Charlie

@dealrakerDon´t forget Greece! My family and me are at Chalkidiki, Greece for the autumn holidays and it´s really lovely. Nice weather, nice view at the Olymp, the medtiterranean sea, mediterranean food and red wine. Our kids think they are in paradise and it´s really good. Have fun in Europe!

Great words!!! America wake up!!!

Interesting opinion article from the Washington Post: "Never before have we issued a joint public warning like this. But the profound, immediate and unprecedented threat that Kennedy’s policies and positions pose to the nation’s health cannot be ignored," reads the opinion piece published in The Washington Post. It was authored by the Trump-appointed Jerome Adams, Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello, and David Satcher and in it they accuse Kennedy of having “rejected science, misled the public and compromised the health of Americans.” The Surgeon General is the leading spokesperson for public health in the American federal government and serves as the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. The six Surgeons General accused Kennedy of ignoring health experts, destroying crucial health panels, and fueling toxic anti-science misinformation that has "eroded public trust" in HHS agencies including the CDC, FDA, and NIH. In the case of the CDC vaccine advisory panel, Kennedy fired the 17 members and stuffed their seats with people "who often lacked basic qualifications." “Instead of combating the rapid spread of health misinformation with facts and clarity, Kennedy is amplifying it,” the former Surgeons General wrote. They went on to slam RFK's efforts to push vaccine conspiracy theories about autism, his debunked claims about the HPV vaccine, and the fact that morale at HHS has become "badly damaged" under his stewardship with scientists feeling "silenced and sidelined." "Repairing this damage requires a leader who respects scientific integrity and transparency, listens to experts and can restore trust to the federal health apparatus. Instead, Kennedy has become a driving force behind this crisis," they wrote. The Surgeons General also pointed to Kennedy's utterly failed leadership amidst the "worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years" which resulted in "three preventable deaths and the first measles-related child death in the U.S. in over two decades." "America’s public health systems are essential to the well-being of the nation," they continued. "We are clear-eyed about the fact that these systems need to be improved, including paying more attention to areas such as disease prevention, mental health and chronic illness. But reform must be grounded in truth, transparency and scientific evidence. Without this foundation, we risk not only halting progress but reversing it — costing lives in the process." "Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk. He has rejected science, misled the public and compromised the health of Americans. The nation deserves a health and human services secretary who is committed to scientific integrity and can restore morale and trust in our public health agencies. Having served at senior levels in government, we know that politics are complicated. But this is bigger than politics. It’s about putting the health of Americans first," the Surgeons General concluded.

+1 If you really want to protect against a strong case of Covid, I would have some Paxlovid in your medicine box and take it as fast as you can if you are Covid positive. It decreases the chances of a severe Covid case dramatically. I took it two times and it worked wonders. Like every medicament it has some side effects, but these are minor against a severe case of Covid.

Berkshire Hathaway to pay $9.7 billion for OxyChem, potentially Buffett's last big deal https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-pay-9-112214473.html Cheers!

Covid vaccine and flu vaccine are both No-Brainer decisions to do. My neighbour is a doctor and has visited the U.S. recently for 3 weeks and was surprised how anyone could argue otherwise. My parents are doctors. They are also surprised that somebody argue otherwise.

Interesting story: My biggest mistake was that I always sold stocks way too early. In fact, I got a call from Warren Buffett in 1989. My daughter picks up the phone and says, "It's Mr. Buffett on the line." And I pick up the phone and I hear, "This is Warren Buffett from Omaha, Nebraska." You know, he talks so fast. "And I love your book, One Up On Wall Street, and I want to use a line from it in my year-end report. I have to have it. Can I please use it? I said, "Sure. What's the line?" He says, " Selling your winners and holding your losers is like cutting the flowers and watering the weeds. " That one line he picked up in my whole book has been my greatest mistake. Peter Lynch Forbes India, Collectors Edition - November 2017

If the pool helps your health and that of your family through more swimming, it was a smart investment. Trade wealth for health anytime. When I was a young man I bought a new car and sold after two weeks, because I thought it was an idiotic purchase and could use the money for better things.

Like the father, so the suns: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/trump-american-bitcoin-crypto-venture-raises-conflict-interest-alarms-rcna228837 Sounds like the best business model I have ever heard of. The business is at least unethical and probably crime on a big scale. The other shareholders will find out in the next downturn that the business is probably worth exactly zero. Some years ago I read a Trump quote in Forbes. "Politics is the greatest business of all. There is no downside."

A man from South Africa told me: "Trump is lying all the time." Other than that he is a perfect president.

Germany will probably not see another recession, because we can export cars to you with a 15% tariff.

