gfp

https://di.hkex.com.hk/di/NSAllFormList.aspx?sa2=an&sid=2508&corpn=BYD+Co.+Ltd.++-+H+Shares&sd=08/05/2022&ed=08/05/2023&cid=2&sa1=cl&scsd=08%2f05%2f2022&sced=08%2f05%2f2023&sc=1211&src=MAIN&lang=EN&g_lang=en& Berkshire Hathaway Energy sold out another 11.3895 million BYD shares as of May 2nd (around $334 million dollars)

I agree those are all huge assets to Berkshire, although I don't know if we are overlooking that fact here on this forum. I have heard quite a few people here and elsewhere refer to Todd Combs as "a joke" which I found amusing but everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you think Todd is "a joke" at least listen to his NFM podcast interview to introduce yourself to the guy. Berkshire is absolutely filled with extremely talented people at headquarters. Marc Hamburg's team (and Marc himself) are very very good. What struck me at the annual meeting was Warren coming right out and saying that if something were to happen to Greg (like Warren and Greg go down in a plane), there is no next in line identified and the board would be in a tough place. Greg is that good and it isn't super easy to identify the next person. I am comforted that Ted Weschler, Ajit, and Todd would be there and the home office team can run the place just fine but maybe "swim to Greg" is the new "swim to Ajit."

yeah that is about the best part of it. No castle drama, no power struggle - Ajit wants the job he has, which is one of extraordinary esteem in his industry. I hope Ajit wants to work for us for decades more but it is a huge advantage that he does not want the job Greg is doing/will do. I will take lucky over good any day

I don't know if Charlie has told the story before or not, but it was great when he said he used to always fly coach to the Berkshire annual meeting each year and the plane from LA would be full of all these rich Berkshire shareholders headed to the meeting and they would all applaud and cheer when he took his seat in coach. "I miss that." he said Now he flys on net jets. I was also surprised how ruthless Buffett was on "Wheels Up," basically implying that people that gave them money for their jet cards ($1 Billion) would basically lose out (unsecured creditors in line at BK)... He doesn't want to cause bank runs by naming any firm specifically but went straight for the jugular on Wheels Up. I don't know anything about them but it sounded like a SPAC deal from context.

Always tough to know if the kids are just reading stuff their parents wrote, but he shut down her "de-dollarization" question in about 2 seconds. "I don't see an alternative reserve currency available." I was happy to hear Warren clarify several times that it was the size of the fiscal deficits that were risking inflation and not anything from the Federal Reserve. He was not concerned with the size of the Fed's balance sheet. Also interesting that he has been tracking the number of hundred dollar bills in circulation. He was like, "I wonder where they are" and I was hollering "Abroad!" It would be interesting to know how much US currency is physically stored by drug cartels.

The specific mention was Warren reminding us that it was Warren who asked for the deal to buy into BAC on those special terms and he felt honor bound essentially to stay in it. And he likes the management. I’m sure he doesn’t love the securities book but this too shall pass

One important bit of breaking news from the meeting was that Warren came right out and said he would not be bidding for control of Occidental. He may buy more and obviously still has the warrants to exercise but he isn't going to buy Occidental entirely. Someone else might eventually, of course. The other big news was that Jan. 1st renewals were disappointing for Ajit but that they got lucky when April 1st came around and prices had zoomed up and they quickly wrote $15 Billion of Florida Cat risk where they can lose a maximum of $15B this year and could make $7 Billion if no major storm hits Florida.

Pretty funny that Warren called out this exact auction and said Berkshire bought $3 Billion of this 5.9% t-bill

Definitely over the phone and then just crossed on the exchange

Highly recommend this live feed of Hugh Hendry at this hedgeye conference going on right now. Hopefully they post the video from the beginning because it's been great from the start. Love this wacko https://app.hedgeye.com/insights/132814-free-access-a-macro-reality-check-with-hugh-hendry-keith-mcculloug?type=macro%2Cmarket-insights

Pretty surprised there was a $9.5 million block trade crossed this morning on FIH.U at exactly $13/share. That is not a usual occurrence in this little guy.

