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gfp

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    More on Andy Kilpatrick's New Book

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    I recently got the new book too - and it is really nicely done.  A great buy for those that appreciate the minutia of what Buffet is up to.  You get a real sense for the insane amount of energy he still has.

     

    It was interesting to read the details of a few of his previously undisclosed Korean equity positions:  "Buffett said that Berkshire had bought shares of Kia Motors Corp., Shinyoung Securities, and Hyundai Steel in Korea earlier but now owned only shares in POSCO.  He personally held one additional Korean stock in his own portfolio."

     

    Has anybody checked out a price chart of Kia Motors recently?  It's, um, up and to the right...

     

    My favorite typo / "damn you auto-correct" moment so far is on page seven where they refer to Michael Milken as "former punk band king".  Rock on.

    The "CAWn" Game Continues - Biglari Holdings

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought they were not convertible - i.e., unlike BRK you cannot convert BH class A into BH class B.  I know his reasons for the dual class voting are shady, but it doesn't sound horribly different from the voting rights disparity at BRK.

     

    (I am not defending his actions, I really dislike this guy)

    Tilson's IV Valuation of BRK

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    Not that it really matters, but why does he use the wrong share count and the wrong Shareholder's Equity?

     

    Tilson's BRK shares outstanding: 1.636 million

    Actual BRK shares outstanding: 1.6486 million

     

    Tilson's BRK equity: $163 Billion

    Actual BRK equity: $157.3 Billion

     

    Using $163 B ignores the 5.6 Billion that doesn't belong to BRK shareholders.

    David Sokol Interview

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    To compare what he did to Munger is just wrong. Sokol obviously knew that Lubrizol was up for sale, and that in the event of a takeover, he would stand to profit very handsomely.

     

     

    Lubrizol was not "for sale" anymore than every public company is "for sale" on any given day.  It was on a list of chemical companies, not a list of chemical companies being 'shopped' by Citi.  LZ was, in fact, considering a very large acquisition.  It was arguably undervalued and fairly un-leveraged, which would make it a target - but the company was not being shopped and the management was not considering a sale.

    Berkshire Wrote Down U.S. Bancorp, Swiss Re After SEC Query

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    What exactly is the latitude given by the FED to companies regarding stock ownership. I always tough that stock had to be marked to market...

     

    BeerBaron

     

    All the equities were always being marked to market and all changes were reflected in quarterly comprehensive income and, of course, book value on pg. 1.  Berkshire isn't a trader using mark to market accounting and it shouldn't have to pass unrealized losses through the income statement if there hasn't been a material permanent impairment (like AIB) just like it doesn't pass unrealized gains through (besides rare exceptions like the Gillette-P&G merger and the BNI write up).

     

    If KO goes up 2 Billion dollars in a quarter and USB declines 500 million, running -500m through the income statement doesn't communicate anything useful to investors.

     

    Japan ETFs

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The only Nikkei 225 etfs that I know of are traded in Japan - the iShares one is jp:1329

     

    EWJ, that you mention, is the most liquid US etf, but it tracks the MSCI Japan Index.

     

    There are mini-Nikkei futures traded in Singapore and larger contracts available in the US.

     

    DFJ - the WisdomTree small cap dividend etf is also pretty active.

    Market Sentiment As Usual Is Running In Wrong Direction!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    wondering if someone could help with the following questions:

    - fairfax used to have a Market Cap/GDP slide in the AGM presentation (most recently in 2009 see attached), any idea why that practise has been discontinued in 2010?

    - although directionally similar, the Gurufocus chart (attached) doesn't use the same values, example the 2000 peak is 150% while the fairfax chart showed a figure slightly over 170%, what could explain the difference?

    - does anyone know if there is a real-time online version other than the one on GuruFocus?

     

    regards

    rijk

     

    I don't have a link to the ned davis version, but the difference between the two is from the Guru Focus graph using the Wilshire Total Market index, which contains 98% of all US stocks, while the Ned Davis Research version adds the other 2%.  By Ned Davis' method, we were at around 101% at the beginning of this year.  Sorry, I don't have anything better than the gurufocus chart you found.

    Complaining About Berkshire?

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    I will contribute my meager $0.02 worth......WEB has already stated that he will pay a dividend when he feels it is no longer possible for BRK to  outperform the S & P. That should be the end of the matter as long as WEB is in charge. Having said that, BRK should pay a dividend once the Gates Foundation holds all of WEB's shares. This way the foundation could receive funds it needs to meet the IRS requirements without having to sell BRK shares. I would like the foundation to hold the BRK shares forever, and help preserve what WEB has spent the last 50 years building.....in the meantime it should be most interesting to see what WEB buys next.

     

    cheers

    Zorro

     

    A dividend will not change the fact that the Gates Foundation is required to sell Berkshire stock to comply with federal excise tax rules limiting excess business holdings by private foundations.  It's the same law that forced the sale of Pabst Blue Ribbon (that foundation was out of compliance for years).

    What's your opinion on Steve Eisman?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    He cracked me up on the Genworth conference call last year.

     

    some info on that here:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-eisman-genworth-conference-call-recording-2010-10

     

    As you probably know, he was a very public critic of the financing practices surrounding the for-profit education sector.  He likely made a decent return on his short of the equities in that sector.

     

    He was a colleague / mentor of both Meredith Whitney and Alice Schroeder at Oppenheimer.

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