Parsad

There won't be any smog as electric cars become more and more prevalent. Also, the reason test shops are closing is because cars are getting to be extremely efficient and they tend to produce low emissions as they age, rather than burning oil...just better quality...which I don't see deteriorating going forward, but the exact opposite. Cheers!

The problem is that this all comes down to the whole notion that everyone deserves an education (meaning college/university), a home, a job, etc...entitlement! There used to be a time when people would save up for all of these things...or at least a significant portion of it. Hardly anyone puts down 20% now on their first home, but they all believe they should own one. So many students borrow for college...instead of working part/full-time and paying for it as they study. I see parents buying their teenagers cars, putting away money for college, but they don't even plan and save for their own retirement. If you want something, go work, save for it and then buy it or get it. Don't borrow unless you have a growing asset behind it. A communications degree isn't going to guarantee a growing job! Alot of this is bloody common sense is it not? Cheers!

Using about every cliche about the Millennial generation there is. My sample size is small, but from the handful of millennials I als I know from work, no fits this description. As for the student loan bailout, it’s inevitable, imo. Once the millennial generation puts their mark on the political landscape, it’s only a matter of time. Ah, Greg was a grumpy, 65-year old senior when he came out of his mother's womb, so I would take that all with a grain of salt...especially on the $9 avocado toast...it's more like $15 everywhere! That being said, the stats don't lie, and they do show that Millennials are struggling on a broad basis. So maybe not your immediate peer group, but certainly the age category. And truth is that is natural since they come out of school with debt, carry mortgage debt, credit card debt and auto loans as they build their young careers. But the sheer weight is enormous for this age category compared to Boomers, Gen X & Y, etc at the same age. Cheers!

Millennials are struggling with their debt load...in particular student loans, auto loans and credit cards. In fact, delinquencies on student loans are getting dire: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-loans-debt-grow-193708816.html I would expect a bailout of some sort in the next Presidential term. Cheers!

+1! Yup, a bunch of as*holes will sleep better tonight. Hope they investigate this! Cheers!

I've had to deal with this on at least four separate occasions in the last 20 years. I sat them down, put all of the information I had gathered in front of them, and helped them figure out options to deal with it...not once did I suggest to bring the capital to me to invest. That way, I cleared my conscience of what I know, helped a friend/client deal with a potential investment timebomb, provided them solutions or options, and never made it about not investing with me. You won't believe the results. Only in one instance did they actually do anything about their portfolio. Three let it ride with the advisor...one brought it over to me to manage. Of the three that let it ride with the advisor...one who was put in an inappropriate annuity ended up ok and got their money back at the end of the annuity...one who was letting their cousin invest their portfolio at a local brokerage kept losing huge sums each year in penny stocks...and the last one who put it in an inappropriate, ill-liquid investment ended up having to let it ride because they could not redeem, and ended up losing 75% of their RRSP. Cheers!

Phhhhffffttt! +1! Cheers!

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/26/tech/spacex-starship-starhopper-test-flight/index.html "Water towers CAN fly!" - Musk People continue to under-estimate this guy. Cheers!

I would agree with that. To cover it fully it would be something like $300/sf for the owned real estate. I looked at a sliver of the Missouri locations a while back since I was familiar with them (lived in StL for undergrad and the 6 years after) and the locations were not exactly super valuable. Came up with around $200/sf and have to assume that is not too far off from the system-wide average given the chain is focused in the low-cost-of-living midwest. Unless they own a lot of Florida locations in upscale neighborhoods, $300/sf seems like a stretch. Of course, if they include all the equipment inside, and the milkshake machine upgrade is completed, those things might make up the difference. :) If you included all of the restaurants, equipment, above-par leases and land that they own directly...oh, yeah it would cover the loan. That's why I'm surprised that he would even consider just letting the non-recourse loans lapse, because he would get a hell of a lot more by just selling the chain to someone. The loans are $240M...SNS chain is worth nearly 1 times revenue or close to $800M! Some stupid PE firm might pay more than that if you compare what other chains have fetched with none of the history and brand loyalty SNS has. Cheers! Well that is very optimistic. One thing, the Steak n Shake loans have $180 million princ outstanding. At least according to notes from some attendees at this year's BH annual meeting, during which SB apparently talked about the SNS debt with some particularity. Not really...In & Out does about $650M in revenue and I would say it is valued at two times revenue...someone would easily pay that. In fact, they've turned down offers to sell probably higher than that valuation. Shake Shack does about $550M in sales...it's market cap is over $2.8B! Cheers!

