dcollon

New piece from Mike Mauboussin http://contenta.mkt1710.com/lp/26966/115068/D9167.pdf

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aZ4xD1Gxe3XY&pos=11

I know a few people that are part of this board have strong opinions on a couple of the people mentioned in this article. http://tinyurl.com/2aorwsp

It's a little too easy to say "all sell side research is a joke". There are plenty of very intelligent sell side analysts. Don't just listen to Buffett/Munger and parrot their comments. And no I'm not a sell side research analyst I just get tired of people making blanket statements about them or anyone else for that matter.

Thanks for your comments twacowfca. I will spend some time reviewing LRE as well.

This has been a great thread and I was hoping to get a little guidance from the group. I would appreciate any comments or insights on AHL & AXS? Are either of these two as solid as some of the other insurers that have been mentioned? Thanks for the help.

Vinod your best resource is probably this board. I'm sure there are some members of the board that would be willing to track down a report every once and a while if you had something specific. I have also been finding more and more on Scribd.

From Greenbackd A great compilation of Buffett articles http://rghost.net/1947807?r=2195

I know some of others on the board enjoying reading Atul Gawande's comments as much as I do. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/06/gawande-stanford-speech.html

Some of you may have seen this already, but if not it's worth reviewing. http://sec.gov/comments/s7-02-10/s70210-228.pdf

BP cuts dividend to 0 and will take back just declared dividend.

Thanks Harry and Ballin. I will do a search for the Walker's manual. I guess I will try creating a screen on Thomson or Factset and see what I come up with for ideas.

I'm hoping some of you can help me. I'm looking for a good database/screen/guide for OTC stocks. I haven't had much luck finding any sites or publications that appear worthwhile, but I'm sure there are some I haven't discovered yet. Thanks in advance for you suggestions.

Thanks for posting the interview.

Myth, Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts. There are a few things that we are thinking about: 1. Valuations 2. Political issues 3. Diversity of revenue 4. Mix of deep water v. shallow 5. Age of fleet 6. Balance sheet 7. Buyback history 8. Margins 9. Business relationships I think by my previous post you can see that we are focusing on the companies with the best balance sheets. I also like the fact that a few in particular have used their cash to repurchase shares and currently have open repurchases. Our hope is that management teams are using the weakness to retire some shares. We have attempted to run multiple scenarios based on margins and loss of business. We are not of the opinion that business globally will be significantly impaired, but realize with excess product, margins could continue to be under pressure. Thinking in these terms we are still working on our range of estimates for fair value. It's most likely a situation where they will all recover similarly if and when there is more "certainty" (I always laugh at that word). This will give us some more work to do over the holiday weekend. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

Have any of you taken a look at the offshore drillers? We have been following ESV, DO & NE closely for a while. DO has mostly been an interest because of our ownership in L. However, due to the significant decline in prices (for a potentially good reason) we have spent the better part of the last week working on all of them in greater detail. I would appreciate any thoughts, especially from some that might have industry specific knowledge.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/JM-I%20Want%20to%20Break%20Free.pdf

I always laugh a little when I read these articles. Not because of the author, but because of how poorly some people are wired. http://www.wowowow.com/sheconomics/jean-chatzky-does-money-make-you-stupid-474808

Thanks for posting.

It looks like Blackstone is trying to get involved with General Growth http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_d8gIwzFTus&pos=7

I always enjoy reading Mr. Marks comments.

http://www.oaktreecapital.com/Memos/Warning%20Flags%20%2005_12_10_Disclosures.pdf

Since Eric Dinallo might be the next AG in NY, I thought his comments were worth a listen. http://tinyurl.com/2fxfdah

I always enjoying listening to Malcolm Gladwell speak and I thought some of you might as well. Below is a link from a recent keynote address he gave at the OIC. http://www.theoptionsinsider.com/radio/?id=100

I completely agree with everything you all have said. This board that Sanjeev has created is fantastic and a great area to share ideas and learn life lessons. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't find something of value from the posters on this board. So thank you to not only Sanjeev, but the others as well. As a side note, I had a chance to speak with Mr. Watsa at the Berkshire meeting and he is well aware of what Sanjeev and the rest of us are creating at "the corner of berkshire and fairfax". The discussion didn't last long, but I conveyed to him how thankful many of us are to have people like he and Mr. Buffett to help us learn. Mr. Buffett, Mr. Munger and Mr. Watsa as well as many others are the kind of people we want to recognize. So I applaud Sanjeev for all his efforts on this board and his willingness to change when the change was needed.