Kuhndan

You can't go broke if you don't owe anything to anyone. Pay cash for the house and then work on your nest egg.

Curious if anyone on the board subscribes to the Manual of Ideas newsletter. If so, what do you think of it. Do you think it is worth the cost?

I love newspapers. My kids (both in their early twenties) don't even know there is a local paper. It will be really interesting to see how this plays out over time.

My Wall Street Journal came up for renewal. They called and pushed to renew for $910 for two years. I said that seemed like a lot compared to my renewal last year. They then said they would renew it for one year at $505. I said that seem even worse. I shared with her that my administrative assistant had just renewed a co-workers subscription in March for $365. She somehow tried to justify the difference in that my co-worker was on an "incentive rate" and since I had been a 20 year subscriber I didn't qualify for an incentive. After much back and forth, I told her to cancel my subscription....to which she responded she would renew it for one year at $325. What a business model.

I'm giving up on Outstanding Investor Digest. It's been a year since the "chesapeake energy" edition. Not worth the bother.

I start with the book Warren buffet an american capitalist. Then the Warren Buffett Way. Then the Berkshire Hathaway annual reports.

Congratulation! Thanks for posting the interviews. Outstanding stuff.

It not as much as you might think. The fees that would have been charged Biglari, affiliates and directors are not disclosed in the proxy. At the same time, it would be fairly easy to estimate. Biglari only has $2.6 million in The Lion Fund. My guess is that he would have to pay an annual management, say 1% on total assets as well as the standard incentive comp. Steak n Shake has $50MM in The Lion Fund. Since this is a consolidated entity it wouldn't make any sense charging them.

Up 11.3 percent

Like others on the board here, I read this in two days and couldn't put it down. A couple of the stories I knew well but the author is a great storyteller. I highly recommend it.

So Biglari now owns 19.99% of Cracker Barrel. If he owns 20% he can start reporting his % share of earnings through the income statement. He can't buy 20% because of the poison pill in place. Any accountants out there that know if he can round up his current % to 20% without tripping the poison pill? Or would he have to have the 20%?

I've read all the Buffett (some better than others) books. I'd definitely read the new Loomis book. Much better than The Snowball. Gives a different perspective on a number of stories you already know.

We've seen this movie before and it's not going to end well.

I didn't get it and thought the whole thing didn't play out well. Earlier in the segment, I couldn't believe how Joe Kernan said that Jack Welch would be one to tell if the government was cooking the books on the unemployment numbers since he was the master of managing earnings at GE. Welch didn't seem to get it and Kernan an repeated it. It was CNBC's best day.

100 percent equities.

Great stuff thanks for posting!

Just curious, the young man taking the CFA test got me to wondering, how many CFA's are there on the board? I passed level III in 2001. I loved the program and thought it was a great challenge.

The Waco deal was something less than 5 times EBITDA.

I've looked at the financials for some of Buffett's recent newspaper acquistions. I just don't get it. As Buffett himself has said, "if the internet was invented first, would someone come along and invent the newspaper?" I don't think so.

Free cash flow multiple.

Agree being disappointed that the whole focus was on CHK. Not a stock I'd buy for all the issues discussed. That being the case, I didn't get much out of it.

Christmas in June! Just got my latest issue.

Stood right behind him when he hit it, you could tell it was going in as soon as it hit the green.

After a little more research, I don't think the 6% bogey is cumulative....(here is an excerpt from the SEC filing for the plan)... <<High Water Mark . Under the Incentive Agreement, Mr. Biglari will not receive incentive compensation under the Incentive Agreement unless the Corporation’s book value exceeds the previous highest level in book value, or the “high water mark,” plus a 6% growth in book value, i.e., the hurdle rate (which has been corrected in the Incentive Agreement attached as Annex A to this proxy statement to clarify that the hurdle rate is not cumulative. As such, in a fiscal year in which book value declines, the marker for subsequent fiscal years will require the complete recovery of the deficit from the last high water mark plus attaining the stated 6% hurdle rate before Mr. Biglari is eligible for a bonus.>> With the key comment above being, "to clarify that the hurdle rate is not cumulative", which I would interpret, the company could post 0% growth in book value for two years at show an 8% growth in year three and he would get 25% of the 2% excess even though he underperformed in years 2 and 3. What a deal.

So I understand he gets 25 percent of earnings over 6 percent of book value and that there is a high water mark. Here's my question, say this year the growth in book value is 0 percent. The following year he earns 8 percent. Does he get a bonus in the second year? Or since he didn't grow book value in year one, does that mean he needs to grow book value 12 percent in the second year to qualify for a bonus? My guess this is standard hedge fund incentive structure but Im not familiar with it. Thanks in advance!