Hey, the company stinks, but you have to admit that he changed the auto industry and woke them up to the true potential of electric vehicles. Plus the portable personal flame throwers are pretty awesome! Will come in handy when we have to fight Aliens like Sigourney Weaver when we hit Mars! All kidding aside, the guy is probably one of the brightest minds we've seen in a 100 years...but that doesn't necessarily make for a good operating company. But if you were going to bet on someone's potential, Elon Musk might very well be a good pick...or he could blow up! Cheers! Well maybe...but there is a little bit of a difference Mr. Musk and Henry Ford, Edison and some other genius pioneers.... The difference is that the those who came before Mr. Musk made money, sometimes money by the trainload and they built companies that are still around today. Their ideas & companies & contributions are still around today. Mr. Musk has a bit to go before he reaches that stature. Henry Ford lost investor money on numerous occasions before getting it right. Edison lost nearly everything, including all of his GE stock, when he was developing iron ore mining...it failed after 10 years. Steve Jobs created Apple, then it fell apart and he was forced out as the company collapsed, and then came back in, saved it and turned it into the most valuable company in the world. If you are afraid to fail, you will never create any meaningful success! Musk has so far redesigned the jet engine, created the reusable booster rocket, mass marketed the electric car, built one of the largest solar energy companies and built an underground test track through his Boring Company. Most people would be a one in a billion genius lucky to do just one of those things...and Musk is just getting warmed up! By the way, I'm not a Tesla shareholder, but man would I like to own a piece of Musk's future output directly! Cheers!

Hey, the company stinks, but you have to admit that he changed the auto industry and woke them up to the true potential of electric vehicles. Plus the portable personal flame throwers are pretty awesome! Will come in handy when we have to fight Aliens like Sigourney Weaver when we hit Mars! All kidding aside, the guy is probably one of the brightest minds we've seen in a 100 years...but that doesn't necessarily make for a good operating company. But if you were going to bet on someone's potential, Elon Musk might very well be a good pick...or he could blow up! Cheers!

I would agree with that. To cover it fully it would be something like $300/sf for the owned real estate. I looked at a sliver of the Missouri locations a while back since I was familiar with them (lived in StL for undergrad and the 6 years after) and the locations were not exactly super valuable. Came up with around $200/sf and have to assume that is not too far off from the system-wide average given the chain is focused in the low-cost-of-living midwest. Unless they own a lot of Florida locations in upscale neighborhoods, $300/sf seems like a stretch. Of course, if they include all the equipment inside, and the milkshake machine upgrade is completed, those things might make up the difference. :) If you included all of the restaurants, equipment, above-par leases and land that they own directly...oh, yeah it would cover the loan. That's why I'm surprised that he would even consider just letting the non-recourse loans lapse, because he would get a hell of a lot more by just selling the chain to someone. The loans are $240M...SNS chain is worth nearly 1 times revenue or close to $800M! Some stupid PE firm might pay more than that if you compare what other chains have fetched with none of the history and brand loyalty SNS has. Cheers!

If you want to call a spade a spade, then let's not minimize the turnaround that took place at that time. You joke about cost saving efforts in the early days, but those were all necessary and they were far more expansive than the jokes bandied about. I was there in the midst of all of it and watched Sardar, Jon and Andrew turn it around. Yeah, Sardar's ego took over eventually, and frankly Jon and I were about the only ones that stood up to him at the time...so joke all you want. The weekend he announced the name change and compensation change, I sat in the Omaha Marriott bar on Sunday night telling him and Phil how it was a horrible idea...being rebuffed by Phil...Sardar was surprisingly composed and cordial. I've never talked about this to anyone over the years other than Jon and a couple of other people. So if you have no idea exactly what occurred during the turnaround, maybe educate yourself more about it. After that meeting the shareholders of SNS went and voted for the proposal...of the 5% that voted against it...well you can guess who that included. We sold all of our stock after that Omaha weekend, before the vote...I knew things were changing for the worse going forward. For those of us who took the ride from the early days of Western Sizzlin all the way to the time when the name changed, we made a ton of money on that investment...arguably the best I ever made. Anyone who remained a shareholder has lost money since! And yeah, it all came down to Sardar and his ego...but again, call a spade a spade...the turnaround at SNS, over the time frame he did it, in the midst of the financial crisis...extraordinary! Cheers! To be clear, and you would know better, I was suggesting that the turnaround was Jon and Andrew, not Sardar. They were the operational guys. Without them, he hasn't demonstrated he could turn a merry-go-round. All of the things I listed, which he is suggested post-those guys have fallen flat. He is a financial engineer. He is not an operator. I agree with you on that. Cheers!

