gfp

I believe TNP was Texas National Petroleum - a merger arbitrage position. EDIT: yes, here is some more color on this arb: http://books.google.com/books?id=hOmE143gjMIC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=Buffett+Partnership+TNP&source=bl&ots=3GLf55TsfX&sig=aINU_95iYCgqFbO2JlxHg47nIdM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5Mi1U87KD4-VyAS8moLIBg&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Buffett%20Partnership%20TNP&f=false

Hey Libs - I've used insider buying as an idea generating tool for a decade at least. If you look at it every day you can quickly filter out the less meaningful buys and recognize the entities that are always accumulating a certain company. There are many good sites for checking the daily filings nowadays but I still use one I started with years ago. Also barrons lists the top buys of the week (for free) in their weekend magazine posted online. http://www.insider-monitor.com/insider_stock_purchases.html Also dataroma's home page has a nice insider purchase summary: http://www.dataroma.com (scroll down for significant insider purchases - you'll see Michael Larsen / Bill Gates has been adding daily to RSG this week for instance)

Man, only Charlie could pull this off and see the stock rise - http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-26/munger-s-daily-journal-dismisses-ernst-and-young-after-dispute

Alice Schroeder had this advice in her reddit chat recently: "Contacting Warren Buffett. He prefers to be contacted in writing and likes handwritten or typed letters more than email. Write him a letter at Kiewit Plaza. As a side note, a lot of people write him with essentially the following message: Dear Mr. Buffett, you are wonderful, will you please do the following for me (a) hire me (b) give me money © speak at my event (d) donate to my charity (e) be my mentor (f) help me get out of prison (g) help me market my invention. He gets thousands of these letters -- no kidding! Be original and you're more likely to get his attention." source:

That's great - thanks!

One risk to consider is your ability to obtain title insurance on the property if you become the owner (or a buyer's ability to get title insurance when you try to sell). Some of my friends have experienced huge issues obtaining clear title and title insurance when a previous owner accuses the municipality of doing something wrong in their process, which can keep you from selling a property you acquired this way (even after you have borrowed money to completely renovate the property). A friend of mine was stuck with a New Orleans property for over a year longer than he expected while a previous owner fought and sued him. The city was the one that allegedly messed up - but you basically can't sue the City of New Orleans in this situation according to virtually every lawyer in town. Nobody will even try. Add in potential lapses in mail service / required notifications due to Hurricanes and lost or damaged records and you've got a potential mess. I've heard Louisiana is one of the least attractive states to do these types of deals, but it could still be worthwhile. I've heard that Florida is more investor friendly. edit: One strategy that my wife has used several times successfully is to purchase blighted property from an individual or family that is about to lose their property to the 3 yr tax sale process. Faced with a choice of losing the property for no net proceeds or selling to my wife for some amount more than the back taxes plus all interest and fees - many prefer to redeem their property and sell it just before the tax sale guy would take over ownership.

Thanks for the link - that is some seriously good reporting work

There is a detailed investor presentation for MidAmerican (BRK Energy) at this link. There is a slide that shows ROE of each of the energy subsidiaries and some discussion of capital expenditures vs cash flows. You can also see MidAmerican's tax rate declining to 7% or so from closer to 20% earlier as the tax credits come online. I think there is a substantial lag between investments and the resulting cash flows. They are also earning below the allowed ROEs at all the subs (obviously not over). A lot of the behavior is to show the regulators what a great owner BRK energy is for regulated assets so they will be able to buy whatever they want going forward. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1081316/000108131614000014/ic2014.htm (side note - I tried to find some Topaz Solar Farms LLC bonds to see the yields since they are BBB, but could not find any available. Anyone know the yields on those?)

Gates Foundation is required to sell BRK shares by law - excess business holdings of a foundation or something like that - they have to steadily sell shares regardless of the dividend under current law. Same reason Pabst Brewing had to be sold.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-Berkshire-Hathaway-Annual-Meeting-Ticket-Credential-Lanyard-Warren-Buffett-/121131175608?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c33fb0eb8

When you are logged in, try clicking the little "plus" sign + next to the text "Unread Posts". That should display the categories that you are used to seeing. It should stay that way unless you click the "minus". Hope that works for you - I had the same issue a while ago.

