Liberty

I also fail to see what they contribute to the "discussion" that is the market.

I guess I should have pointed out that I didn't post this because I agreed with it! I just find it interesting to see how outsiders see Berkshire and our investing culture..

I guess that the fact that nobody who says they oppose Buffett here is actually addressing his points, but rather they try to turn it into something else completely, is kind of equivalent to conceding the issue...

The good news is that he could be registered under any name, but we'll all know it's him as soon as he posts :)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204778604577241224279057882.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-23/christie-says-obama-using-buffett.html

If this was a practical problem and Warren was saying "I have too much money, I want to give more of it to the government." the answer would be "write a check!" But from a practical point of view, I'm pretty sure Warren would love to keep all the money for himself. His argument has ethical foundations. He believes in meritocracy and fairness, and regardless of how much waste there is in government (and there is plenty! and Warren doesn't like it!), he doesn't believe it's right that people making millions each year are paying a much smaller % in taxes than secretaries and mechanics. This position isn't incompatible with lowering taxes (or even raising them). It's not even about raising taxes, it's about preferential treatment of some of the very very rich in a society. He's arguing for what he thinks is fairer, and doesn't like to have the guy or girl making peanuts paying a larger fraction of his income than the guy making billions. If Christie or anyone else wants to address that argument, fine. But to distort it into something else completely and then attack that straw man is just dishonest and wrong (well, it's what politicians do).

You are doing the same thing that Christie is doing.

Total straw man and distortion of what Buffett is arguing for. Buffett has already explained countless times why he's not arguing for voluntary taxes and why it wouldn't work, and he's not arguing that it's just him who's not paying enough taxes, so sending a check wouldn't fix anything. So Christie is not only arguing about something that Buffett isn't even talking about, he's doing it like petulant child.

Here they are: http://www.mediafire.com/?gh3693u6az57nop All credit goes to Poor Charlie.

Hi Poor Charlie, I just got your email, thank you very much. I don't want to do something with the file that you sent that you disagree with, so I'm asking: Would it be okay if I uploaded the file on a hosting site and posted the link here so that anyone who wants to download it can? As far as I know these are public shareholder letters - just hard to find - and I don't think there's any reason not to, but I still want your "ok".

Buffett is expressing his point of view as is his right and Christie, a government official, is telling him to "shut up". Whether you agree or disagree with Buffett, I don't see how Christie's behaviour can be defended as being anything other than childish.

I guess remembering the obvious is hard, then, because so many people seem to forget it...

Message sent. Thank you very much!

Someone doing something right doesn't mean that when he does something wrong it doesn't count.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/buffett-should-just-write-a-check-and-shut-up-governor-christie-says.html More demagogery ::) Doubt he's telling people talking about issues he agrees with to shut up..

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/china-pmi-may-shrink-for-4th-month-survey.html

Hi, Does anyone know where to find all Leucadia shareholder letters (or as many of them as possible) compiled in one place (ideally a single PDF or similar format, but many PDFs would be fine too)? I can only find a few on the official website. Thanks!

I think the attached is what you're looking for. Thanks!

Thank you. Does anyone have the interview with Monish that is mentioned at the beginning? I'd like to also read that one.

A bit expensive, but I'd say that Burry got a pretty good ROI on that one ;)

Thanks Kraven. I was just about to ask for opinions about "Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street ".

I'm definitely among the ranks of the techno-optimists. We get used to it all so quickly, but if we were transported back just a few decades ago - or if we took someone from that time and brought them to the present - we'd see pretty quickly just how wonderful progress has been. Anything that can be done according to the laws of physics will eventually be done, but we do have to be careful about catastrophic risks (nuclear war, supervolcanos, asteroids, super-plagues, etc). We really don't spend enough resources to prevent these, considering just how big their impact would be. There's a great book about this compiled by an Oxford University polymath (Nick Bostrom): http://www.global-catastrophic-risks.com/ http://www.amazon.com/Global-Catastrophic-Risks-Nick-Bostrom/dp/0199606501/

I really don't know what to think about China anymore. So much is rotten with their system, but at the same time, they are starting from such a low base and still have so many low-hanging fruits to harvest... I don't pretend to know how it will play out and on what timeframe.

Thanks eclecticvalue! That took 2 seconds to download and no hassle about creating an account.