Brooklyn Investor post on Buffett/Berkshire

[Liberty]

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.ca/2017/11/is-buffett-bearish.html

[doughishere]

always exceptional posts...brooklyn always has a new way of thinking of something or a different perspective.

[Liberty]

always exceptional posts...brooklyn always has a new way of thinking of something or a different perspective.

 

Yeah, I like his conversational/stream-of-consciousness style combined with his "let's reason about this from first principles" approach. One of my fave financial bloggers.

[Liberty]

New post about a bunch of things:

 

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2018/11/brk-corporate-governance-msft-market.html

[chrispy]

A nice read, thanks

[longterminvestor]

Float can be viewed many different ways.  1 way to think of float is in 2 equal functions.  #1 - Dollars deposited in the form of Premiums arriving for new/renewal policies being written & #2 - Dollars leaving in the form of claims being paid.  For example, claim settled today could be paid with premium collect today.  Yes, a liability comes with premium collected today but claiming on that collected dollar could take years to pay out - or may never be paid out at all.  With actuary models where they are now (be fearful of computers modeling risk/underwriting), and the conservative actuarial nature of BH Insurance as a whole, the individual carriers like NICO, Berk RE, GenRE, Berk Specialty and Berk Prim have as close "to the penny" understanding, leads the industry, of what the cash needs could be for the foreseeable future - 120 days minimum - probably longer.  GIECO only comes into play on CAT/SUPER CAT due to the Comprehensive Coverage exposure (cars/trucks damaged due to wind/hail/quake).  Pretty sure Ajit & Warren are keenly aware of the large renewals and large claims under negotiation that could adversely affect cash on hand - doubt it is ever an issue.  I'm not concerned about Float to Cash ratio.  Float is "Long Enduring" as WEB says.  Especially when its profitably underwritten.  And if WEB could deploy $80B today on a business with strong moat at his price, he would wire funds on a handshake and Charlie would be cheering him on the whole way!  Float to Cash conversation would not enter the room.  IMO. 

 

First post. 

[Dynamic]

Great first post, @longterminvestor and welcome to CoBF.

 

I agree with your last point. If the right deal comes along at the right price it doesn't matter if the market is high or low. If the deal happens to be $100 billion, I'm sure they'd be content to use $20bn of debt to retain the $20 billion cash cushion while they either liquidate some of the stock positions or simply accumulate cash from operations and dividends received.

 

The times when cash has dipped below float have typically been when great deployment opportunities have arisen, and while they tend to coincide more-or-less with recessions and bear markets due to the lack of competition from less disciplined capital, it seems to be the right deals at the right prices that drive it. Effectively the float leverage really gets supercharged during times when quality assets are cheap (prices like fair assets), then it returns to normal by float being roughly equal to cash when assets get more expensive.

[SlowAppreciation]

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2018/11/why-brk.html

[karthikpm]

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2018/11/why-brk.html

 

Nice write up

 

BPS has outperformed SP in recent years, and book value is significantly lower than IV

With the current buyback in place , I think BRK is in a better position than it was in 1998

[John Hjorth]

Too much talk, and perhaps too less capital allocation.

[Liberty]

New post: https://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2019/11/what-it-takes-dimon-twitter-etc.html

[Liberty]

New post: https://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2021/01/happy-new-year-bubble-yet.html

[Liberty]

New post from a few weeks ago about BRK AGM:

 

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2021/05/brk-2021-annual-meeting.html

[fareastwarriors]

36 minutes ago, Liberty said:

New post from a few weeks ago about BRK AGM:

 

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2021/05/brk-2021-annual-meeting.html

Glad to see him posting again. Missed his writing. 

[KPO]

What ever happened to this guy? I always enjoyed his stream of consciousness posts. 

[wristband]

I also enjoyed his whacky but interesting thoughts - 14 months no new posts.  His web site has also been inactive for some time.

[VersaillesinNY]

He is back: http://brklyninvestor.com/

[KPO]

1 hour ago, VersaillesinNY said:

He is back: http://brklyninvestor.com/

I’ve enjoyed his commentary in the past, so thanks for the heads up.

[Whensthepaintdry?]

A good big post for the have we reached the top discussion. 

[CassiusKing1]

Thanks for the update!

[Ulti]

https://brklyninvestor.com/2023/07/03/quality-at-10x-p-e/

[VersaillesinNY]

https://brklyninvestor.com/2023/10/20/interest-rates-some-books-etc/