gfp

It's funny because Trump's main criticism of Powell (who he appointed of course) was essentially that he wasn't political enough. Trump wanted low rates, Powell wanted to maintain Fed independence. There is zero chance of the US going back to a gold-backed currency even if that is something that Donald Trump wanted, which I'm sure he doesn't. Elasticity is a (necessary) feature not a problem.

Is this book still available anywhere? I would like to gift one but I don’t want to give my only copy. Selfish, I know

If Sandy had never given any shares away or distributed trust shares to heirs, the Gottesmans would have over $6 Billion of Berkshire stock - over 10,000 A-shares. Over time they have been giving shares away but I'm not sure what the split is between heirs, foundations and what Ruth has left over.

This donation has been well covered in the media but I thought this morning's WSJ article about it was better than most at telling the story of Warren, Sandy and Ruth - https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/billion-donation-einstein-medicine-warren-buffett-ruth-gottesman-01b9ae91?mod=hp_lead_pos8&mod=wknd_pos1

I hesitate to mention this product, because I don't recommend it and I think the LAST place to get cute and inject risk is your t-bill position - but I did sort of find this fascinating and clever and *so far* it has been working. The idea is an ETF that earns the risk free short term rate (~5.2%) but doesn't generate taxable income like T-bills and if you hold the ETF for over a year an individual investor can turn "t-bill" type interest into a long term capital gain for tax purposes. Plus the tax can be deferred until you sell the ETF. BOXX has tracked BIL, the SPDR 1-3m t-bill ETF almost exactly. I should point out that if you held this for less than a year and lived in a state with an income tax (t-bill interest isn't subject to state tax) you would probably be worse off after taxes than the t-bill or t-bill etf. The fund mostly uses box spreads on the S&P500 index - cash settled, non-directional index option spreads, capturing the risk free rate imbedded in the trade (you could do this to synthetically borrow or lend, this fund is lending). But then, taking advantage of a loophole in ETF rules, they will also occasionally buy a box spread on Booking Holdings, a high price per share stock. They can then use a friendly trader (Wolverine Trading in Chicago) to "buy" just the profitable leg of the Booking Holdings options as an in-kind redemption of the ETF fund. And retain the losing leg of the Booking box spread to book the tax losses. Read the bloomberg article below for the specifics but it's clever and that's why I mention it. https://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=BOXX&insttype=&freq=1&show=&time=9 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-22/this-exchange-traded-fund-mimics-t-bill-returns-without-tax-bills

Who knows. Some CEOs are just better at turning in their homework in a timely fashion. The Boston Omaha boys send in their letter whenever they damn well feel like it.

It's been great - at $40-50 Billion market cap Progressive was one of those companies you could have held an auction on a desert island and made money. At $110 Billion I'm not so sure but these folks are very good at what they do.

@Viking if you are really a stickler for detail and this post is as of end of February, the Orla mining percentage ownership is low as well https://www.fairfax.ca/press-releases/fairfax-announces-acquisition-of-additional-orla-shares-3/

So to Dinar's and ValueArb's points above - Am I to understand that your argument is that fewer people working (because they don't have to and they are sitting on welfare) is contributing to lower wages for the low income workers we are discussing? Fewer low-skill laborers seeking work -> Lower wages? Is that what you two believe?

Last year it was published March 10th. (a Friday after the close)

Ah yes I see what you mean. I didn't notice that there were shares owned inside National Indemnity. You confused me with that NAI reference because I think of NAI as National Amusements not National Indemnity. I don't think it indicates Buffett investment or otherwise - I thought at the point of your earlier post that there was no PARA inside National Indemnity and if that indicated it's in a pension fund or something then that would point to a non-Buffett manager (T&T). If I notice PARA being sold in another filing I will post it. There are quite a few different reporting insurance subsidiaries within Berkshire. It wasn't sold in Columbia or Gen Re that I have seen so far.

These are the stocks sold within General Re during the year (General Re is where most of the 'not-on-the-13F' european equities live) edit: that's really blurry. They sold Chevron, HP, USB, Allianz, Munich Re, BASF and Nestle. The European stuff was sold earlier in the year

That seems to be the case, which opens up the question of whether Paramount is a Buffett holding at all. I will check their last PARA filing to see if there is any information on where it is held within BRK.

Attached is the National Indemnity year end NAIC filing that includes investments. There are quite a few files - I am still going through them. I will post a few more later today (FWIW, they were selling AAPL for $192.75 / share on December 27th so it could have been primarily tax related - if for some reason it "made sense" to take a gain on AAPL for the 2023 tax year). edit: they were also selling AAPL the day before in Columbia Insurance at $193.79 / share. So decent prices 20087.2023.P.AN.PI.O.M.4665561.pdf

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/insurancebased-investment-scheme-labelled-ponzi-closed-down-479411.aspx Aww man, now I gotta shut down my "secrets of the NAIC" call buying fund! this guy ruined it for everyone. f*cking harvard...

Oh wow. So are we going to see a bunch of El Pollo Loco loaf of bread and Jack in the Box loaf of bread menu items in April?

Am I wrong that most people are making at least $15 per hour these days? I know that is still near impossible to live on, but it seems like through the pandemic even restaurant dishwashers were making at least $15 / hour. California's $20 minimum wage for fast food workers is going into effect in a month.

Cheers - I will post them but they are not out yet. The Annual filings take a bit longer to be published. I've seen quarterly filings actually come out before a company's 10Q before (which must be a no-no) - but never for a BRK sub. edit: if you are hoping to learn the "secret" financial security you will probably be out of luck (same as Q3) because it is hidden inside the Harney Investment Trust, Warren's go-to disclosure obscurer (is that a word?)

@Cigarbutt In the middle charts, "money growth and inflation," what are they plotting as "money growth?" It looks like the red line is "inflation." How are they defining "money growth?"

Are we gonna be OK? Should I be panicking because super-core ticked higher? Is capitalism working?

Greg Abel is leaving the Kraft Heinz board. I doubt there is much to read into this, probably just time management. Greg had a large increase in workload. Two Berkshire designees will remain on the KHC board. https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1637459/000163745924000029/khc-20240222.htm

Thanks - that's a great charting tool - bookmarked!

Yes, to the original point of the topic - the best way to avoid losing your position in a wonderful long-term compounder is to know the company better than almost anybody. That is how you gain the confidence that you actually do know the company and its prospects better than Mr. Market. To stop taking any cues whatsoever from the market price. That is what allows you to recognize a dip on a short seller's report as an opportunity to add and not the beginnings of doubt creeping in. It is what allows you to disregard the recent performance of the shares in deciding if it is a good investment today. And if you are not wired naturally for the long hold - a growing deferred tax liability helps. My average cost basis on FFH in CAD is $686 and for FRFHF is $569 - which isn't particularly low - because I never stopped adding shares. It is a better outcome than if I had just admired my pristine low cost basis and never made the position larger.

I do think you are conflating a post by someone else that mentioned 2013 with my post which preceded it and covered the period from September 2001 to the present, which is my holding period.

Well I didn't read the article but there are plenty of good reasons to sell Berkshire at a $930 Billion market cap this week. The best reason is always to put the capital into better investments.