US-EU agreement announced https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/trump-tariffs-live-updates-us-eu-agreement-announced-china-truce-extension-expected-200619379.html Cheers!

It will be an intersting meeting today between Trump and Von der Leyen: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eu-us-trade-agreement-now-082520375.html Trump reiterated that he believed there’s “a 50-50 chance” of a deal with the EU, saying there were sticking points on “maybe 20 different things” that he didn’t want to detail publicly. If there is no deal, there could be serious consequences for the EU, the US and the stock markets.

Changed my life too. His speech "How to Guarantee a Life of Misery" influenced my decision to stop drinking alcohol. It amazes me too that more people don't emulate Buffett and Munger and use their principles to increase their success in life. When I discovered them both it felt like the key to an unfair secret advantage. Many people I know say they don't have time to read, but endlessly scroll on social media, wasting their lives. Changed my life too. It amazes me that so few people use Mungers mental models. There are some books out there, but these are not very good. These models are not that easy to understand, not that easy to use regularly, they offend the paid teachers in their authority and the value of the models is in the using of them, not in the writing about them.

Thanks @bargainman, my wife found something nice in Toscana, Italy. It is a little bit more peaceful.

Bill Gates Accuses Elon Musk of ‘Killing Children’ by Cutting Foreign Aid https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/bill-gates-elon-musk-killing-children.html “He could go on to be a great philanthropist,” Mr. Gates told the magazine. “In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.” “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he said.

@Maddino The courts will decide about the AFD. Thank god, the seperation of powers (legislative, executive and judiciary) in Germany are working pretty well. So the AFD will probably get what they deserve.

Based on what? In recent days, the pressure has mounted on AfD after the domestic spy agency (called the “Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution,” in German Verfassungsschutz) published a press release designating it a “proven extremist” party. This is a scandal in part because the Verfassungsschutz did not disclose evidence backing up this verdict. The spy agency has assembled a more than 1100-page report with supposed evidence, yet they keep this report secret. Would you consider a state to be under the rule of law if it charged and denounced an individual but did not allow him to see the evidence needed to defend himself? Well, Germany has now done that to an entire party. The so-called “Office for the Protection of the Constitution” alleges that AfD undermines the free democratic order and violates the principle of human dignity by denying migrants the same rights as ethnic Germans. The agency calls the simple acknowledgment that there is a German people defined by common ancestry “ethnic nationalism.” Some small parts of the spy agency’s report have been leaked to the press, providing a glimpse of the kind of evidence marshalled. The quotes from AfD members that the agency has assembled as evidence are extraordinary—that is, extraordinary that they were thought to constitute evidence of crimes against the constitution. One tweet on X by an MP that the office finds scandalous reads: “Misguided migration policy and the abuse of asylum have led to the 100,000-fold importation of people from deeply backward and misogynistic cultures.” Another MP declared at a public meeting that Germans “must be allowed to decide again who actually belongs to this people and who doesn’t.” He also spoke of a “law of nature” that means “each and every one of you has more in common with me than with any Syrian or Afghan.” A third AfD politician is quoted with this statement: “Diversity means multiculturalism. And what does multiculturalism mean? Multiculturalism means loss of tradition, loss of identity, loss of homeland, murder, manslaughter, robbery and gang rape.” Yes, you can argue that all this is highly polemical. But unconstitutional? What about free speech? https://www.theamericanconservative.com/german-democracy-is-in-peril/ This is the origin of the conflict. The US administration tries to manipulate other countries politics. The US administration should care about their own inflected problems (which is all around the world) and not try to influence ohter countries politics. That is the same mistake Vance and Musk did. They didn´t learn anything: Rubio: "Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies." Answer from the German Foreign Office: "This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped."

+1 We have to play our time-tested strengths and not invest in creative (idiotic) things.

Transcript of the annual meeting: https://steadycompounding.com/transcript/brk-2025/ Cheers!

+1 Long live Warren Buffett!!!

Barrons short take on earnings: https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/berkshire-hathaway-earnings-warren-buffett-annual-meeting/card/berkshire-hathaway-operating-profits-fell-14-in-first-quarter-cash-hit-a-record-348-billion--DWPzSBdSAfspkxLJ1UzG?mod=Searchresults Cheers!

The world is adopting to the peculiarities of the Trump administration. The shock was after the tariffs announcement. Everybody is adopting and will find new ways in doing business.

+100 Young people have too little experience. Old people know what has stand the test of time and often has wisdom.

Dream, Plan, Reach. Reflect, Improve, Repeat what works. Use wisely the power of choice. Travel, Play soccer, Surf, Have fun.