lennie_88

I like that idea FFH.... If you come to Van in summer look me up.

Two fellow Vancouver-based board members and I plan to get together to share investment ideas and discuss business topics (sort of a knock-off of Benjamin Franklin’s Junto group). We are looking for others on this board to join us. We plan to meet at a pub in Downtown Vancouver on February 16th at 7pm. If you are interested please let me know by responding to this post or by sending me an email at lennie_88@yahoo.com. Brian

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/opinion/27einhorn.html?th&emc=th

-Because it's nice politically to say you want people to own their own home. -Because this extra credit doesn't show up as new taxes. -Because it's well implemented in most people's head that it's better to be an owner then a renter. -Because home ownership encourages the velocity of money, therefore increasing government's revenues. -Because politicians have an outlook of maximum 4 years... -Because most people have an outlook of maximum 1 year... -Because most politicians loose focus of the social impact and concentrate on the popularity. Keep your cash on the side... it's going to be great to buy all those apartments at a PE of 5. I can wait longer then failing homeowners can. BeerBaron Great insights. Thanks!

Absent a new way of thinking about how the government can promote homeownership, Mr. Mudd said, there is no way to escape the fact that “government entities created to support homeownership as a social good will tend to socialize the risk to all taxpayers.” When I read this quote from the former chief executive of Fannie Mae I could not help but think of the similar role CMHC plays in encouraging homeownership in Canada. It seems pretty stupid to have the same organization charged with expanding home ownership and underwriting loans/insurance. It seems highly probable that the push to increase homeownership will beat out the need to underwrite with prudence. Surely this drives home prices higher and socializes risk. Why is this so widely accepted as a good thing? What is wrong with renting until you can truly afford to buy? I don't understand....

Greenspan hasn't claimed no fault, to my knowledge, but has claimed that low interest rates did not significantly contribute to the credit bubble. He actually has a decent argument involving correlations between short-term rates, the 10-year treasuries, and overseas savings. However, that is not an argument to absolve the Fed given the regulatory powers that Greenspan squandered in his Fountainhead fantasy. It just does not make sense to me that Greenspan says "I was not wrong on monetary policy" but "I was wrong on regulation". Who cares? Why confuse the situation? The simple thing for him to say is "I had the power to mitigate this housing/credit bubble, but I didn't". Then he can help answer the question: How can the Fed mitigate the next bubble? Maybe they need to hire a few guys like Michael Burry and fire some of there "best-in-the-world" economists.

I am surprised/confused that Greenspan seems to be claiming no fault for the financial/housing crisis. Didn't he come clean in a congressional hearing and admit that his thinking was wrong? I recall Munger calling him a hero for this admission, but he now seems do be denying that he missed anything…. Regardless, I am glad Dr. Burry held him accountable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04burry.html?th&emc=th

It is amazing how long it took for the "authorities" to get to the truth in this drama. I am happy that Mr. Einhorn has finally been vindicated.... I wonder if anyone from the SEC has called him to apologize for what they put him through for telling the truth? NYT article on recent inspector general’s report: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/how-not-to-run-an-s-e-c-investigation/#more-198477 Link to book website: http://foolingsomepeople.com/main/

It is easy to see why Gates picked this guy to run his foundation.

Does Japan have a version of Sedar and Sedi? Specifically I am looking for prospectus and insider holding information. If anyone could help me out with this info it would be very appreciated.

This book by James Grant is a collection of commentaries from Grants Interest Rate Observer from around 2000-2008. Anyone interested in learning more about the root causes of the credit bust and past financial panics will love this book. It is amazing how much of these problems Grant foresaw! There are also speeches that he gave to value investor audiences like Third Avenue and Fairfax (it appears that maybe they got their CDS idea from Grant?). If I was not so cheap I would definitely subscribe to his publication after reading this book. Brian

Great. Thanks for all of the feedback.

Great website.

Does anyone know of a good source for finding private market multiples? For example many value managers reference asset managers to be worth 1-3% of AUM. Where do they find that data?