Grenville

Interesting article regarding a few GS Japan employees forming a union and tough Japanese labor law restrictions on layoffs. "Threatened Goldman Japan workers unionize Financial giant butts against tough domestic labor law as it seeks to slim down workforce" http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120228zg.html

Thanks! I've enjoyed her posts. If any of you want to follow her twitter account, I just figured out how to do so in google reader. Here are the instructions: "For what it’s worth, Google Reader users can add Twitter feeds by clicking “Browse for stuff > Search > Stay connected to friends and family”, filling in the feed name and selecting Twitter in the combo box."

Thanks for posting. Here is the link on Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-27/bofa-mortgage-bond-settlement-returned-to-n-y-state-court.html

Nice story about BAC donating a building to a charter school in Wilmington, Delaware. http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120216/BUSINESS05/120216016/Bank-America-hire-500-donate-building-charter-schools?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|Home

Directors continue to buy: Donald Powell 18,000 shares at ~ $8 2/7/12 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000122520812003320/xslF345X03/doc4.xml Other recent purchases by Powell: 10,000 ~ 7.95 2/14/12 10,000 ~ 7.7 2/3/12 7,000 ~ 7.25 1/26/12

In regards to selling, make sure you check the Odyssey Re portfolio. They may have switched the position to a total return swap.

http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/ownership.stm Pretty good, takes a few days to get updated after 13F's come out.

Thanks for posting. Looking forward to reading more about him. I already like his "non-traditional" approach.

Thanks for posting the presentation. Any idea what types of policies are covered in their "miscellaneous" category?

Thanks for that piece of info re Fairfax. Always interested in understanding the web.

Thanks for posting, should be an interesting read!

unfortunately once upon a time I was an investor with Nygren in Oakmark Select, and I watched what happened with Wamu and got out before it was too late.

Awesome. I imagine there's so much knowledge spread across the organization, this should help grow and sustain the culture across Fairfax! Hats off to Fairfax for making this available to shareholders in some form!

An additional reason I found while reading the Goodhaven report is that mutual funds are not allowed to own more than 5% of a broker/dealer when the position is created.

Signed up as well. Could be a very useful class. Thanks for posting!

Interesting details regarding the proposed acquisition in the US, thanks for posting.

interesting. It would be interesting to see the testimony from the case if it ever gets released.

Additional detail from Fairfax press release: http://www.fairfax.ca/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2012/Fairfax-to-Purchase-Interest-in-Thai-Reinsurer1127996/default.aspx 25% stake for US $70million

Thai Re agrees to sell 21% stake to Fairfax http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/275934/thai-re-agrees-to-sell-21-stake-to-fairfax

Thanks for posting!

Long time reader, first time posting... To get an idea of revenue attributable to online sales I did some crawling through linkedIn profiles and found a Sears Ecommerce manager/director that said they were responsible for around 1.5 Billion in ecom revenue. Being a tech person myself I have spent a lot of time reading through linkedin profiles for SHLD people and also reading job descriptions for the positions they have open on the Sears Holdings website. For me it helps paint of picture of whats going on behind the scenes with the online strategy. Thanks for the suggestion at the number for online, I'll take a look through linked in. Any thoughts on their home services business or the breakdown of home improvement? It is bothersome that the breakdown for online, home services, repairs, appliances, tools, lawn aren't given in the reports.

Enjoying the discussion. I read the 2010 10K over the weekend and the annual letter. I had a question if you guys could share your insight. Does Sears breakout absolute $ of online sales or sales from home services which includes home improvement? It would be nice to get a better feel for what parts of the business are doing good, they do provide commentary about comparables but its hard to get insight from those figures.

interesting data point, thanks for sharing.

You can find them here: http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000071701&owner=exclude&count=40 I have the .pdfs from when I was a shareholder of the mutual funds. Not sure about Worldcom.

I don't know about the Winters fund. I think David Winters came to the FFH AGM last year. Right now I have put all my 401k funds into bond funds or cash. The macro stuff worries me and I'd rather pick and choose individual companies. I haven't decided on indexing, but I don't have any money in index funds now. Also I will hopefully have access to those 401k funds where I can roll them into a brokerage so I would rather preserve the capital.