Look at those rates! Berkshire gonna get paid on that cash. (I'm sure this is related to fears of possible delay in getting your money if the government defaults for a few days... 57-day bill went at 5.5%)

Sounds like your 4.7% is actually better than the current "I bond deal."

" The finalized information will be presented in the Company’s 2023 first quarter unaudited financial results, which will be released after the close of markets on Thursday, May 11."

try this https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/opinion/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-social-governance.html?unlocked_article_code=5vGDBfsq9Vo3g_jC16KqZr0QmRBtklIhg934ukWxDXF2BSFSxnxt-dbcC2O4EK41bB2B3Q5gauMTKTz4D3EAZbViDmq04kWYAtn-5avem8cRr3K3epHklXVI5uxSOw0hxyaSR5ZxJmiuYabBuqwoqSuR35jp5KocKSf1zEELs0AoajaJnPAi9PnY0IH3a4K2SL0TiwEeIVGG6UUU2dtm0IS2pG2tB7kDVnySb0Rr7l-j7YNRvWFtZYtM4Bm8iJWfXMbZ_go1_7FSofkLmkh4hIzCA6Mp_l0UTDlwwr4YpJCgakSX-jYRly4T3eiZrrwYLk8jgTr5X20_xLEIm7V441T-J5Lu-WS5NqOU6ixYfRUslEXL6Y9-2AgFWvgbzQ&smid=url-share

I wasn't talking about interest transferring from one pocket in the economy to another, I was describing the increased interest payments flowing directly from the governments pocket to the private sector's pocket as increased deficit spending. Conventional thinking is wrong on this. Money is spent into existence by the government. That is the only place new money can come from.

what tool are you using to produce those pie charts?

You look at that pie chart and worry about the concentrated positions and I look at that pie chart and wonder what the point is of having so many of those tiny positions at all? If you don't like which positions became the big ones, by all means trim them if you are uncomfortable. But having a lot of money in your very best ideas is not a bad position to be in.

Progressive is finally starting to feel all those customers GEICO "shed" to them. I was worried about PGR underwriting results for the near future when I heard so many stories of people switching to PGR instead of accepting price increases at their incumbent carrier. " On the other hand, our first quarter 2023 CR was a 99.0, with March posting a CR of 106.2." Q1 report https://s24.q4cdn.com/447218525/files/doc_financials/2023/q1/Progressive-2023-Q1.pdf There was also a conference call today, the transcripts are out there. Not sure if any are free to link to.

I would like to see more consolidation between and among these ECIP (and MDI) recipient banks. BFCC has started with a couple. They shouldn't be bought by or be buying banks that didn't benefit from these programs. Hopefully the better managements would survive the consolidations.

I guess if we are talking about these banks on this forum now, we should link to a few articles https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Y8eEOMa6gVScvqQ-E86IqagHdo5UIUM/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/12pcz5FR4chXArz28rGYkqmqeV8Ra9T8S/view From https://twitter.com/dirtcheapstocks I believe Solitron Devices made an investment in CZBS and MFBP Alluvial Fund has a little basket of these also. Maybe BFCC, UBAB, CBOBA - I forget if they are disclosed or not

I recommend this guy. He is an occasional poster on this board. Publishes his investor letters publicly so you can follow along. Deals in very very small companies that won't overlap with stuff most people are investing in for themselves. Also runs Solitron Devices, a tiny but promising operation - ticker SODI. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ea6570a0ba57d406203e048/t/644872509e61401b01f36b78/1682469456611/Q1+2023+Results+for+Cedar+Creek+Partners.pdf https://www.eriksencapitalmgmt.com

Charlie did an interview for the Financial Times - https://www.ft.com/content/da9f8230-2eb1-49c5-b63a-f1507936d01b Charlie Munger has warned of a brewing storm in the US commercial….pdf

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/talc-supplier-to-cosmetics-firms-files-bankruptcy-after-lawsuits-1.1913164