Mephistopheles

Personally I like Kernan's presence because he makes for a great comic relief.

If the bill passes and the firms are placed into wind down, but Fairholme and Perry still win the suit, can money that the government has taken up until the point of the conclusion of the case be reversed and given back to shareholders? If so then the preferreds can still be made whole with a wind down, right?

Thanks for all your responses. Yes I just began using the Word function and am really liking it.

Wasn't the European debt crisis supposed to cause serious problems for U.S. markets, but didn't? Of course this is only one out of a myriad variables, but I'm just trying to point out, with my limited knowledge, that macro is problems don't necessarily cause trouble for stocks. On the other hand, valuations are significantly higher now than they were a few years ago, so maybe the market will correct regardless of Chinese issues.

I used to get lost reading annual reports. But now I'm very comfortable reading them cover to cover. My question is that how do you compare an AR from one year to the one in the previous year? What is a good way to look for subtle or significant changes? Or is there no better way to do it then reading cover to cover, every single year? I tried playing around with MS Word's tracking software, and it seems decent. But I just wanted to get the opinion of other board members.

Just a thought, but for a company like lukoil which has American shareholders but also American operations (and around the globe), wouldn't there be consequences for Putin if he decides to take shareholder money? American authorities could cause problems for their American operations for example. Given that they operate (and have shareholders) all over the world I would think that Putin would think twice before treating them as his piggy bank.

;D You've got to be kidding me, man. What, you think the thieves stole the BTC and then just retired them, like they were buying back stock? They stole the BTC and then sold them back on the open market for MONEY, because that's the point of stealing them. The supply doesn't change. This has already happened and is therefore already price in. The people needing to replace their lost coins however, is not yet priced in. How can you assume that? There is no "need" to replace their coins. Secondly, why would they "want" to replace their coins given what happened here? And third, how do you know they will have the funds to do so? Let's say they bought the coins for $10 or $100 a piece. How can you just assume they will spend $700 to replace all their coins. And besides, even if you were to argue that this is a good value investment, this point you are making is touting a momentum or volume trade. Nothing to do with the "intrinsic value" of the bitcoin.

Are you talking about Katherine Graham? Wasn't she like 13 years older than him and in her 50s or even 60s when they had their affair? Buffett could have had a much more "interesting" romantic life! :D

Exactly...I think I wrote about it in the thread last year too, asking how it is humanly possible. The "per week" was a relief to hear, especially when repeated it as you mentioned!

On the topic of 08/09, can anyone explain why Buffett wasn't a more aggressive buyer of common stocks in those days? He spent a lot of money on those preferred deals and of course paid $100/share for BNSF in 2009, but shouldn't he have bought common stocks hand over fist at such discounted prices? Alice Schroeder said that his hands were tied because of the equity index puts. Is there any truth to that?

2012 annual report: 2073 total stores q1 2013: 2062 total stores q2 2013: 2036 total stores q3 2013: 2018 total stores all figures are excluding Sears Canada Thanks. So it looks like most of the closings were in the 2nd quarter. So far this year most of the closings seem to be for April, which is still first quarter. So hopefully we get a hell of a lot more announcements in the coming few months for closings in 2Q.

Does anybody know approximately how many they had closed YTD at this time last year?

The state rules for performance fees vary. You don't necessarily need to have qualified or accredited investors to charge a performance fee. In NJ, for example, as long as you don't register with the state, you can charge performance fees to anyone. And you don't have to register with the state unless you manage 5 partnerships or more.

