gfp

I think Buffett's point in that quote was that all the non-insurance subsidiary managers, Pete Liegl included, already report to Greg. But it's not some big secret that Charlie let out of the bag. Berkshire has been quite clear in their actions that Greg was one step away from being the CEO. It also probably has something to do with Warren's constant praise of Tim Cook if you think about it.

"But with Robinhood, fans of the company can invest what they can afford and don’t need to amass what is a prohibitive sum for most Americans." Yes, the prohibitive sum of $280

I didn't get a pair and can't quite figure out if they are still available - but that model is my favorite running shoe. So light and so cushy

I believe those likes were leftover from the old site? Can't see that the functionality is activated on the new site. Nevermind - I see someone liked your recent post. Beats me

I loved his "I don't mind the poor fish who gamble". Oh Charlie

This is what I see on my gigantic iPhone when I load the new site. Exactly zero useful content visible:

I think his "surprise" in that context was that all 4 had at one time lived within a mile of each other in Omaha at one time or another

The Haslams must have needed $1.1 Billion

There is just no inventory of homes for sale. Nationally, inventories of homes is way down and replacement cost to build a new home is way up. Everything halfway decent in my city goes under contract after the first open house, way less than one week on the market. If you want something in my market you have to bid above asking and work it back after inspections. We've stopped buying anything locally. We'll see if that ends up being something we regret. ("we" is my wife and I, not the bullshit "we" so common on message boards fwiw)

I only use the "Activity" tab at the top on the new site. Which is similar to the old site's recent posts that appeared below the categories, but doesn't have the categories. I've stopped even trying to find threads that don't show up as being posted in recently. I noticed people post their "sells" in the what are you buying thread - same deal. Its easier to find than the what are you selling thread. The main issue with the new site is that enormous amounts of screen real estate are wasted with blank white space and over sized ads. If the text is going to be this size, the ads are way out of scale. And the blank white space everywhere is just wasteful. Plus, why do we care how big the user avatar is? Make it tiny. Who cares what it looks like.

Not sure where to put this, but Forbes has an article about Francis Chou's Wantaai Holdings, which bought the Stonetrust Insurance company from Pabrai's Dhando Holdings. Not sure why the plan didn't work our for Monish, but would work better for Francis? They appear to be allowed to own a bunch of equities inside the Insurance co. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobwolinsky/2021/04/29/francis-chou-wants-to-build-the-next-berkshire-hathaway/?sh=14c0a8047894

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/apr2721.pdf " Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s first quarter earnings release and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q will be posted on the Internet on Saturday, May 1, 2021, at approximately 8:00 a.m. eastern time "

I don't know anything about this company but it sounds like it was a rights offering - https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://uzmanpara.milliyet.com.tr/kap-haberi/rysas-reysas-tasimacilik-ve-lojistik-ticaret-a-s--sermaye-artirimi---azaltimi-islemlerine-iliskin-bildirim/1863730/

Thanks wisowis - don't know how you did it. Its like magic

Haha - I thought I had posted something about the possibility of the A-share volume being related to an "Accelerated Share Repurchase" program (essentially a forward contract with an Investment Bank - Apple has used them off and on). But then today didn't see it and figured it was a figment of my imagination.

A very large, simple, family owned private business is coming for sale... Here's hoping Berkshire at least gets a phone call on it before private equity firms leverage it up. https://www.wsj.com/articles/medline-industries-has-hired-goldman-sachs-to-explore-a-sale-sources-say-11618089846?mod=hp_lead_pos2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medline_Industries

I would use the office address he keeps at Munger Tolles & Olson. Using his home address in Pasadena might weird him out. This is his official business address at MTO: (address in link) https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001078511/000120919120064653/xslF345X03/doc4.xml

