gfp

He was also very worried about US supplies of Natural Gas in the mid 2000's. Not my go-to guy for investment advice.

Equity mark to market doesn't pass through the earnings statement. Only derivatives gain/loss and OTT impairment losses pass through the income statement on a mark to market basis. You are referring to the change in book value.

On the new large equity purchases, Buffett has said they are an American company (or companies), but that their business in international. We know it fits into the category of Commercial, Industrial & Other and that he got permission from the SEC to keep it confidential for the time being. UPS has been sounding pretty Buffett-like recently... just sayin'

It's just agency backed MBS, nothing exotic. He did it years ago and apparently made a big capital gain as well as the income. Thanks. How can someone purchase one of these? Something you'd have to buy through a prime broker? (not something I want to buy now, just curious) http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+buy+MBS

It's just agency backed MBS, nothing exotic. He did it years ago and apparently made a big capital gain as well as the income.

I thought the exact same thing. Considering this is the first buyback ever, I don't think this is a simple buyback due to general undervaluation. This is a purposefully built floor for something major. Maybe Warren reducing his duties; maybe a tax-free distribution of huge equity positions (KO, WFC, etc.) But I find it hard to believe Warren just decided to do a buyback after all of these years. Maybe this was an idea pitched by the new portfolio managers? Have you seen Buffett lately? He is not preparing to give up managerial duties, despite what Alice and the rest of the press seem to think. He is still at the top of his game. Berkshire isn't going to spin out equity positions either. Warren was responding to the market price of Berkshire - he has stated many times that he views investments per share as having the utility of equity, so when we traded down to investments per share (much of which is not funded by float but owned by BRK outright), the market was valuing 75 non insurance subsidiaries for pennies. Burlington Northern alone would sell for $40 Billion on a desert island today. Everyone wants to read into this announcement - but it's all in the press release. Buffett picks his words very carefully and he's been saying for a long time that Berkshire's IV is far in excess of book value. Last week was the cheapest Berkshire has traded in the 15 years I've been paying attention - that's for sure.

You could still get a dollar a share for the October 65 put today, if you'd like $100 to make the offer...

If BRK bought all of AIG, my understanding is that all of the tax assets would be lost - which represents a big chunk of value in the current AIG. Is that correct?

It is indefinite and has no cap on dollar amount or shares retired. It appears permanent and will continue under Ted and Todd and whoever is CEO at BRK.

Historic Day! http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/sep2611.pdf

Does anyone have a link to the interview? Thanks!

This was a pleasant surprise this morning. They had announced they were exploring strategic alternatives but I wasn't expecting something so close to book so quickly. I wonder why Ace wants this at this price? I think we have Brad Radoff to thank much more than Sardar on this one. Brad's been in there talking with management for a lot longer.

I believe there is a lock up preventing them from selling the rest of the stake until 2013 Lock expired this month on their entire stake. I think they are not able to find a buyer for their entire stake. Vinod It looks like only 2 Billion of the shares are still locked up. From the most recent 10Q: "At both June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, the Corporation owned 25.6 billion shares representing approximately 10 percent of China Construction Bank (CCB). Of the Corporation’s investment in CCB, 23.6 billion shares are classified as AFS. Sales restrictions on the remaining two billion CCB shares continue until August 2013 and accordingly these shares continue to be carried at cost. At June 30, 2011, the cost basis of the Corporation’s total investment in CCB was $9.2 billion, the carrying value was $19.6 billion and the fair value was $20.5 billion. At December 31, 2010, the cost basis was $9.2 billion, the carrying value was $19.7 billion and the fair value was $20.8 billion. This investment is recorded in other assets. Dividend income on this investment is recorded in equity investment income and during the six months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, the Corporation recorded dividends of $837 million and $535 million from CCB. The Corporation remains a significant shareholder in CCB and intends to continue the important long-term strategic alliance with CCB originally entered into in 2005."

I believe there is a lock up preventing them from selling the rest of the stake until 2013

Well we know one guy: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000122520811014766/xslF345X03/doc4.xml

Interesting article, thanks for posting it. Here's something recent that Richard has done (AU:EWC) http://www.richardchandler.com/news/2011-06-11-Energy-World-Corporation.pdf They have split their operations into: http://www.legatum.com/ , http://www.legatumcapital.com/ and http://www.richardchandler.com

I have heard attendance was about half of last year's attendance. Was it a secret that this was the last Pasadena meeting? I thought it was pretty well communicated.

$3.2 Billion in Q2 outflows for Fairholme... Time to buy financials!

Here's a link to most of them with original formatting. Always a great read - http://www.ticonline.com/buffett.partner.letters.html

The canadian stock market is closed today. Don't pay the pink sheets any mind, the primary market is in Toronto.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000107109811000003/xslF345X03/primary_doc.xml

Cracker Barrel's retail side also operates a sort of books-on-tape library / rental service, where road tripping people can rent a book-on-tape (CD) at one Cracker Barrel and return it however many miles later at another. Little stuff like this has a cult following with some road trippers, which helps drive some incremental traffic to the restaurant. Also, a competitor in much of the US South is Waffle House, which allows smoking - giving Cracker Barrel a leg up with families. I mean, with that audio book rental model, they should get NFLX's multiple - NO?

While I agree that BNSF is worth at least $40 Billion right now, it is not correct to say that Buffett paid $40 Billion for it. Buffett paid $32.5 Billion for BNI.

I agree that that's how it used to work - but the market is not too responsive to his valuation hints these days. It used to be that Munich Re would have gone up with folks learning that Buffett was over 10% and "it is intended to acquire more", but that didn't happen. There used to be a premium in the stock price for the skills of Warren Buffett. Now there is a large amount of supply every day and the general S&P index effects pushing it down on weak days for the overall market. I could see a buyback actually getting done with sentiment on Berkshire where it is these days. A huge contingent of longtime Berkshire shareholders are in the philanthropic phase of their lives - that's a lot of supply.

I'm buying shares here, but one thing you can count on is that Buffett won't announce any sort of share buyback while the WSC deal is pending. It would look too much like jawboning the share price up during the period when the average price determines the exchange ratio. He's definitely not happy about the price he will be issuing shares for WSC, though! And BRK had to eat WSC minority shareholders' share of the Q1 insurance losses.