It is broke. What is broken, exactly? Do you realize that if members had their way, they would have kicked you out a long time ago, but after a few experiences in the past with kicking people out, I've chosen to give people a chance on here. Rather than complaining, you should be grateful you've been given an opportunity here to express yourself, even though many don't want to hear what you have to say! You guys whine so much about a forum that is virtually free, operates with an inclusive culture, has monitored posts, zero spam, and has existed in one form or another for about 12 years this Thursday. Yes, we are slow in making changes, and progress has been gradual...and that is because things aren't broke by any means! We've grown 50-100% every year for the last five years, and added new and exciting members who have added to the dialogue while retaining most of the old-timers. How many message boards are out there that have actually improved and retained members? Value Investors...no! Fool.com...no! Yahoo message boards...yeah right! Stockhouse...nope! Tell me how many message boards have a thread like our BAC thread? Or discussions on call options that are as detailed and informative as Ericopoly's? Or track individual stocks and information about each of them like on our "Investment Ideas" thread? Or how many have a growing conference around them in Toronto? Even Mohnish Pabrai is now telling people this is one of his favorite sites? But yet it's apparently broken! By the way, good luck on starting a new board. Unless you want to spend a couple of hours a day looking after it, monitoring posts, dealing with member requests and posting on there as well, it is not going to be easy. This board was developed out of passion, not out of necessity, but has become a necessary tool for many when investing and networking. That happened because of the culture here and great members...not so easily replicated...especially when one guy would give up sleep for years to look after it with no pay. And to those that continue to show support for the board and aren't bitching, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Paul will be inserting a mobile add-on that should give some mobile functionality in the next couple of weeks. The "search" feature is something we'll have to work on and tweak over time. Cheers! +1 I go on this site more than any other investment related site (besides EDGAR). I don't even read the WSJ as much.

I don't know much about Japan, but can't they just print money like the U.S. and therefore never default?

Fannie and Freddie common, JCP? Though JCP's upside is probably not more than 200%; lol

Enterprise value is near $8 billion though when you include their debt. I'd like to see some insiders make some purchases. It's just tough to value a company bleeding over a billion in cash a year. I'm estimating roughly $8.1 billion EV at the end of 4Q if you count total debt of $3.9 billion (based on an $800 million reduction in the domestic credit facility in the update press release), $3.7 billion market cap, $1.8 billion in cash from the press release (included $500 million pro forma from Lands End), and I even included $2.4 billion in pension from 3Q which should most likely be less after the market run up. Then if you subtract roughly $300 million equity value for LE, $1.8 billlion for KCD, $4.4 billion in net inventories (estimate for 4Q), and $500 million for the warranty business, you are left with $1.1 billion for the real estate, home services business, and anything else I missed. Of course Sears Canada is consolidated so that needs to be adjusted. But I think $1.1 billion is extremely cheap. As far as the cash burn, a good chunk of it is coming from the pension, which I accounted for here. And then the rest of the waste is SYW, which I've heard estimates for up to $800 million. Hopefully that comes down. I think Eddie has talked about cutting advertising spending and having SYW points replace that, of which the former is twice as much as the latter at $1.6 billion (2012). It's come down from 4.4% of revenues to 4% from '11 to '12. So there is a lot of fat to cut there if SYW membership points are truly going to replace much of traditional advertising. I wouldn't be surprised if ad spending continues to decline anyway since they keep closing stores. Overall I see a great collection of net assets, and cash burn which really can be controlled. As far as insider buying, even though Lampert may not have bought in a while, we all know how invested he is.

SHLD. The market cap is now down to $3.7 billion.

During Buffett's FCIC testimony (with the Moody's CEO), he was asked about this. He mentioned 1) the promises of earnings growth and 2) that the company decided to arbitrage their low cost of borrowing (as a result of an implicit Government guarantee to back their debt) to invest in bonds of a tobacco company. This is probably the diversification that he is talking about.

I feel he would use last reported just to remain fair to all shareholders for whom that is the latest information.

How can you bet against OMAHA?!?!

It's interesting that she worked for Buffett as an intern to research the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Quite a unique job!

Buffett has stated that the 3 candidates for CEO are all men. But I wouldn't be the least surprised if Buffett adds her to the candidates group, if she proves herself more over the next 10 years and he's still around. In that case I bet she would become next CEO .

I found this funny: "It is very hard to pin down what the value of a future set of cash flows from a business, be it cable TV or biotechnology, is going to be. Some are easier to predict than others. But it is very hard to predict what those future cash flows are going to be. And it is very hard to ascertain the correct discount rate to bring them back to the present with."

Can we see the picture? :)