Grenville

Petec, that's it! Thank you so much. I kept re-listening to that bit to figure out what came before the "bank" when he said the name. The book was written in 1954 so it lines up with Buffett's comment of reading it in his mid 20's.

Any idea what the name of the book is that Warren refers to reading when he was 20. It helped him understand the breadth of Bank of America. I couldn't catch the full title. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/buffett-no-question-jamie-dimon-tells-the-truth-s7jGOsZ0TI6p_VSBkgtDKg.html It's between the 4 & 5 minute mark.

Thanks for posting Plan!

Thank you for the post!

I had a question regarding BAC's CDS exposure to Monolines. Does anyone know how much of the notional exposure is to MBIA and if they've specified this anywhere in the CC or presentations? The items are referenced in the 10K on page 51:

My response here is a response to a potential worst case scenario: Allison Frankel provides one avenue through which individual note holders could bring suits: This is from the earlier linked article from Friday. This development along with a potential adverse ruling in the MBIA successor liability suit against BAC could open the door for a higher payout. Part of the willingness for the settlement is the idea that the Countrywide liabilities are ring fenced as outlined in Daines opinion on corporate separateness. There are a lot of pieces that would need to occur for this worst case to play out, but I think it's important to be aware of this risk even if it's a very low probability.

Thanks for the link to the document referenced. Also thanks for the response xazp.

Thanks for posting!

A good summary. So he is estimating $22 billion in total, and that is not that far from what we've been discussing, but it is a little optimistic for a worse case scenario. You can not use previous settlements to estimate the costs of a trial that is reaching a conclusion and most def looks like they will lose it. But what raises a big flag in the analysis, is that there is a large potential weakness in the private investors bucket if the article 77 tactic falls down. He also does not even include the risk of New York litigation in his worse case because it is "hard to win", while also falling to mention that there has been some creative interpretation of what constitutes New York-based. So it looks more like a base case scenario to me. A base case that is not too bad considering the 16 billion already reserved plus some more undisclosed reserves. Also, on the positive side, I am wondering why he does not mention that BAC could still use Chapter 11 for Countrywide and how they could use delay tactics and cash flow to even further increase litigation reserves. Plan, I agree with you, his worst case assumptions are a little weak for the reasons you outlined. The progress on the litigation front is worrisome in the worst case scenario. The bankruptcy option with Countrywide and the liquidity issues at MBIA provide positives to the eventual outcome on the litigation front. The mortgage litigation is the most worrisome aspect of investing in BAC for me. I do have a position in BAC.

I'm a little surprised and a bit worried by Karsan's latest blog post on RIM's recent conference call. I have not listened to the call. I own shares indirectly through my stake in FFH. http://www.barelkarsan.com/2012/06/rim-just-not-forthcoming-enough.html The stock price trajectory is a very scary thing for a company that is trying to release a new OS and phones. As it continues to fall, engineers important to the release are probably leaving and others are I'm sure are getting discouraged. Employees won't see the value in a company the way value investors do, they look to the stock price as an indicator of value...feeding a negative feedback cycle.

I haven't seen it reported anywhere, but MBIA for example is reporting a certain amount that it will recover. From the Q1 2012 release: expected RMBS recoveries are 3.2bln and cumulative total incurred loan losses is 4.8bln.

It looks like BAC tried to settle with MBIA in the past and they must not have been able to come to an agreement, see the article below from last July. I agree that prolonging the litigation does raise a decent amount of risk. The other side is that MBIA isn't allowed to write any new business until the 78 proceedings are complete. I don't know if they are unable to write new business if they win the current trial and BAC appeals it. The other option is to put Countrywide into BK. I'd prefer a settlement and move on.

Eddie Lampert moving firm to Miami, loses COO http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/lampert_beats_it_fRKpuZePmjBxqR69cmJcAK?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Business I wonder if Berkowitz and Eddie would join forces now that they're both working in the same area and have a decent investment in SHLD.

Isn't Sean Egan from a ratings company, he's not a hedge fund.

The letter is not in the site. Does anyone have a copy? http://jefferies.api.edgar-online.com/efx_dll/edgarpro.dll?FetchFilingConvPDF1?SessionID=WNlVFyi4eZWuIUE&ID=8256100&logo=JEF_2C_CMYK_POS_std.gif http://jefferies.api.edgar-online.com/efx_dll/edgarpro.dll?FetchFilingHTML1?SessionID=WNlVFyi4eZWuIUE&ID=8256100 It's filed as an 8K.

+1

Thanks!

From the Q3 2011 NAIC filing, their counter parties are: Deutche Bank, Citibank Canada & JP Morgan Chase

My reply from another thread: The question was asked at the AGM. Brian Bradstreet answered the question, and he said it was a good question. It is a real risk with the CPI derivatives, but he said there will be some work out solution if the Euro dissolves itself. If I remember correctly he said there may be a weighted measurement of the CPI across various countries. He mentioned that the TIPS market in the Euro is big as well and they'll need a solution if the Euro dismantles.

Thanks for the summary!

Thanks for posting CHK's response. They don't post them on the SEC site which I have a RSS feed for. It will be interesting to see if Icahn is able to get the new board members on before the election of a new chairman. I like that he tried the friendly route via dinner.

Warren's letter to the newspapers: http://dataomaha.com/documents/warren-buffetts-letter-to-publishers-and-editors

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/patriot-coal-plunges-report-bankruptcy-advisor-pitch

Thanks for the link.