Parsad

That's what they said to Steve Jobs when they fired him from Apple the first time too! ;D Cheers!

Calm down, Sanjeev. The fact that FFH fully supports TW makes me confused and unable to understand, so I sold. We should always stick with investments that we understand, and avoid ones that we can't understand. If you can understand FFH well, that is great for you. I can't, so I must be disciplined and avoid it. I can't buy just because some other reputable folks bought it. I am not saying if FFH is a fraud, or it is not a fraud. I am saying that it is something I couldn't understand. Is that fair? On the other hand, I am still a newbie investor. I am eager to learn more from you veterans. 8) Hi Muscleman, the rant was not aimed at you specifically. I just noticed the posts were getting more and more pessimistic about Fairfax and Prem's ethics. You just happened to be the last poster. In terms of selling your FFH stock, you do realize that Fairfax has perhaps $200M invested in Sandridge, and Fairfax's investment portfolio and cash is $25B! So they have less than 1% of the investible portfolio in Sandridge. Even if you fired Tom Ward and sold the company for twice it's current price, that would have less than a 2% effect on Fairfax. I think investor's lose sight of the big picture, and thus the rant. Cheers!

I agree. At the same time, I think there has been some attention showered upon SD, not to mention CHK, that deserved the light of day. Now it's up to the CEO and his shareholders to decide what the outcome is from all of this, whether things are equitable, and if not what change is in store. I just think that people are jumping to conclusions about Prem's views on the subject...something which we have not heard other than the typical "we support the CEO" standard quote. He doesn't air his dirty laundry in public and whatever he needs to say will be heard by Tom Ward's ears only. Cheers!

Forget investment...what about future CEO in Sokol. Prem doesn't take quite the hardline that Buffett does. He gives people an opportunity to rectify things. Cheers!

:-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ It was a rant to help people get their head out of their butts. Cheers!

I don't know. At present, they are showing support for the CEO, but I would suspect that internally if they aren't satisfied with the CEO's compensation or structure, or the operations of the business, they will prod and make appropriate changes. You've seen them do this at other companies they've invested in, and they've even put someone from the company on the board on several occasions. You think the changes at RIM weren't propagated one way or another by Fairfax? Prem doesn't like acting as an activist sort of investor, but at some point, whether it is to preserve shareholder value or reputation, he will step in if he has to. It's what makes him such a respected leader. Cheers!

Wow, are you guys retarded or what to put as plainly as I can? You have access to one of the best insurance and investment minds in North America once a year for about 4 hours at his AGM and another 1.5 hours at our dinner...so you could all ask him this in person. He's also willing to take your calls on their conference call. Prem's always led a very transparent, humble, equitable and shareholder-friendly company...do you think there may be other ways he's trying to rectify things here? And after all the crap you've heard about various participants who were involved in trading Fairfax shares, including published emails and court transcripts, and you guys wonder if he was gaming the system to save his company? All I can say is "Wow!" By the way, they read this board every friggin' day, and if he asks me who the numbskull was that said something, I'm more than happy to tell him. Please sell all of your Fairfax shares if you think Prem's unethical. I'll be more than happy to buy them at book value. Sorry for the rant, but you guys are fortunate to be shareholders in this company. Cheers!

You tell me! ;D Cheers!

Yeah, they would do well, but they'd be competing with alot of local chains, as well as Famous Dave's. They would need to have someone who knows how to really franchise. Cheers!

Yes, there used to be one there. I think it's some sort of Lounge now. Cheers!

For you restaurant business junkies like myself. Ignite is buying Romano's from Golden Gate Capital for $55M. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ignite-buy-romanos-macaroni-224952504.html Pretty good deal, since Golden Gate bought it from Brinkers in 2008 for $131.5M! Cheers! http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/18/us-brinker-romanos-idUSWNAB758320080818

Patrick takes a temporary leave of absence to deal with some cardiac issues. Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/overstock-com-ceo-taking-temporary-140100597.html

