LC

I also use rocketfinancial. Whoever made that website deserves a beer.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/29/16717416/us-coinbase-irs-records

Fair enough ;D

Do you have any idea if what the Panama paper whistleblower did was illegal or not? I'm no expert in Panamanian law, but it sounds a bit presumptive to blindly accuse someone of theft.

Unrelated, there's some good stuff published with Buffett as an author: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/author/5564 Here are all the CFC articles archived, you can dig thru these: https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/1339

I admittedly know little (nothing?) about blockchain technology. Was a tongue-in-cheek comment ;)

There is no reason a government couldn't issue money on a blockchain. But you know they would never relinquish control over it. It wouldn't be a mined public blockchain, it would be a private blockchain running on government servers. They would have complete control and could issue new units at will just as they do now only they would have perfect record keeping over who owns what and where they got it from. It's the IRS's dream come true. Man I really hope this happens. No more panama/paradise papers!

I exported my various portfolios to csv files. The old google finance is still working on my desktop (but not mobile). When they finally kill it, I'll probably create google sheets which auto-update, unless I can find a good online replacement.

Not a single one. ::) Which, coincidentally, is the same number of anarchists I've met who have started an anarch-state ;D I haven't read the book...but I agree with rk on this one. I'm not sure what there is to gain from reading a psycho-analysis of Trump.

I think the opposite has actually happened. When digital advertising was in its earlier stages (i.e. 5-8 yrs ago), the ad agencies all had digital agencies. But increasingly, the tech firms (adobe, oracle, etc.) are getting more involved in the data gathering, analysis, and delivery aspects. These are not low-budget aspects. They are very technical, specifically the model-building components. If I am the company providing first party and third party data, performing the relevant analysis, building the models, and delivering the ad, what exactly is the agency providing that I also cannot provide?

Same could be said for WPP plc and Publicis. The entire industry is trading at below-market valuations. I haven't taken a real look so it's possible on trades at a modest discount to the others, but it seems the real idea here is an industry-wide reversion to the mean (i.e the market is wrong about future prospects being crappy). I'm not sure I disagree with the market here. Digital advertising means a lot of big tech companies are coming into the space, on both the data and platform side. I think what we're seeing is the market realizing that traditional ad firms can still perform the market strategy as you mention, but it will require other parties (i.e. the tech firms) to deliver these ads.

Interesting article https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/drilling-reawakens-sleeping-faults-in-texas-leads-to-earthquakes/

I usually go with Alton brown or Serious Eats. Here's serious eats' take on mashed sweet potatoes: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/11/the-best-mashed-sweet-potatoes-recipe.html

I love cooking - Good Eats is a great program that shows a bit of science and a lot of technique. There's an awesome fan/reference website as well: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/gefp/index-topic.htm As Jacques Pepin says, "Happy Cooking!"

And for those who would rather a wet brine, I'm partial to Alton Brown's method of brining: And I've been cooking the bird this way for years:

Happy Thanksgiving!

How do you feel about the non-inflationary characteristics of bitcoin in an environment with very low inflation? The US hasn't seen much inflation in the past 5 years. What if that persists?

Ah ok - makes sense now. Thanks

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

Hey Keith, what does the 11% signify? I usually shy away from these kinds of situations unless mgmt is really special, but I think it's still a good skill to have (estimating controlling discount).

Debt is mainly due to financing the Produquimica acquisition. Recent lower than normal returns are mostly due to warm winters.

Just had a glance out of curiosity. Are you not worried by the debt-to-EBITDA levels? SI made a good post on the debt here: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/cmp-compass-minerals-international/msg302112/#msg302112 Just to add a quick caveat: it's definitely a concern and something to monitor. the salt business is pretty stable so it provides some downside protection if the brazil business does not pan out as expected. the next few qs will be illuminating.

bought a little more compass minerals

So let's realize that stress does not directly cause strengthening. Stressing a muscle creates microtears in the muscle fibers, which then regrow stronger. You're looking for companies that survive the initial stress, and transform into something which can deal with the previous stress. Everyone gets hurt in times of stress. It's the survivors that matter. And sometimes they will make less money post-stress, in absolute terms. But their business model is more resilient (albeit smaller). So the trick (I think) is to look for places of stress. And see who survived, and ask the question 'why did they survive, what did they change?' You could argue that the big banks have gotten stronger as a result of the stress in 2008/9. Almost all internal controls have improved. Or, alternatively, the Federal Reserve got stronger in terms of regulating the banks. Look at companies transitioning post-Internet shopping. Content creators are more in control of their content than ever before. TV networks can release their shows directly on their website (i.e. HBO). You can possibly argue WalMart is stronger post-Amazon, or perhaps Costco...i.e.. the brick/mortars which are still alive. They naturally lost a lot of foot-traffic due to Amazon, but have dealt with that stress and are still alive and kicking. They were forced to transform their operations to a leaner, more efficient operation.

Both. I like the a-la-carte experience. With Netflix, Hulu, etc etc. You're paying $10/month for a block of entertainment. Call it 20% of the outstanding media available. I mean, if I want to watch Avatar the last airbender, I need Amazon video. If I want to watch It's always sunny in philadelphia, I need Hulu. If I want to watch Game of thrones, I need HBO. Who even knows what Netflix has anymore. If I want to watch the original Star wars trilogy, I wouldn't even know where to go. So now I'm paying 30-40/month and I'm still not getting everything I want to watch. Now compare that to torrent files, I search whatever I want, I get like 4 versions of varying quality/language/etc. and 2 minutes later it's on my harddrive. I can do what I want with it. I want to save it? Great. I want to delete it? Fine. I don't have to worry about it not being there in 6 months because Netflix didn't renew the agreement with whomever. Also, you can get ANYTHING. If I miss a basketball game I wanted to watch, I can either deal with highlights which barely show anything, or I can download and watch the full game. If I miss a TV show from two nights ago, I can download and watch it and not have to wait for some streaming service to pick it up in 6 months or whatnot. Ideally I would buy a tiny, low-energy computer and use that as a media server running plex or kodi. But I don't really watch that much TV or movies so it's not a priority. But you could set it up so that any device could access it, either on your home network or remotely. It's just more convenient.