dcollon

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/11/michael-lewis-201111

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/volatility-thy-name-is-e-t-f/?pagemode=print

I thought these morning comments from Rich Farr at Boenning & Scattergood were funny: Click For Today's Report GERMANY WANTS A HAIRCUT October 11, 2011 KEY POINTS: GERMANS PUSH FOR BIGGER GREEK HAIRCUT: The Telegraph reported today that Germany is pushing for a “hard” default in Greece with losses of 60% for investors of Greek debt, much higher than the previously agreed amount of a 21% haircut. When you are talking about 60% losses, the term “haircut” no longer applies. This is more of a back waxing. German Finance minister, Wolfgang Schauble, recently stated that the original haircuts were too low and that banks will need sufficient capital to cover greater losses. Yah Think? There are fears that if Germany pushes for greater losses on Greek holdings, that there could be a spillover affects for the other peripheral sovereign debt and the crisis could “snowball” out of control. It seems to us that the problem has already snowballed out of control, given that Greece wasn’t kicked out of the European Union over a year ago. The banking crisis has now manifested itself in more than just the BIG SIP countries. The banking crisis has now found its way to France and Austria and will only gain momentum from here. Over the past weekend, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to do “all that is necessary to guarantee bank recapitalization”, but provided no further details. We call this the plan to have a plan. But the bottom line is that you cannot solve a debt crisis with more debt. Sooner or later, debt needs to be eliminated, either voluntarily or involuntarily. We continue to believe the only option to end this crisis is for Greece to default. To continue throwing good money at bad investments just obscures the line between good and bad credits. Until we know exactly who the losers are going to be in Europe, we can’t possibly know who the winners will be as well.

Great letter. Thanks for posting it.

Very true Liberty. We certainly don't need more people coming up with complicated ways for our banks and insurance companies to lose more money. :)

I understand your point about scientists, engineers, etc..., but I also think it's great that our society allows people who are wired in a certain way to make a lot of money that they then (in Bill Ackman's case) return to society in other ways. http://philanthropy.com/article/A-Brash-Hedge-Fund-Manager/126211/

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/04/warren-buffett-transcript/

Interview with Jamie Dimon http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/us-economy-to-spring-up-a-surprise-jp-morgan-chase-181223?ch=kdflhbplk

I know some of you enjoy reading Gawande's commentary like I do. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande

That's fantastic....

Thanks Sanjeev!

Sanjeev, Do you think they took it high enough or should they be paying out more?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-19/berkshire-renews-3-25-billion-offer-for-transatlantic-that-expires-today.html

Peter, The link works for me...sorry about the problem. Take care, David

http://www.fpafunds.com/MORE%20OF%20THE%20SAME%20Sept%202011.pdf

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000045521

Thanks for posting the article Packer.

I found this article to be interesting and thought some of you might enjoy it as well. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=1

Looks like the Mets deal is off. From WSJ: We’re getting trickles of detail about the surprise news today involving the collapsed talks for a minority investor in the New York Mets. The proposed $200 million investment from hedge-fund investor David Einhorn has been cooking since May, and it was thought to be a necessary financial jolt for the Mets, who are struggling both financially and on the field. Einhorn is giving his point of view in a conference call right now. Einhorn said he can’t talk much about what happened between him and the Mets, but he made plain his belief that the Mets tried to renege on certain important terms at the last minute. Among those, according to Einhorn: * He said the Mets reopened investment discussions with at least one possible investor in the Mets, even though the baseball team and Einhorn had agreed to a written contract. (As has been reported, those re-opened talks were with a group including Ray Bartoszek, the former Glencore commodities trader.) * Einhorn said he had been told Major League Baseball would approve in advance the possibility of Einhorn as a majority owner in the team, if it comes to that down the line. (Other team owners have to green light any newcomers.) Einhorn said late last week he learned the Mets had lobbied Major League Baseball to remove that advance-approval provision from their deal. Einhorn said he considers his Mets investment DOA, but he said he harbors warm feelings from the last few months. “This experience will always be a happy memory for me because of the Mets fans,” said Einhorn, who has been popping up in the stands at Mets games of late. “This has been a very interesting summer for me. I’ve learned a lot. It’s been overall a happy experience. I am disappointed that we didn’t get to a successful outcome in the transaction,” he told reporters on the call. Einhorn, always a stickler for details, also said he wanted to put to rest inaccuracies published in the media about him and the deal. For example, Einhorn said he is not — as has been reported — 43 years old. He said he looks forward to celebrating his 43rd birthday in November.

Probably won't teach you anything, but I thought this http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-09-01/sept-11-teaches-reinsurers-about-catastrophe-planning-the-god-clause-.html was worth a read.

Interesting that you all are talking about the GSE's. Take a look at the fourth video in the link below. The discussion with Bill Ackman starts about 8 mins in to the video. http://www.gurufocus.com/news/121785/michael-porter-bill-ackman-and-clayton-rose-interview-with-cnbc

Wow...those are awesome.

It's even better, because he tells everyone at the meeting to ask Sanjeev about any questions they have on FFH.

A little video from bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/video/74590591/

Happy Birthday to a great teacher.