gfp

Good interview - thanks for posting that

actual questions - why are you making those assumptions?

Thanks for the article. I am a little confused on how you came to your conclusions (wild ass guesses?) in several of your boxes above. Did someone tell you Karnataka is more adversarial towards BIAL? Did someone tell you a brand new airport in Tamil Nadu would be less capital intensive with a faster ramp up than a brand new airport in Bangalore? Did someone tell you there is something precluding BIAL being involved in a second Bangalore airport before their exclusivity period ends? Why would a second Bangalore airport require breaking BIAL's exclusivity agreement if Anchorage was involved in its development? But, yes - overall I agree that an Anchorage owned and developed airport in Hosur would be a big positive since Hosur doesn't have an airport presently and has to use Kempegowda as their closest option. Maybe Hosur gets an international airport and BIAL also re-opens Bangalore's old airport to take some of the less profitable domestic traffic

Re: Canadian election This open letter signed by business executives reads like a Fairfax family tree! https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pierre-poilievre-criticism-tax-havens-loopholes-1.7509260 edit: should have circled Brian Porter! missed him the first time

https://www.fitchratings.com/research/insurance/fitch-upgrades-fairfax-ratings-outlook-stable-22-04-2025

And you guys think technical analysis is useless!

what about the nerds around here buying cheap stocks? Are we OK? Is it still OK to buy undervalued securities in a "bubble" ?

Fairfax Financial is not a PFIC.

Yeah, but it's listed on your 1099 from the broker as Foreign Tax Paid. You have to enter it in and not skip over it when preparing your taxes to receive credit for foreign tax paid.

That's a good example of the illiquidity of an off-the-run treasury. That was probably a 30 year bond yielding 2.5% and trades today at a discount to an on-the-run, fresh 20 year issue. Because of the lack of liquidity I guess

Looks like you found one that did - the 20 and 30 year index prices didn't touch 5% - yet (at least that my little ole computer showed)

I had my orders in and ready but UST long bonds did not hit my magic yield of 5%+ today. There's always tomorrow!

These are taxable shares I'm asking about. I own Fairfax in every nook and cranny I can find but the tax treatment I am asking about is for the taxable account FRFHF holdings. I haven't checked taxable FFH shares because it's slightly more involved for me to check.

Anyone have any clue why IB and Fidelity stopped withholding Canadian tax on my FRFHF dividends for the last two tax years? Other Americans aren't seeing that? Strange, since it is multiple brokers and multiple different people / accounts.

I got some order fills on Advance Auto Parts and Sky Harbour this morning. New shareholder woot woot We gonna sell to poor people and bezos and nobody in between

I just looked back a few years. 2022 return shows foreign tax paid (canada took their withholding on FRFHF dividend). 2023 and 2024 show no foreign tax paid (no withholding). I know when they did the tender offer they were still withholding, because there was some kind of "deemed dividend" for part of the tender and it was split over two calendar years and made a real mess. Serves me right for tendering any at all...

As a US based investor with some FRFHF, I receive the entire $15 dividend, not 85% of it. In years past, I remember a tax withheld and claiming the foreign tax paid at tax time. This year, the entire $15 showed up in the account, and I believe it was the same last year as well. The account I am checking holds FRFHF, not FFH. You will not be double taxed on capital gains. You will have the same treatment - short term or long term capital gains tax.

I'm sort of curious what you think the word "Petrodollar" means?

WSJ article on JB Pritzker's presidential aspirations... Not a good plan for the democrats (in my humble opinion!). I've talked to liberal friends for years about the possibility of Jamie Dimon running as a democrat and it has always surprised me how much of a non-starter they claimed he was. I have no idea if Jamie would ever consider it and I have no idea what party he might choose to run with if he did. But the fact that liberal friends won't even consider him a viable option makes me think they don't have a good grip on the electability issues their candidates keep facing. I'm not an expert on JB or Illinois but I just don't see this as a winning plan https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/americas-second-richest-elected-official-is-acting-like-he-wants-to-be-president-8b30efa0?mod=wknd_pos1

The US owns, what, $870 billion worth of Gold at current market value? US Government issued fiat is what? $20-35 trillion? How is gold providing the backing that allows them to do what they do?

It wasn't - don't worry about it. Blake had written to me privately about his world view and concerns and me buying long bonds right after reading his message might have seemed like a 'gratuitous slam' against him! Blake is worried about different stuff than I am and that's OK. We don't actually know who is "right" yet I remember a book I had 20 years ago or so called "being right or making money" I think it was by Ned Davis. It's not on the shelf anymore. The book wasn't anything special but that title always stuck with me.

I'm a bit of a broken record on Treasury bond yields when they get above 5%... Just imagine you are an insurance company and the market won't let you lock in T-bill rates for 1, 2, 3 or 5 years but you can get over 5% on a 20 year government bond. Maaayyybeee you nibble.

I don't know if this is the right thread for this or not but I just got of the phone with a friend in Victoria and boy oh boy is Canada united in this US boycott - like generational damage. Not pissed over tariffs per se, but over the annexation talk, which is so pointless because there isn't even a negotiating point to causing that damage. It's just a non-starter that only harms the relationship. "At least five people I know have sold their properties in the US. And everyone I know has cancelled some or all of their US travel." Could be super positive for Canada long term because to talk to this friend, the country hasn't been this united behind something in recent memory, if ever. https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/?share_id=BHZKc2ob9FToLNsRUYfn0&utm_content=1&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

Buying US government bonds that yield over 5% in a weakening economy that isn't at any immediate risk of heating up right away is not a super risky move, despite the long duration. The only reason I go way out with those ZROZ strips is because they move so damn much! Otherwise I wouldn't go past the 20 year sweet spot.

Well I don't want to gang up on him, partly because I like messing around with him and don't want him to quit the board. But a lot of young investors don't know their track record because they don't keep track of their performance in any sort of systematic way and the balances are usually very small with a lot of cash flows in and out. Maybe at tax time they see if they owe anything or not...