Parsad

There was that post asking who the best are at special situations. All you have to do is read LUK's letter and you know exactly who is the best. Did anyone know they were buying car dealerships and leasing them back for nice fat returns? These guys are brilliant. They will find every way possible to exploit inefficiencies and make a buck! Cheers!

An interesting character I came across - Michael Smith of Terra Nova Royalty (TTT). TTT receives royalties from investment in mines, commodities trading (commissions, financing). But, hard to get details on Michael Smith. He is a Canadian (?) with business involvement all over the world. Do you know more about him? Smith ran MFC Bancorp, which was a merchant bank with offices in various locations, including Vancouver. I was a shareholder about 10 years ago, but couldn't figure out exactly what they were doing back then, so I sold. I thought they might have been fraudulent. ;D Eventually, it became KHD Humboldt, which Mohnish was a large shareholder of. And now Terra Nova Royalty. Cheers!

Leucadia would be my first pick hands down. Cheers!

I believe that Donald J. Trump has stated several times that he does not drink or smoke. He may be the value exception that proves the value drinkers rule? How did Donald Trump become a value investor! ;D And what the hell are you guys smoking down there in the U.S.? How is this moron in the running for President? Didn't you guys learn anything by putting the last idiot in power who bankrupted a company...remember the credit crisis...remember Dubya and Cheney? Trump is the last guy you want running your country. A rich a-hole who inherited a real estate company, and shills his brand like a two-bit carney. Cheers!

That's a perfect quote from the guys at Leucadia. I love it...now I'm going to have a drink! ;D Cheers!

Ok guys, the demand for the book has been huge, and personally I would prefer if it wasn't passed around as a PDF after the AGM. Fairfax is toying around with the idea of making it available later on, so I will update you as I find out. Until then, as I mentioned, please don't pass it around as a PDF after the AGM, otherwise I will delete the posts or PDF from the message board. Cheers!

The book is called "The First 25 Years of Fairfax" and it's terrific! Shareholders will love it and be as giddy as schoolgirls...literally! ;D I'll find out if they will make it available later on, say on Amazon, Overstock or something. I think it would be great and they could put the proceeds into Fairfax's own charitable donations. I know I would buy a bunch and send them to our fund partners. Cheers!

if both started with 1 million right now, or 100mil for that matter which would you invest with Again, these are all or nothing propositions. I would just throw half with Buffett and half with Prem. Why choose? Both have advantages over the other, as well as disadvantages. Cheers!

A balanced article on Sardar and BH. I thought I would throw this out there, since I heard that many of us message board critics have exaggerated beliefs about BH. Cheers! http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/04/12/the-next-warren-buffett-confidence-or-arrogance.aspx

Mohnish Pabrai has sold out of FFH and LUK but stills holds on to BRK as of end of 2010. It is not to say that the equation hasnt changed since then but Mohnish is much a fan of FFH/BRK as anyone out there. Mohnish hasn't sold any of his Fairfax shares. Doesn't have to report Canadian holdings. Cheers!

Well, I'm the only one who has voted so far. And no, not all value investors are teetotallers! I drink a cup of coffee every day, and I usually have at least one glass of wine or some other hard drink every weekend...usually no more than 3-4 a month. I drink green tea with my dim sum or chinese food, and I usually will have a cup of tea every evening. I usually have 2 cans of Coke a week as well...usually when I'm watching my Canucks play. Not a real beer drinker, other than Guiness or the occasional pale ale if I'm out some where. Cheers!

Ah Bronco, you notice that the board's name is the "Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax"? There is no need to pick one over the other. Fairfax would not have existed if Berkshire didn't exist first. Boardmembers hold a special spot for each...do you pick between your mother and your wife? ;D Now if you want to get down to brass taxes and put a wager on how long before the Flyer's get knocked out of the playoffs, then by all means do so! I'm guessing they win the first round and get knocked out of the second. Doesn't really matter, since the parade runs through Vancouver this year! Cheers!

Japan may raise their nuclear accident rating to on par with Chernobyl. This thing is getting tougher and tougher to get under control. Cheers! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/japan-nuclear-crisis-may-be-raised-to-highest-severity-level-on-radiation.html

Hi Packer, I agree with you in that respect. I think Peter Lynch's "Beating the Street" was a good book for novice investors as well, but it won't help them be good investors. And that's the only distinction I was trying to make...that the easy books, just help you to continue to lose money...and I'm speaking from experience. Lynch's book while illuminating, was completely useless from an actual investing standpoint for me personally. Do you know how many times I had used "Buy what you know!" and then lost money? ;D Berkshire's letters and Graham's books changed everything. They helped create an actual intellectual framework that was completely rational, not watered down and that really worked. While I love all these books that come out on investing, utility-wise, the originals have never been bettered. And once the author throws in the word "secret", that usually just means a bunch of analogies or criteria, but the application remains completely elusive. Cheers!

Although Greenblatt is definitely a value investor I doubt that his new book will simply be a rehash of his first two. Anyone care to take a stab at what the "secret" will is? Write a book with the word "secret" in the title, and you'll make a small mint by people gullible enough to buy it. Or tell them how simple something is, when it actually isn't. Cheers!

