Liberty

They're doing everything much better -- price is just one of those things. I suggest you look into what the company is doing and what others have been doing.

More on profit margins: http://philosophicaleconomics.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/profit-margins-accounting-for-the-effects-of-wealth-redistribution/

Thanks for posting. Amazing stuff. Awesome. You just know this footage will be shown 30 years from now in a documentary about the second golden age of space flight! :)

So it's entirely in character for him, then :)

That's hilarious ;D Feel better soon, Sam!

Wise words!

http://qz.com/213889/a-uranium-price-collapse-has-made-mining-companies-radioactive-to-investors/

Original Poster. Person who started the thread.

I extracted the audio from this Youtube video of Munger's 1995 speech on "The Psychology of Human Misjudgement" (it's the last speech included in Charlie's Almanack): It's the one mentioned in the recent WSJ piece on Guy Spier. I figured I probably wasn't the only one who wanted a small audio file to listen to rather than a youtube video: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6962923/Munger-psychology-of-human-misjudgement-1995.m4a I'll leave the file up there as long as I don't run out of space in dropbox. Enjoy!

Not regularly, no. When someone points something out specifically as being interesting, I'll read it.

Interesting piece on profit margins mean reverting or not: http://philosophicaleconomics.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/profit-margins-dont-matter/

[amazonsearch]Education of a Value Investor[/amazonsearch] It's not out yet, but you can pre-order it. As Sanjeev pointed out, it was mentioned in this WSJ piece: http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303749904579580173018598720-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwMzEyNDMyWj

Looks like the WSJ piece made a nice impression. Guy's book was about 300 in overall sales and #7 in the Investing category on Amazon, last I checked. Not bad for a book that isn't out yet. I bet many people don't pre-order and just put it on their wishlist (as I did).

http://www.simoleonsense.com/lessons-from-cable-cowboy-john-malone/ Excerpts from the book.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to his book! I'm definitely listening to this now. I think I've read a transcript in Charlie's Almanack, but I want Munger's delivery (and I think there's a Q&A at the end): Great process:

Interesting that Danaher is #2. I wonder if the Rawles will be able to do it again with Colfax.

There's definitely a list of pros and cons for each. For each of those pros you listed, one could find cons like: You can't move as easily, whether just because you want to or because you lose work and need to find it somewhere else, or you need to get closer to a sick family member, etc. Some friends of ours are moving to another province because they want to adopt a child and it's much easier over there. They're having a hard time selling their house and feel kind of stuck where they are... You are on the hook for all maintenance, repairs and problems. If your neighbours suck, you'll probably be stuck with them for longer. If you have a mortgage, you are levered to real estate prices. Might be great if you bought at the bottom, but not so great if you buy at the top... A small move in price could wipe out all your equity (which is just as real as if prices were quoted every day like stocks, even if you don't see it as much). Etc. I think a lot of people look down on renting partly because of social pressure, but partly because they compare the crappy student apartment they had with the nice house they now have. I bet if you compare renting a nice house or apartment, the quality-of-life issues are a lot less problematic.

True. That time isn't now, though, IMO. If you are living in it - might as well be now - this is like waiting to buy Berkshire A in the 1970s at low valuation. Here's the competitive advantage of real estate in Vancouver (i can't speak for the rest of the country): - the warmest city in Canada - protection from the US (real or not - that's how Asians perceive this) - 1st world country - decent education - within 10h to Asia (where healthcare wait time is 1h) - diversity The condo market will definitely correct - but if you think about where the top 1% of the world wants to live -- you know, those sitting on over $50M in asset no where else to spend - they don't mind dropping $5M for a piece of land in Vancouver most of these buys we are seeing are all cash purchases too - so it's not 100% leveraged like it was in the US. I agree things are expensive; but if you look hard there's still "reasonable" prices out there and can be good long term tax free investment..... Gary Personally, I think Canada is in a pretty big real estate bubble (compare to historical rates for rents, incomes, compare to US, compared to after-tax income even at these low interest rates, compare to anything). Some places are worse than others (Vancouver, Toronto), but it's not just a local thing, the whole country is too expensive and people are piling up more debt than the US had before their bubble burst. What can't go on will stop at some point. I plan to keep renting until things get more affordable. The argument that Vancouver is so great so that explains why crack houses from the 60s are selling for a million bucks isn't convincing, IMO. A lot of great US cities with a long list of attractive characteristics had huge declines in 2008-2009. It's all about sentiment. People feel things can't decline so it's worth paying anything because you'll pay more later anyway. Once sentiment turns...

True. That time isn't now, though, IMO.

I don't know BNL and KMI, but to me MKL gets a management quality premium. I know they won't do stupid things, will be shareholder friendly, and will allocate capital well. That's subjective of course, but it still matters a lot, especially if you intend to hold for a long time. I also think that soon because of Ventures, book value won't be as clearly linked with IV as before, kind of like BRK, so historical comparisons of valuations aren't apples to apples.

Good read on profit margins: http://philosophicaleconomics.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/profit-margins-accounting-for-the-impact-of-a-changing-financial-share/ It's a follow up to this one, which was also very good: http://philosophicaleconomics.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/foreignpm/

Thanks, EliG!

Spot on, Gio. This board is our Munger.

Side question: Does anyone have Akre track record, going as far back as possible? Thanks.