gfp

my bad - made an error up there!

Outside of researching promotional rates for money market accounts at various financial institutions, there are not a lot of low-risk, deposit type options that are worth the effort. I use a strategy like this in similar situations. This is just one example, using American Capital Agency. The numbers vary and there are other securities that might be better choices, but you could do something like this: This assumes 100 shares / one option contract - long 100 sh AGNC: 3389 buy 1 AGNC Jan 13 34 Put +290 sell 1 AGNC Jan 13 34 Call -98 ------ Net cost would be around $3581 You would collect two dividend payments of 1.25 each in that time, or $250, plus the $11 from selling at 34. 261 / 3581 = 7.28% [EDIT - this is incorrect, I messed this one up as you can see] To get the options prices I listed, you would want to enter the orders together as an all-or-nothing spread order for a net debit of 1.92 or so in this example. You could run a similar strategy with other high dividend payers that you think will maintain the dividend for the next 6 months. There might be better choices out there, but you get the idea.

From BRK's latest 10Q - "Subsequent to June 30, 2012, Berkshire entered into an agreement with the counterparty to certain of the state/municipality contracts to terminate contracts with notional values of $8.25 billion. Future loss payments, if any, related to the remaining 50% of the notional value of the state/municipality contracts cannot be unilaterally settled before the maturity dates of the underlying municipality obligation, which range from 2019 to 2054." This is about half of the notional value of the BRK Assurance muni bond insurance business. Is Fairfax the only counterparty that holds this big of a position in BRK-insured bonds? Think it was FFH that terminated the coverage?

Google didn't buy Motorola Solutions

JUSH is BKW on the nyse as of today

Is that what caused the strange, high volume run-up in HRG shares the last couple weeks? I couldn't figure out what happened there. Thought maybe it was a newsletter or manager write-up.

FMD one of them?

Yeah, I noticed it wasn't working correctly yesterday either. Must be all that fancy programming and graphics bringing the servers to their knees

These articles are funny. Makes no mention that less than 30% of the headline number of planes are actual firm orders as opposed to options to acquire planes. All these articles cite a meaningless "retail" value of 425 planes when NetJets is only committing to 125, and at a huge discount to "msrp." Last I checked the railroad didn't cost $44 Billion either, but it's certainly worth at least that today!

White MacBook was discontinued Feb 2012. I believe you are thinking of the MacBook Pro. MacBook was plastic. Not that it's important

Ummm. I agree it's definitely not a macbook in the picture, but MacBooks were only available in two colors and one of them was white and glossy.. http://tinyurl.com/7wnqfrc

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