written about his impressions on China, I agree with a lot of what he has said. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article23491.html

Munger's comments on China are quite frankly disgusting.

This is why I love investing. You have two people, one of the greatest mutual fund manager of the decade, the other (arguably) the greatest hedge fund manager of the decade. Both have done extensive research on the same company. One comes up with a valuation of $0, the other comes up with at least $40.

I wasn't quite getting at that.

By the way, I'm surprised that no one has commented on the nature of the offer. All-cash, unlike the cash + shares deal that he offered last time. I will leave you guys to make what you will of that.