Rabbitisrich

Steve Jobs handed in his resignation letter. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Letter-from-Steve-bw-2200607574.html?x=0&.v=1 One of the greatest businessmen of all time.

Look at the stock price. I think I've made my point.

I don't know whether segment disclosure will change anything, but there must be some reason for the presentation. Unique business models are always interesting. I didn't have the same read on the letter to management. He doesn't attack performance so much as he attacks governance. The implication is that he finds it unbelievable that management tracks performance through blended results.

I'm really curious about the deliberate opaqueness of the retail/restaurant segments. Management ran a restaurant only concept in the past, so I'm guessing that there is a rationale behind it. Perhaps gross margins are obscene in retail?

Munger has been getting far too much attention given the quality of his analysis. If anyone is new to the board check out the "Bank Capital" thread to appreciate what he is offering. The smart short thesis isn't tracking stock movements. Someone like Chanos is going to challenge you on redefault rates, loss severities, home prices, extend n' pretend, yield curve flattening, counterparty risk, derivative covenants, etc... Tearing apart the Mungers of the world is a self-indulgence. If your brain isn't burning calories to answer the opposing thesis, it's wiser to seek out a better "opponent".

Then how are they going to network?

That's some of it; if you chart WFC's 1-year performance against the 2 year, 10 year constant maturity spread, you can see the correlation. In addition, NIMs are coming down for all the big banks, partly due to runoffs and partly due to the yield curve. That said, market pricing seems to excessively penalize certain forms of non-interest expense like legal, foreclosure and REO mititgation, and excess capacity. The market also distrusts loan loss reserves despite developments in delinquent inflow/outflow numbers since 3Q10.

Shane Smith, interesting anecdote about Berkowitz. Did your friends provide any specifics? Chartis' expense ratio hovers around 30%, which is pretty decent for its size and scope. My problem with AIG is that the opportunity costs are fairly high with the best insurance companies in the world offering nice deals. A steady eddie like Traveler's (although maybe ShahKezri can offer dissenting opinion) is trading under book with a low expense ratio and shareholder friendly policies. They have repurchased 50 M + shares over the last year!

Holy Crap! is the nook that expensive? For just an E-reader? Yeah it's pretty pricey, although some estimates put the production costs surprisingly high.

Is anyone buying now, or waiting until Jackson Hole? I sold out of FRFHF and 1/3 of my hedges to build up some cash, buy more HHC and WFC, and to open a full position in BRK/B. I still have 7% in cash. Perhaps another opportunity will arise if friday is a disappointment.

I purchased a couple of Touchpads for $99 through an Amazon reseller called OnSale, but the listing used the factory number and did not use the phrase HP Touchpad. Fingers crossed!

Smazz, what upgrading do you need? Even if you can't eventually port Android, you still get a high quality E-Reader with good browsing capability selling for less than 40% of the Nook.

All of those guys, and any smart people should just be appreciated for their talents. For example, Buffett never did turnaround Berkshire Hathaway's primary operations, whereas Biglari really got SNS out of a hairy situation.

Does anyone know of an influential European economist who typifies the thinking of EU leadership? Is there a philosophical or political foundation for Merkozy's actions?

I'm 29, but was never attracted by leverage. I also don't short or use options. Guess it's a "keep it simple" thing. It makes sense in this market. If you owned Wells Fargo or Microsoft two years ago, the core businesses have done everything you expected, but the multiples keep compressing and the expectations stay low. You would have taken a loss on otherwise smart bets rolling over options or servicing debt.

Man, go back and have them price match Walmart. Local walmarts are selling the 16gb version for $99. I just picked up a whole bunch. Thanks, but this is why some people (me) shouldn't be traders.

I couldn't land the $99 version, but I did pay up at Office Deopt. $129.99, $141 after taxes, for a product that may cost $318 to produce.

Hey cool, bad news for myself and other readers but great to hear about your success. Are they similar in style to your own methods, or are you finding the need for adjusting to their culture and techniques?

My local Staples ran out of the 16GB tablet within minutes of the Saturday $300 special, but at closing still held a large inventory of the 32GB.

Yeah, but on the other hand, Buffett's interview with Charlie Rose gave me a little indigestion whenever he qualified his optimism by saying "until last month."

The interviewee made a lot of good points. The EU is going through their own version of the debt ceiling crisis by offering the underfunded EFSF without explicit and open ended support from the ECB. Cardboard, you are likely correct, but the EU is going to have to make a choice between releasing money to support their financial system, or accepting the bankruptcies and deflating their way to "recovery" (what about exports?). There could be a panicky period when the market forces the ECB to choose. After that crisis, then we can have a panic over chinese fixed investment spending!

Or silver and brazilian cash ;)? (Raised eyebrow, leaning back, enjoying awesomely quick reply)

Despite what has been said about Buffett ignoring market timing, there have clearly been times when he has made macro calls - when he returned money to Buffett Partnership investors; at the start of the long bull run in the early 80s; the tech bubble in 2000; shorting the USD. In 2008 when he bought heavily into the market, he would not have been able to do so if he had been fully invested so he must have made a bearish call of sorts prior to that even if he did miss the housing crisis. I don't think you can clasify these examples as making a macro call. I think it was simply the case of buying only when things were cheap. If he could not find cheap stuff then he did not buy or was not able to buy. Thats the way I see it as far as above examples are concerned.. But certain businesses require a sense of macro conditions. In the most recent interview with Charlie Rose, Buffett suggested that months sold in housing might be overstated (he actually just referenced inventories but I am making the leap) and that improved residential spend and home prices would lead to greater than anticipated growth. To make that statement, he probably has some estimate of mortgage roll rates, cures, and other factors related to the speed of the wind down of the shadow inventory.

This thread will be an interesting read in one year. If you skip the analysis and just glance at the financials the whole tech industry looks cheap: Using figures from the last 10-Qs and last year's GAAP earnings: HPQ - -$1.8B net cash and investments, $8.8B DELL - $8.5B net cash and investments, $2.6B CSCO - $28B net cash and investments, $7.8B RIMM - $2.4B net cash and investments, $3.4B AAPL - $67B net cash and investments, $14B $546B combined market cap to $36.6B last year's earnings plus $108B net cash and investments. Value traps, or just crazy undervalued?

Twacowfca, shouldn't that analysis balance against the perceived value of Berkshire's long-term negotiating position? I can't track the quote, but I'm positive that Buffett said something to the effect of "there are no free call options in this world". My guess is that the ongoing discussion does not involve a raised cash price, but rather some mix of equity and cash at a lower upfront level.