Liberty

More details here: http://www.savoryinstitute.com/

Warning: Not financial/investing related. Great talk about desertification and how to heal the land.

Thanks!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/business/economy/in-us-surprise-housing-demand-catches-industry-off-guard.html

Got this in the mail today. Guess I'll find out for myself if it's good or not. :P Will report here when I'm done.

Sales numbers looking pretty ugly, and over time it should start showing up in prices (they are very sticky on the way down, so sales will go down before prices): http://www.greaterfool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SALES-PLUNGE.jpg

BRK has 14% of all Wind energy in the US; Don't know the % of Solar but it is also large. BRK is the front runner and about to break away from the crowd. $100B into S&W over the next decade. If the costs keep coming down, it will be like "just sit there and make money" One of the paradigm shifts that's coming with Wind and Solar is how we think of energy production/transmission/consumption. With solar and wind the day of local production/consumption is coming. No more transmission (atleast over great distances)! Ideally we'll combine wind & solar with (relatively) cheap grid-scale liquid-metal batteries like these where large hydro isn't available to act as a way to store power:

Yeah, I've had the same experience. Seems like they didn't expect the growth spike. I'll wait a bit and then try them again, because apparently they are supposed to be quite fast.

NewsBlur seems like a good alternative for power-users.

If they're going to do buybacks, I'd rather it be at low prices than high prices. They can always do a bigger dividend later, but for now, buybacks seem like a better use of capital IMO, and if the absence of a higher dividend allows them to buy cheaper, I think it's a good thing. And if in the meantime they keep piling up capital on the balance sheet, it just means a bigger dividend and buyback next year, and a more solid balance sheet in the meantime, so it's not lost.

I've read it and liked it too.

Thank you!

Thanks for posting.

Looks like the public discourse keeps changing slowly.. http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/11/house-prices-to-remain-flat-for-10-years-td/?__lsa=dfb8-4756 For a while it was "prices will keep going up, it's different here", then "growth in prices will slow down", and now this. A few more months and they'll talk about prices going down...

Very sad :-[

http://www.multichannel.com/distribution/unleashing-liberty-malone-muses-global-cable-content-us-economy/139975 Malone Muses on Global Cable, Content, U.S. Economy (sorry if it's a repost)

For what it's worth: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/gross-raises-u-s-economic-growth-forecast-to-3-in-2013.html Bill Gross Raises U.S. Economic Growth Forecast to 3% in 2013

Thanks! :)

Slightly off-topic, but I really like the way you write. Keep it up! :)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/fed-sees-goldman-jpmorgan-overvaluing-capital-strength.html Fed Sees Goldman, JPMorgan Overvaluing Capital Strength

This begs the question though, if it's so obvious, why aren't most people here doing something like that?

Probably mid-high teens maybe? Low 20s? Thanks, that's interesting. The leverage is actually making a bigger difference than I expected; I thought that the heavy concentration into your very best ideas was in itself a bigger part of the return. Though I suppose that it still is, just in a different way: You need to be extremely confident to lever things up, and you probably can't get to that point with a diversified portfolio. Did you start out investing like that, passing on anything that wasn't sure enough and then going very concentrated and levered? Or did you start with a more conventional approach to investing and over time you evolved that style because it suits your strenghts?

Since this thread has turned into a Q&A with Eric (which I really appreciate, btw! :) ), here's my question for Eric: What would you estimate your record would have been without the use of leverage?

MidAmerican has made huge investments in solar and wind power.

+28,107.42 :P