If you want to call a spade a spade, then let's not minimize the turnaround that took place at that time. You joke about cost saving efforts in the early days, but those were all necessary and they were far more expansive than the jokes bandied about. I was there in the midst of all of it and watched Sardar, Jon and Andrew turn it around. Yeah, Sardar's ego took over eventually, and frankly Jon and I were about the only ones that stood up to him at the time...so joke all you want. The weekend he announced the name change and compensation change, I sat in the Omaha Marriott bar on Sunday night telling him and Phil how it was a horrible idea...being rebuffed by Phil...Sardar was surprisingly composed and cordial. I've never talked about this to anyone over the years other than Jon and a couple of other people. So if you have no idea exactly what occurred during the turnaround, maybe educate yourself more about it. After that meeting the shareholders of SNS went and voted for the proposal...of the 5% that voted against it...well you can guess who that included. We sold all of our stock after that Omaha weekend, before the vote...I knew things were changing for the worse going forward. For those of us who took the ride from the early days of Western Sizzlin all the way to the time when the name changed, we made a ton of money on that investment...arguably the best I ever made. Anyone who remained a shareholder has lost money since! And yeah, it all came down to Sardar and his ego...but again, call a spade a spade...the turnaround at SNS, over the time frame he did it, in the midst of the financial crisis...extraordinary! Cheers!

You may be one of the only people who think that it is a terrific restaurant. But glad you enjoy it. Speaking of Lampert, I've heard it said that Steak n Shake is the Sears of restaurant chains. NBL, do you know much about the restaurant and its history? After the turnaround by Sardar and his team, which was one of the best turnarounds I've ever seen or read about, the business was a cash cow...making roughly $30-35M net profit each year, with cash flows over $50M on just under $300M of equity. The company had essentially no debt, was sitting on well over $50M in cash and owned most of its own real estate. It also had a very strong, loyal following not unlike In & Out or Chik-Fil-A by many mid-westerners who grew up on the brand. The thin Steak'n Shake patties seared on the grill are actually more flavourful than In & Out burgers. At that time back around 2009/2010, Steak'n Shake was as far a cry as you could get from Sears! It was a fantastic restaurant chain that was in excellent shape, generating a ton of cash, with no debt and was growing sales per store. And it was shortly after that when Sardar took this business and essentially leveraged the hell out of it, alienated franchisees, shareholders, partners and killed off the steady growth it was enjoying. The demise has been as swift as the amazing turnaround originally was! For those of us that had invested in the company and watched it grow...it's very sad indeed! Cheers!

I just find it hard to believe he's going to pull a Lampert here...not hard to believe...but a waste of a terrific brand and restaurant. Cheers!

Should not have taken the money out in the first place...for personal use! That's one of the biggest no-no's. Mistakes are one thing...this was a calculated decision to use partner capital to cover personal expenses. Cheers!

How is that possible with millions and millions sitting in Cracker Barrel that Sardar could lend or inject as equity into SNS? I'm assuming the analyst is looking at SNS as a stand-alone entity. Does he think that Sardar would let SNS go bankrupt without pulling as much cash as he can out of the chain...such as selling the whole business first? Cheers!

I'm not saying they should. I'm saying that is what is happening with Mohnish's management style...huge swings because it is so concentrated...and whenever the fund goes down, it becomes even more concentrated. If you form an opinion at any point in that cycle, you are either going to be overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. Cheers!

Just a quick chart...not accurate in terms of each years swings, but it explains what I'm talking about. If a fund manager's portfolio is volatile, then you could have huge swings of underperformance and outperformance...even for very long stretches. Their numbers start to drop and look bad, but it's really just a result of the beta of how they manage their portfolio over long-periods of time. It's why so many managers look stupid right now, including even Buffett over the last 5 years. And this has been exaggerated due to index investing, ETF's, hedge fund competition, etc which are causing distortions in valuation...alot of people are pushing prices of overvalued or the same assets. We saw a similar thing with internet stocks in the late 90's, financial stocks before the housing crash...now it is ETF and index investing. Cheers!

I'm not going to defend Mohnish like I normally do, because I think it's rhetorical at this point. Last time I talked to him, I agree with him that he hasn't gotten any dumber! And every time the markets have outperformed him and he's looked like a fool, it usually indicated a bottom in his fund with massive outperformance shortly thereafter. So let's revisit these numbers 3-5 years down the road, because usually at these times, he's reducing his portfolio to the bare bones cheapest stocks he owns with the greatest upside and the spring usually gets heavily loaded. Cheers!

They have also acquired some top teams from their competitors since the beginning of the year, fortifying their offerings and ability going forward. There is alot to like at Jefferies in the last couple of years. Cheers!

Former Bank of Canada Governor and Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, is favorite to lead IMF. Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/christine-lagarde-imf-replacement-mark-carney-050000686.html

I'm sure the British thought the Patriots/Rebels were lefties when they sought independence...thank goodness for lefties! Cheers! No one is stopping them from leaving and colonizing somewhere else! Most of the lefties run all of the tech companies...you would be left with only Twitter. And you would have nothing to ever watch again on television other than Fox News and 100 Huntley. Cheers!

I'm sure the British thought the Patriots/Rebels were lefties when they sought independence...thank goodness for lefties! Cheers!