gfp

So, if your largest positions are Tesla, Apple and Amazon in that order - 2022 was going to be a bad year for you. I'm not sure why they were down 50% but 2022 had a very high-mark -> low-mark timing as far as where tech stocks were on the calendar dates. Berkshire had a large reported net loss for 2022 for similar reasons (not 50% of net worth of course!) I would be most concerned about a "value investor" that held Tesla as the largest position through that period (and still does). Some people are born into billions of dollars and countless high-level finance connections and can become "money managers" with slightly fewer road blocks than the average joe. Imagine how the clients and manger were feeling at year-end 2021 -

I know who this is and will just update that they managed $110.8 million as of the beginning of this year.

What do we have here - Dale Earnhardt statue, bank of america stadium and some barbecue - I guess North Carolina, United States

Their argument was great, "fintech unicorns have plummeted in value" followed by, "this isn't even a high tech fintech - it's an insurance company!"

One of MidAmerican's wind farms in Iowa was hit by a recent tornado there. Looks like only 5 turbines were destroyed but it made me wonder if MidAmerican buys insurance for this type of thing and if BRK parent writes the insurance. https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/05/23/powerful-tornado-topples-wind-turbines-in-us-experts-say-such-destruction-is-extremely-rar drone footage of a tornado here https://www.techeblog.com/drone-tornado-wind-turbine-iowa/

I don't follow any of this FNMA/Freddie stuff closely, but I will just point out that Trump was completely checked out once COVID messed up the pretty picture he was trying to paint. Mnuchin was basically running Treasury without much input from Trump and Mnuchin was busy micromanaging the COVID response with Jay Powell.

I wouldn't expect much, if any, change to FFH book value from the Digit IPO.

Someone asked Tom Gayner about why MKL references EBITDA occasionally in their reports, especially as it relates to the MKL Ventures type stuff. Start at 1:32:40 timestamp or thereabouts on this video for the question. He eventually gets to why they still use it sometimes. It is part of the language of private businesses, private business brokers, etc. Make your own adjustments but cash flow available to pay debt and ownership has its uses -

Exactly. Sounds almost verbatim from one of my 'driving the kid to high school' morning lectures from years past. Even a group of dumb high school kids could grasp this simple concept despite having no idea what an amortization table or anything like that was.

I think they are just referring to the use of EBITDA in providing color on some of the unconsolidated marks on the balance sheet - private stuff, investments in associates, equity method stuff. Prem isn't using EBITDA to discuss insurance company results as far as I am aware.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cbc-bancorp-announces-the-acquisition-of-bay-community-bancorp-302150591.html

High voltage transmission lines are already aluminum - it would cost a fortune otherwise. They put steel in there to make it strong but the conductor is Aluminum

Just to get this straight, if you are a MSTR and BTC maximalist / bull / whatever, you want the SEC to not approve the ETH ETF because everything except Bitcoin is a security and that means BTC is unique as digital property and "there is no second best." - right?

Most copper used in new home building in the US is the Romex-style NM cable - the 10, 12 and 14 gauge type stuff. This could be substituted with aluminum but I think sheathed copper NM cable is pretty well entrenched in the code books so it would persist for a long time. When we put in a big cable for a 100 amp sub panel or something, we already use aluminum. That must be like 2 AWG aluminum cable or something like that - they are some big thick cables. I would assume solar installations still use copper wire for most everything. Plumbing in the US has switched away from copper water supply lines to pex a long time ago. There are still some brass fittings, which use copper. The rest of the copper is just general electrical stuff like appliances, air conditioner motors, etc.

Both of those were Warren's positions. It turns out he's not perfect.

Well you can criticize Todd all you want but I wouldn't accuse him of "missing" Visa or Mastercard. He also boldly told both Charlie and Warren that Progressive was the better business vs. their beloved GEICO. Warren has said for many years that MSFT was on the 'do not invest' list because of this close friendship with Gates. Maybe that has changed more recently. Warren and Charlie met a lot of investors over their lifetimes. It was very hard to impress them. I can only think of 6 or so that they ever let touch any of their capital. Everything is going to be OK.

black is Visa, a Todd pick from his first day at BRK. Apple was only Warren’s pick after it was Ted or Todd’s pick and he was convinced

This chart is not super scientific but not a ton of permanent capital loss on the chart.

Just keep in mind that interview is from late February. Not particularly recent.

There are so many people like that. I've known several that made huge but variable incomes and could never come up with the cash to pay taxes in April. They would go to the boss or owner of the company asking for a loan to pay their f'ing taxes. Embarrassing.

Oh man Greenberg is is feeling the heat from this new activist showing up in his shares and he's upping the dividend on day one to keep the old man happy https://investors.chubb.com/News--Events/news/news-details/2024/Chubb-Limited-Shareholders-Approve-31st-Consecutive-Annual-Dividend-Increase-Chubb-Limited-Board-Declares-Record-Date-for-First-Dividend-Installment/default.aspx

That's right - this is mostly ACE Limited and ACE management runs the place (Evan Greenberg, Hank's son). They have been very acquisitive over a long period of time. It looks like Warren started buying it in 2023 at maybe $80 billion market cap and around 1.5x book value. News of the Berkshire investment pushed the market cap to around $110 Billion this morning so this is one of the short list of companies that was big enough for Warren to consider. Props to the person over at Barrons that narrowed down the list of potential candidates and guessed Chubb. I suspected it was insurance and not banking but didn't root around too much trying to figure it out.

When I worked in the Insurance Brokerage business (as a 15-17 year old), Chubb was the carrier that insured all the rich people in my town. The ones with huge files of scheduled items and artwork. Among other important responsibilities, I was in charge of all of the files. Part of my duties was producing auto insurance ID cards on a typewriter. One mistake on a VIN number and you had to start over... The typewriter whiteout stuff made it look like the customer was trying to be shady so no whiteout allowed.

He already had over 20m shares of Chubb at year-end so he will have a good gain on the position before tomorrow's 'Buffett halo' pop.

Yes they did, but that's not news since they put out a press release each time they bought shares. https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-acquisition-of-additional-orla-shares-3/ https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-acquisition-of-additional-orla-shares-2/ https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-acquisition-of-additional-orla-shares/