Parsad

Hi Folks, There's a little bit of a snag with the dinner. Because of the date change for Fairfax's AGM, there is no room available for our size function at the Royal York. I will know in two weeks if there are any cancellations from a very large booking they had. In the meantime I'm working on the backup plan, which would be Joe Badali's one more time, but with a different set-up. We would keep the usual private room for just theatre seating during the presentation, and the dinner would occur in the large room next to it. I considered the MTCC, but it just means a further walk for our guests, and I want to keep it as short as possible. Cheers!

And he's been to every Fairfax Financial Shareholders Dinner we've held, asking questions with his Texas twang! I think it's Texan! ;D Cheers!

I politely disagree. I don't think it really has anything to do with mathematics whatsoever. All it does is tell you what has happened, but not what is going to happen. Kind of like taking a look at a meteorolgy chart of what the temperature has been for the last 30 days, and then coming to a conclusion about what the next 30 or 60 days may look like. Would any of us ever bet on the weather report with hard earned cash? Nope! The only thing I care about is the discount to net asset value, or the discount to the future cash cash flow stream. That's it. Cheers!

I do like BAC, and think it will trade at tangible book next year, and a multiple of that within 3 years. I just think TA is akin to voodoo or psychic readings. Cheers!

Ppphhhhttt! ;D Sorry Moore. I only give out raspberries to any technical analysis answers. Cheers!

Short, but great answers! Yes, he does look significantly thinner. Charlie also got some new glasses! Cheers!

As I mentioned in a different post, Fernandez will regret leaving Fairholme. Berkowitz is better off without him. Cheers!

The gist of what I'm hearing you say is what really scares me. You think that massive federal intervention was necessary and the entire system was the verge of collapse if they didn't act a large way. Doesn't that point to an unstable system? What prevents the same thing from happening over and over? As Eric said, the system was incredibly unstable. And instability continues in certain areas...we don't have good central derivative clearing houses or limits on the amount of leverage that can be utilized by very large institutions. We are still missing some accountability on dark pools of assets and how they are allocating capital and the leverage used. But the system is significantly more stable now, at least in the U.S., and I expect Europe in the next few months. While the U.S. debt load is a concern, that is something that can be defused over the next decade. Whereas massive amounts of derivative counterparty liabilities from a large investment bank failing, has to be handled within weeks, if not days. Also, while many won't agree, even some of my mentors, I think mark-to-market accounting has been instrumental in forcing some accountability. It's not as easy to hide huge swings in derivative position values or other Level 2 and 3 assets. If the average investor has to account for portfolio risk due to the viscissitudes of Mr. Market, why should our financial institutions not be held to the same! Cheers!

Yes, Twa is correct guys! Chill and let hindsight do the talking in a couple of years. Cheers!

I get tired of repeating myself, but here goes. Buffett's insurance business is not going to stop if his total investment portfolio (bonds and equity) drops 25-30%, whereas Prem's insurance business could stop if his total portfolio (bonds and equity) drop 25-30%. And that doesn't matter what the macro-environment looks like. If either of their portfolio drops considerably, one is far more likely to stop writing insurance than the other. Buffett doesn't have to worry as much about macro. And if you thought Buffett missed the recession or what was happening, remember that he was running off Gen Re's derivatives book 8 years ago, well before anyone thought about counterparty liability and a credit crisis. Prem's two-three moves ahead of everyone else, and Buffett is two-three moves ahead of Prem. By the way, if you look at the title of this message board, and the dinner I hold for Fairfax Shareholders, you'll realize that I'm one of Prem's biggest cheerleaders...but Buffett is just in a different league than anyone else. There's just never been anyone better, and probably never will...especially when it comes to translating his intellect, so that all of us dummies can grasp it! Cheers!

YES!!!! Honest question: And after that, what would have happened..? Exactly what, nobody knows. Lots of economic pain for sure. But it would have been temporary, and we could be back on track by now. It would have by no means been temporary. In fact, you would have seen a 10%+ drop in GDP and massive business failures within a year. The consequences would have been beyond what was seen during the Great Depression, and chances are you would have seen unemployment creep well past what was seen 70+ years ago. GE was a week away from not being able to finance its business! It would have taken 2-3 decades for us to work our way out of that hole...one domino falling after another. Cheers!

What where the chances of BRK failing if the government didn't bail out the banks ? How attached was BRK to the rest of the system ? Lower than most financial institutions, but significantly higher than say Coca-cola. If credit seized, how would Berkshire companies like Netjets, Clayton Homes, BNSF, Mid-American finance their operations? It would have gone down but slowly. Possibly selling assets at fire-sale prices to pay debt and save the remaining businesses, while making sure the insurance businesses had plenty of capital, as much of their equity portfolio would have collapsed. And as mentioned, the Chairman and CEO has already said that they would have gone down too. Cheers!

It hasn't stopped the other firms from raising capital. Maybe it was the photograph of the 22 monitors around him in that famous photograph. Investors figured he had immensely high operating costs from his electricity bill! ;D Cheers!

Would you have preferred Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner just minded their own business and let BAC, JPM, GS, GE, eventually WFC, BRK and most other leveraged financial institutions fail in 2008? Government can work, as long as they don't cater to special interests and actually have the country's best interest at heart. Cheers!

There's a reason for the drop off in unique visitors. They were hit with a Google penalty for their SEO practices in early January through early March. Their traffic plummeted to the 14M mark. That carried over into the early part of the 3rd quarter and it looks like they started to rebound in August and September. Probably better pricing and inventory for the back to school season. This is the time of year that Overstock also starts ramping up their merchandise and sales for the Holiday Season, where they pretty much make all their money. I would expect unique visitors to increase back into the 16-18M mark through October, November and December. Cheers!

Did he fire his first two partners, or did they leave to start their own fund? Cheers!

Beer, you know you're just jealous of Hammer's baggy pants...although his pockets are empty! ;D Cheers!

GS Asset Managment Chair has some astute comments about the U.S. and world. I especially like the China & Greece comment. Cheers! http://www.cnbc.com/id/44976558

When push comes to shove, people do what they have to do. I think this will work and will probably get approval. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/eu-leaders-said-to-consider-combining-rescue-funds-to-deploy-1-3-trillion.html

MC Hammer is launching his own search engine. You can't touch this Google! Cheers! http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/20/tech/web/mc-hammer-search-engine/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

If we take whole US population then these people, who are member of this board or think in similar way, will be in tiny minority. Just being on this board and talking to each other might give us illusion that there are lot's of people with same mentality but in reality I don't find too many in my day to day interactions. Yes, but at least you have people thinking like that. People who will save and create more wealth by investing it prudently. Cheers!

and It's times like these you find out who your friends really are. He'll come back big. Fernandez will realize he made a mistake one day. Cheers!

About 60% of the board readership is U.S., so that wet dream may just be reality! ;D Cheers!

just pointing out that the team approach is alive and well at brk and luk. cheers! Buffett talks to Ajit more than he talks to Munger. And we saw what happened to Sokol who was also on the team. One guy makes the final call, and that is no one other than Buffett. Not Ajit, not Munger...no one else. Cheers!

I think having partners can work if you have defined roles that compliment each other...each partner knows there own strengths/weakness and each works or is in charge of what they are good at. I agree, that is how it works with us. People are speculating that he is stepping down to take over JOE. Read on another message board but who knows. I guess we'll watch to see if Fernandez steps down from there next. I suspect that may be correct. It would make sense for him to step in there, while Bruce runs Fairholme. Cheers!