Berkshire Said to Face Start of U.S. Scrutiny on Systemic Risk

[indythinker85]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-22/berkshire-said-to-face-start-of-u-s-scrutiny-on-systemic-risk.html

[fareastwarriors]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/in-buffett-we-trust-as-berkshire-annual-report-lacks-disclosure.html

 

 

Berkshire Investors Lacking Data Take Buffett on Faith

[JBird]

The disclosure is “sufficient for his shareholder base at the moment,” said Jeff Matthews, a Berkshire investor and author of books about the company. “Once he’s gone, people are going to say, ‘What’s here? What do I really own?’”

 

That is hilarious.

 

As an aside, the article cites Richard Cook, founder of Cook & Bynum. I find that firm's story interesting. It began on July 1, 2009, when the S&P 500 traded at 879. He and his partner couldn't have dreamed of a better time to start with 100% cash. Today the firm lags the performance of the S&P 500 since inception by 5.84% compounded annually. And yet today they are managing ~$290 million.

 

I contrast that to a firm like Arlington. Their AVM Ranger fund started exactly 1 year prior to Cook & Bynum's, when the S&P traded at 1,262. The Ranger fund, between '08 and '12, outperformed the S&P 500 by 25% compounded annually, net of fees. Today they are managing ~$350 million.

 

Both espouse Buffett and Graham principles. Now compare the websites of the two firms.

http://www.cookandbynum.com/

http://arlingtonvaluemanagement.com/

 

It's disturbing to me that window dressing attracts capital about as well as outperformance.

[Ham Hockers]

As an aside, the article cites Richard Cook, founder of Cook & Bynum. I find that firm's story interesting. It began on July 1, 2009, when the S&P 500 traded at 879. He and his partner couldn't have dreamed of a better time to start with 100% cash. Today the firm lags the performance of the S&P 500 since inception by 5.84% compounded annually. And yet today they are managing ~$290 million.

 

It's worse than that, the figures on their website (where I think you got the -5.84% relative performance) is only through 2012. Through 2013 it's more like -7.9%

[Ham Hockers]

As an aside, the article cites Richard Cook, founder of Cook & Bynum. I find that firm's story interesting. It began on July 1, 2009, when the S&P 500 traded at 879. He and his partner couldn't have dreamed of a better time to start with 100% cash. Today the firm lags the performance of the S&P 500 since inception by 5.84% compounded annually. And yet today they are managing ~$290 million.

 

It's worse than that, the figures on their website (where I think you got the -5.84% relative performance) is only through 2012. Through 2013 it's more like -7.9%

 

Sorry, more like -6.4%

[KinAlberta]

Just couple intelligent points made here on Berkshire Hathaway's disclosure practices...

 

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.ca