Grenville

A nice short interview with Jason Zweig that I thought ya'll would enjoy. http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=311658 Very nice idea: "....The only effective way I know of doing it is to incorporate a kind of analysis that most advisors to my knowledge don't use, which is to track not just the hold portfolio but also the sold portfolio. You have to keep a continuous record of the performance of the investments you got rid of to see whether after you got rid of them they did worse. And I know very, very few advisors who actually do this, and in fact some of them are puzzled as to why that's necessary. And the simple answer is that you can't know whether you made a good decision to sell unless you look at the performance of what you sold after you sold it. Because it's quite possible it did better after you sold it than it did before you sold it. And it may have done better after you sold it than the thing you replaced it with, in which case you made a very foolish decision. And you can't evaluate whether you made a foolish decision unless you measure it...."

Thanks for posting again! Is there an easy way to get on the mailing list for when these memos are released? Otherwise I hope you continue to post when new memos are released in the future!

It's interesting to see the purchase of 30 year debt. The yield is good, but the duration is longer than usual. Are they building a deflation bet?

The 13F just came out. Here is a highlight of the portfolio changes: Alcoa SOLD OUT BCE Inc. -91.5% $6,592 9/30/09 value GE +45.2% $435,671 9/30/09 value GE Calls NEW $8,354 9/30/09 value 2,620,000 SH INTEL -18% $111,748 9/30/09 value King Pharm SOLD OUT Leucadia -32.4% $16,677 9/30/09 value Magna -2.3% $224,701 9/30/09 value Methanex SOLD OUT Sandridge -29% $11,426 9/30/09 value Zenith +78.3% $30,625 9/30/09 value http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000095012309061698/o57876e13fvhr.txt

Just ran across this insider purchase of the ORH-A by Michael Wacek of 1000 shares at 24.9. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1137048/000123458409000014/xslF345X03/edgar.xml

"Our book value per common share was $59.72 as of September 30, 2009, representing an increase of $14.35, or 31.6%, from our book value per common share of $45.37 as of December 31, 2008." http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1137048/000095012309057694/o57685e10vq.htm http://ccbn.10kwizard.com/xml/download.php?repo=tenk&ipage=6584368&format=PDF

http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/ownership.stm Make sure you fill out the bottom search box which describes institutional holders and not stock symbol if you want to get directed to the holdings as formated in the earlier posted link. You can thank Partner24! I had the same question a while back.

Really?! You're not joking are you?

Agreed! I remember listening to the Alice Schroeder talk from Motley Fool and she described how Warren keeps CNBC on mute in his office. When they start talking about him, he turns up the volume. I guess this time he decided to call in! Nice tidbits: + 40% of all ton miles moved on rail + 470 miles/gallon of diesel for 1 ton of goods transported

http://holdings.nasdaq.com/asp/OwnerPortfolio.asp?FormType=OwnerPortfolio&CIK=0000915191&HolderName=FAIRFAX+FINANCIAL+HOLDINGS+LTD/+CAN

"Buffett will use $16 billion in cash for the deal, half of which is being borrowed from banks and will be paid back in three annual installments, he told the CNBC. Berkshire will have more than $20 billion in consolidated cash after the purchase, he said."

The text of the comments is in one of the Outstanding Investor Digests. I bought the one that has the information on EBAY. I can dig it up if you want specifics on his comments. What about the USG deal? How did you know Fairfax brought it to Berkshire?

Oldye, How did you know that Fairfax brought the USG deal to Berkshire? Is that information documented somewhere? (interview, filing, conference call, article)

Q: In March when markets turned, you hedged 25% of your equity portfolio (after removing hedges in late 2009) why? A: “Stock prices have gone up from March 9, 50% to 60% but we test things. We look at the biggest potential risk such as a drop in stock markets of 50% and, at same time, a one-in-250 catastrophe in the insurance world such as a US$100 billion event. This would be a hurricane hitting Miami or a major earthquake in California.” “By hedging 25% of our portfolio we could handle both those events with basically no impact on our cash in our holding company. That’s the type of protection we like to provide our shareholders and company with.” http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/10/30/smartest-guy-in-the-room-on-markets.aspx still reading the article, but that answer jumped out at me, given the discussion.

Just so there's no confusion.. On October 14, 2009, the company issued a notice to the holders of all of its 6,000,000 outstanding Series A and Series B cumulative redeemable preferred shares that it intends to redeem all of those shares during the fourth quarter of 2009. This does NOT refer to the Odyssey Re Preferreds. I couldn't quickly find much info on the two FFH preferreds, it doesn't look like they are listed like the newly issued FFH-C

Fascinating interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on Charlie Rose recounting details from the economic crisis. Surprising to hear about all the secret meeting in early 2008 (pre june) such as Lehman trying to sell itself to many including Warren. Also color on the various actors including Paulson, Fuld and others...He definitely entices you to read his book, but he clearly has access to information not many have. Cheers! www.charlierose.com You can find his interview under the "Archive" tab on the main page.

Thanks for the info GaliPart! Very nice.

Details in regards to the buyout of Odyssey released on edgar! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1137048/000095012309047403/0000950123-09-047403-index.htm The following link has the discussion regarding the back and forth on the offer price. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1137048/000095012309047398/0000950123-09-047398-index.htm

Sounds good to me! I'm in.

http://showsupport.typepad.com/odyssey/2009/09/whitney-tilson-mp3.html

From today's posting of the second half. BECKY: All right. Let me go at this another way. Let's pretend you're on a desert island for a month. There's only one set of numbers you can get. What would it be? BUFFETT: Well, I would probably look at-- perhaps freight car loadings and-- perhaps-- and-- and truck tonnage moved and-- but I’d want to look at a lot of figures. (LAUGHTER) http://www.cnbc.com/id/32870258

Very interesting discussion! Thank you mhdousa for posting the exchange between Atul Gawande and Charlie Munger. That is priceless!

Thanks for posting this interview! I enjoy Janet Tavakoli's point of view given her background on Wall Street. Interesting times.

Does this not apply from the prospectus: "On and after October 20, 2010, we may redeem the series A preferred shares, in whole or in part, at any time, at a redemption price of $25 per share, plus declared and unpaid dividends, if any, to the date of redemption. At any time prior to October 20, 2010, if we are required to submit to the holders of our common stock a proposal for any matter that requires, as a result of a change in Delaware law after the date of this prospectus supplement, for its validation or effectuation an affirmative vote of the holders of the series A preferred shares at the time outstanding, whether voting as a separate series or together with any other series or class of preferred stock as a single class, we have the option to redeem all of the outstanding series A preferred shares at a redemption price of $26 per share, plus declared and unpaid dividends, if any, to the date of redemption. "

My guess and it's only a guess is this: a) They get redeemed at $26 early with the most recent declared dividend b) They become Fairfax Preferreds Otherwise I don't know how they will reconcile the dividend feature on the preferreds before the common stock since the common will be acquired. Also, how will they deal with the feature for electing directors to the board if the dividend has been suspended for so many quarters.