Fairfax is not overvalued by any means. It's not rock bottom cheap either. I'm sure they took a hit in the 1st quarter with Japan losses, bond losses, but much of that was probably offset by gains in their equity portfolio. We also don't have any idea what the full-year earning power is of Zenith and all the additional insurance businesses that were bought. The company is hedged for better or for worse. When opportunity comes, they will strike. Cheers!

In terms of morals and ethics (excluding straight performance & excludng Berkshire and Fairfax): No particular order - Markel, Overstock.com, Google, Costco, Leucadia, Sears Holding, Rainmaker Entertainment (yes, it's tiny, but Tim, Francis & Jeff control most of the stock)...there's probably others that I haven't mentioned. Oh yeah, Corner Market Capital & the MPIC Funds, and any public vehicle I'm directly involved with in the future! ;D Cheers!

Shai Dardashti has put some Berkshire AGM notes from 2001-2010 online. You can find them at: http://valueinvestingresource.blogspot.com/2011/04/berkshire-shareholder-weekend-notes.html Cheers!

Marlin, you were one of the original Yellow Bricker's correct? Along with John Gartmann, John Zemanovich, Farmer Lyle and Mohnish? Wasn't Sherrie there too? I believe Shai has one of the hats now, as he took over organizing the annual gathering from Sherrie. Cheers!

Parsad, are you implying that with the ensuing crisis in Europe interest rates will have to rise thereby allowing people with cash the opportunity to finally earn a decent return??? Yes, rates will go up somewhat. Not huge, but they will go up. I'm pretty certain at this point that stagflation is exactly what we are going to experience. Not 70's level stagflation, but stagflation nonetheless. Pick your stocks and buy them cheap. We'll be going sideways for a while. Cheers!

The only comment that I have is that if a certain someone, had not thrown his votes behind Steve White and had voted for us in last year's proxy solicitation, the current poison pill and stock grant agreement would never have occurred. He not only shot us in the foot, but himself and all other non-executive shareholders. I really have an utter disregard for executives who do things solely to benefit themselves...be it at Biglari Holdings or ITEX. It reeks of self-dealing and is a disservice to the people they work for! But everyone can change and decide for themselves how they want to be viewed and portrayed. Do you want to have a strong corporate culture and have a loyal shareholder group, or do you want a culture that is less than ethical with dissension among your shareholders? It's completely up to them what they want. Money isn't everything! Cheers!

I'm pretty sure I know what happened, but did he elaborate on why Mustang Capital is no longer part of BH? Where is John Linnartz...is he still there? I'm guessing not, since I remember doing an interview with John a couple of years back, and he was very much a straight shooter. Cheers!

Companies that divide shares into different classes with different voting rights almost always end up with the voting shares abusing the economic interests of the non-voting shares. The bonus paid to Frank Stronach for giving up his voting control of Magna is the most recent and egregious example THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED. Correct that they almost always end up with the voting shares abusing the economic interests of the non-voting shares. Prem just recently discussed in his annual letter, that he would never do anything with his multiple-voting shares that would benefit him differently than the other voting shares. So there is always the exception...and I'm very happy to be partnered with him! Cheers!

Which Canadian bank would be regarded as the most exposed to a slump in the market? Basically, who has the highest exposure to construction and real estate development, which bank is giving out the most amount of mortgages, etc? I don't short stocks, but if I could have a 5-10 year short on one company in Canada, it would be Mainstreet Equity (MEQ on the TSX). I've talked about this company here before, and I even wrote a letter to Maclean's magazine after Peter Newman put out a glowing article on Bob Dhillon. This is probably the most leveraged real estate company in Canada...maybe the most leveraged period! http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=388.0 http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=840.0 Basically Dhillon buys lousy properties, refinances the mortgage, borrows against the property and spruces up the place. Then he raises the rents slightly, and reborrows against the property to buy other properties. Rinse, lather, repeat! The problem is he's got $431M in properties and $451M in mortgages. If rates climb 2-3% he's screwed, as he's only got $3M cash. They had a $22M line of credit at the end of their fiscal year, but no mention of it in their last quarterly filing. He says that the properties are worth $800M...I don't buy it! Cheers!

Cannot be that Sardar is trying to remunerate the "B" shareholders with increasing "money right" for the lower "voting power"? Cannot that be a fair way to treat shareholders if we can give a money value to the voting right? Just trying to see if there is a fair rationale to this move. Hi Christopher, you are correct. That is exactly what he is doing. He is monetizing the voting rights...I'll give you more value, and you give me most of your voting rights. I know his reasons for the dual class voting are shady, but it doesn't sound horribly different from the voting rights disparity at BRK. Hi Global, you are correct. It is not entirely different than Berkshire's or Fairfax's. Except for the fact that the CEO's are on fixed salaries, own huge stakes in the company personally, and the economic value is the same per class of share. They never tried to bribe someone to give up their voting rights. An argument can be made to support every move he's making. He's not stupid...just shrewd! But the nuances of each of these moves indicates the means behind the madness. Cheers!