The main point of Harney is to hide the US equity positions that are being accumulated and have received confidential treatment from the SEC. Once they are done buying something, and no longer get confidential treatment on their 13-F, everyone can see them. If they weren't in Harney, I would be able to pull the quarterly NAIC filings and find out the 'secret' stock they were accumulating. The other big benefit of Harney is Berkshire's investments in individual corporate bonds. The bonds disclosed in NAIC filings are all highly liquid mortgages and government bonds. The individual high yield and corporate bonds are all hidden inside Harney. He's used it for years. It's only real purpose is confidentiality.

c'mon man, this is a value investor forum - a lot of us do this for a living and almost every other waking hour of the day. Aviation enthusiasts are often into simulators. Investment enthusiasts spend the weekend devouring annual reports. To each their own. Even rookie F1 drivers use simulators/games to learn tracks they've never driven.

Doesn't depressurizing the cabin release the oxygen masks throughout the plane? Would everyone still pass out immediately with oxygen masks on?

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/104889/000119312514094955/d692131dex991.htm

what's the story with the price move in the common shares today?

How do you know that FFH bought into PWT? http://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=FFH

Verisk was owned by insurance companies before it became a public company. Berkshire's shares 'showed-up' in filings when VRSK started to trade publicly. BRK didn't sell shares in the IPO like the other owners. I believe they've sold some VRSK since, but I don't follow it closely. The extra PSX was indeed a very large position for the junior managers.

Verisk is a legacy holding that BRK received before they were hired. Looks like you have it mostly right. I would add PSX as a company that BRK got through the COP spin but then one of the junior managers added to (and now will be swapped for the chemical business in a nice tax efficient swap) USG was Buffett

A 13-f will always indicate to the public that confidential information has been omitted if it has. So at least you know when something is omitted, and it can't be confidential for very long usually.

Graham Holdings' pension fund has the BRK shares you are describing, but don't forget that Graham Holdings directly owns about $423 million (at current price) in additional BRK.A & B shares as an investment. There is an opportunity for a great stock swap here. Is it saying pension plan held investment which increased from $223mn to $389mn in 9 months? I wonder which one that would be. Mostly some large cap. Also structure of this transaction will point to Buffett's valuation of Berkshire. I think it was good bargain below 109 and still not very far from it.

Not sure you're right here -- where are you getting $11m? My apologies - I don't know anything about this company, I was just directing the poster to a link and page number for Net Operating Loss Carry forwards for the US.

It's on page 13 of the most recent 10K for Special Diversified - approximately 11 million http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/911649/000118811213001093/t76199_10k.htm

It's a fine thesis to use deep in the money LEAP calls to add some leverage to a safe equity position. Just a heads up to others that might consider this as a swap for Berkshire shares they already own in an IRA - I attempted to swap BRK.B shares for calls in a "margin-type" interactive brokers IRA a couple years ago. The margin-type IRA at IB allows to you immediately use the proceeds of a sale, rather than waiting the 3 days for settlement like a regular IRA. The way this works without violating the IRA rules is that the second trade settles after the first trade, so no temporary loan is ever present. Stock options settle the next business day, so you have to wait 2 days to do the swap - risking a price change in the underlying. I remember sweating it out for two days hoping the price didn't rise. If it falls, you benefit of course...

I think it's mainly a non-issue because it will be near impossible for any entity to get a controlling position in BRK in the future. The A-shares are the way to do it, but they have very low volume that will only shrink as they can only be converted in one direction. As BRK's market cap continues to grow, an entity seeking control would need $70 billion plus worth of illiquid A-shares to take control the "cheap way". The board owns 33,000 A-shares outside of Buffett (+undisclosed Munger children). BRK may also repurchase A-shares in blocks further reducing outstanding shares and potential volumes. Another part-stock deal like BNI would further increase the number of B-shares, etc etc… Berkshire will be a Trillion dollar market cap company at some point in the not too distant future. Difficult to take over, even with a potent share class. And with a strong board led by lead director Bill Gates who will still control one hell of a lot of votes... You don't see Icahn getting a seat on the Apple board. Hell, Sardar can't even get on the CBRL board with 20%.