Thanks for posting the updated presentation ValueMaven. Good stuff

A little behind the scenes on what Berkshire Hathaway Energy executives are proposing in Austin in the wake of the Texas ERCOT debacle: From the Dallas Morning News (paywall protected), summarized also by Forbes recently https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/03/25/berkshire-hathaway-reportedly-offers-over-8-billion-for-texas-emergency-power-supply/?sh=3f78588c589a ------------ Text of Dallas article: Berkshire Hathaway Energy, part of Warren Buffett’s giant holding company, is proposing a fix for the Texas electric grid, which suffered widespread outages after a brutal storm last month. But the plan includes a major change to Texas’ deregulated power market, including guaranteed payments for the extra capacity. The company, to be known as Texas Reliability Corp., is offering to invest $8.3 billion in new generation powered by natural gas, along with gas storage. That would add about 10,000 megawatts of reliability plants to ERCOT, the grid that sends electricity to about 90% of Texans, the company said in a slide deck presentation. In an event such as last month’s outages, the Berkshire plants would supply at least half the load that was shed from the system, a slide said. Berkshire executives are in Austin this week to lobby lawmakers on the plan. In its slides, Berkshire said the investment would protect ERCOT from future extreme weather events and would limit power outages to three-hour intervals. During last month’s weather crisis, some people were without electricity for several days. But the proposal is likely to face opposition, especially from heavy industrial users of electricity. In general, they want to pay for power they use, not power pledged for emergencies. Texas generators also would want to get in on the action, and one observer called the Berkshire proposal “a one-company capacity market.” Berkshire proposes that consumers pay a fixed fee to cover the project costs, plus a rate of return approved by the Public Utility Commission. That would be similar to how the state regulates transmission and distribution lines, but not generators. ERCOT would control the power plants under the proposal and the units would run intermittently for testing and when needed for emergency supply, the company said. This “fixed-cost solution,” as Berkshire called it, could be implemented in time for the winter of 2023. While a so-called capacity market would introduce added costs, it would also reduce uncertainty, Berkshire said. The company said it would offer a $4 billion performance guarantee provided by an investment graded counterparty. Berkshire said the proposal would not impact the current dynamics of Texas’ energy market and does not require the implementation of a complex capacity market. Presumably, that’s because the guaranteed payments apply to its plan only. But competitors will want to be part of that solution, too. In recent years, generators have proposed a capacity market for Texas, and lawmakers have passed on those bills.

Any insight into what caused that momentary spike in MMAC share price today?

So it would seem that Warren cut back his purchase volume significantly in response to higher prices. Not surprising but good data point on what price level he cools at.

Right, which is why I used them as an example. First Manhattan uses Pershing for custody, which is a subsidiary of BNY. An example of a big block of A-shares and why it would show up at BNY. Fidelity has its own custodian as far as I know, so BNY wouldn't show the contrafund A shares, but that is another big chunk. Interesting also that with A shares at $400k currently, B shares are at 263.76 instead of $266, which would correspond to $400k on the A's. The spread seems to have widened this year. By the way, Sandy's 10,000 A-shares (which have been distributed to trusts for his heirs and foundations by now) would be worth $4 Billion today

There are definitely a few very large trades going through. On the B-shares there was a 701,100 share single trade at 261.03 at 8:36:54 (CDT).

BNY is the largest custodial bank in the world. They have something like $40 TRILLION in other people's assets in their custody. The assets themselves would belong to the customers of brokerage houses, funds, institutions, endowments, companies like First Manhattan, etc.. On the A-share volume, I would assume that record high share prices and still-low long term capital gains tax rates have convinced more long term holders (who would primarily hold the original stock) to call the phone number listed in the Annual Report. Berkshire's request was to call either before or after the market was open and we have seen large blocks of A shares cross the 'tape' at the open each day. Consistent with negotiated trades that were worked out before or after market hours. Then that activity draws in more activity as prices rise I suppose

My wife had a childhood IRA and they funded it by making the children employees of the family company and putting the children's wages into the IRA.