The S&P500 earnings are around $105 and it's at 1517...so roughly about 15 times earnings. Neither cheap, nor expensive historically. It won't provide you returns larger than growth in GDP and inflation plus dividends. You also have no boost from interest rates, nor profit margins, which are at historical lows and highs respectively. Cheers! Sanjeev a question for you...do you attempt to do a rough calculation of the free "call/put option" of cash? It seems to me that this cash option has an inverse relationship with the market P/E. To state the obvious, when prices in the market are high (on average), cash's option is more valuable because the market has more downside. Do you think along these lines at all in terms of holding cash, or do you just say to yourself, "well, everything's expensive, and I wouldn't buy some of what I already own at these prices...so let me sell a bit and wait until things get cheaper"? I think most investment managers view cash as an asset class...one that doesn't do well relative to stocks when viewed long-term. But their views become myopic when it comes to the short-term value of cash because of that very trait. So managers, and many investors, want to be fully invested at all times. If you cannot find cheap stocks, then buy alot more of what you already own...but stay fully invested at all times. Unfortunately, when you view cash in those terms, you never realize that very inverse relationship you described above. Cash doesn't have a 1-1 value when markets go down...it becomes exponential the further markets fall. So when you buy something at 1 times book, rather than wait for half of book, you give up significant returns...probably far more than the short-term low rate of return cash provides relative to stocks at higher valuations. Cheers!

I cannot. Just like I cannot understand the disconnect between Buffett's behavior and the behavior of CEO's he supports. I think they live their lives one way, but don't impose that on others. It's too bad, because I think the reputation of those other CEO's would be hell of alot better...they just wouldn't be as rich as quickly! ;D Cheers!

Mukesh Ambani believes U.S. will be energy independent by as early as 2018. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-09/ambani-says-u-s-to-be-energy-independent-in-5-7-years.html

Article on the new $65M Gulfstream 650 supersonic passenger plane. Brief mention of Buffett's interest...not sure for personal use or Netjets. Cheers! http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/06/travel/private-jets/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Nope, belongs in General Category as it screws up the Investment Ideas library. Cheers!

Yup! No children's competition until Cars 3 comes out in March. I believe there is only one big adult movie coming out next week as well. Let's hope they hit the revenue targets over the next few months. All you boardmembers go see "Escape From Planet Earth!" Cheers!

Markets may go up because that cash comes in, but from a simple risk premium standpoint, the markets are not providing adequate compensation. And as I mentioned, I cannot find any single asset class that provides that premium right now...even housing has turned and while not expensive, prices have risen swiftly. We aren't leaving the markets whole hog or anything, but we have to be very vigilant about the choices we make now. They have to be very cheap. You don't want one step forward and three steps back! Cheers!

The funny thing is that Buffett has already conceded to giving away all of his wealth to the world, and has begun to do so. I think Buffett's belief in retaining control was simply because he understood that he could grow it faster than anyone else...that the sole goal was to give away as much as he could, and that meant he had to retain control for as long as he could. I can't imagine anything more selfless as he could see the future. Buffett could have chosen to give all his wealth away when it was only at $1B, but he understood that he could create 1000 times more change by delaying the inevitable. I'm of the belief that God does not exist...but we as human beings are empowered to act as "God" would and create the world that we would want to live in. Instead of praying, we are empowered to make change...and that is not based on faith in someone or something, but in ourselves. I think the idea of religion simply enables a trait that is already inherently within every person. So it's why I'm giving religious faith zero value...it's really upon the individual if that trait is active...be it by choice or enabled by faith. Cheers!

Sorry Grenville had already posted on this briefly: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/fairfax-financial/energy-transactions/ Cheers!

Fairfax has acquired 67% of the shares in Colombia Energy Resources...less than $2M market cap. Why didn't they just come to us, we could have done this one! ;D http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915191/000119312513046230/d483918dsc13ga.htm http://colombiaenergyresources.com/ Cheers!

The S&P500 earnings are around $105 and it's at 1517...so roughly about 15 times earnings. Neither cheap, nor expensive historically. It won't provide you returns larger than growth in GDP and inflation plus dividends. You also have no boost from interest rates, nor profit margins, which are at historical lows and highs respectively. Cheers!

That adds zero value (be it one of faith or not) to either of them. There are plenty of people, both of faith and athiests, who do very stupid and unethical things. I would not allocate faith with any sort of value as a manager. Cheers!

If the risk premium for stocks (I'm speaking broad market) is priced as it is because interest rates are at 2%, then do you think you are getting a big enough margin of safety? I don't think so. You aren't getting enough risk premium in any asset class right now. My opinion is if you find a cheap stock with enough margin of safety, and you should be assuming a discount rate of no less than 8% or a liquidiation value of 80% of book, then buy that individual investment. But the broad market, and in fact no single asset class presently, provides that sort of margin of safety. I have no way to tell you when markets will correct, or even if this market will run another 20-30% before correcting...I just know that I'm having a very hard time finding any idea with an adequate margin of safety other than what I presently own. And yes, you can go 100% into the ideas you presently own, but remember there is an embedded option in cash and the value of that option increases as the market turns down, with no significant effect if you do not act for a short period of time. Cheers!