Parsad

Jeremy Grantham believes the Australian housing market is in a bubble. Cheers! http://www.heraldsun.com.au/money/australian-housing-market-a-time-bomb/story-e6frfh5f-1225880221197

Buffett & Bill Gates had a meeting with a number of the world's wealthiest individuals and challenged them to give away half their fortunes. Cheers! http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/16/billionaire-peer-pressure-behind-the-buffett-gates-challenge/?source=yahoo_quote

I really don't think that the vote on the pay package is going to be close enough to be made up by Biglari's buying... Does anyone think that a few percentage points in ownership will make a difference? You never know. Jonathan Dash had 48% of Denny's votes in his favor as a director. All he needed was a few more. Cheers!

No, nothing unusual. Fairfax has a history of rotating managers and executives. I think it's good because you have a number of people who are very capable of stepping into specific situations...very important in succession planning. The team is so deep at Fairfax, and this ensures that it remains that way. Cheers!

Canadian Fund Manager, Otto Spork, alledgedly misappropriated funds according to the OSC. Cheers! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/funds-and-etfs/funds/fund-manager-made-millions-from-investment-fraud-osc-alleges/article1604095/

It would concern me as both a Lion Fund Partner or a Biglari Holdings shareholder. That's a lot of capital being poured into BH stock. There were a number businesses available in the open market at signficant discounts to intrinsic value over the last couple of weeks. Yet, all this capital is being poured into BH at fair prices because they need to increase their ownership stake...that's alot of lost opportunity. Cheers!

No, I'm referring to the Lion Fund partner's perspective, not BH. Most originally probably invested in the fund, assuming that they would have their capital in it for 20-30 years...an investment fund. Now, it's starting to look more like a special-purpose vehicle that is completely in BH. Cheers!

I'm not sure how happy Lion Fund partners are at this point. He's pouring everything into BH. That's $54M of BH stock already in the Lion Fund! Cheers!

Just throwing it out there...a guess! ;D It's probably wrong. Cheers!

Trian, the largest shareholder of Wendy's, said they were contacted by an interested party in taking over the company with Trian's assistance possibly. Interestingly enough, Sardar cancelled the AAP tender a week earlier. Anyone think he may be making a run at Wendy's? It's smaller than AAP. Cheers! http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/30697/000134547110000054/wen37.htm

An internal Pentagon memo, that Afghanistan has at least $1T worth of untapped minerals deposits, including huge resources of lithium. Cheers! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?no_interstitial

No, I originally bid $10, but it was rejected! ;D I would never pay that much for lunch with someone. Although I would pay that in a second if I could get five minutes with my father again! Cheers!

Another record lunch...$2.6M this year! Cheers! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Warren-Buffett-lunch-price-apf-3339052448.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

Mark Mitchell writes a sarcastic, yet very indicative story on David Einhorn. I'm sure there are people on both sides of the fence when it comes to Einhorn, especially after his book came out, but the relationships and playbook are remarkably familiar. Anyone who owned Fairfax or Overstock shares over the last 6-7 years can call out what each step of the game would be. There were days when we knew exactly what was going to be in the press, because some idiot would write it anonymously on the old MSN message board. We knew that would be the next story by Peter Eavis, or another analyst report would come out from John Gwynn. Today we know that Gwynn was corrupt and frontrunning his reports. Cheers! http://www.deepcapture.com/notes-on-david-einhorn-the-predator-in-a-cute-t-shirt/

Based on all the stuff Alice Schroeder wrote about Buffett's mother, I'm guessing he was adopted and this was his birth mother! What a fantastic lady! Cheers!

At the end of the day, I don't think that he is the type of guy that would sandbag shareholders over compensation. Perhaps, but we are officially out after today...we don't own a single share in the funds, our corporate accounts, or our personal accounts. Long-term gains rates have kicked in, there are other opportunities available, and the stock was around $309. We made plenty of money for our partners and ourselves, but money isn't everything...you are only as good as your word, and when you take a $900K salary and then tell partners you are there to make money with them and not off of them, well...you've got to back that up! And then how do you explain to your executives that their efforts are as valuable as yours, when they don't share the pot? You are creating a culture where there will be turnover in the corporate offices. At the Lion Fund, Sardar was the man. At Biglari Holdings, there are quite a few other people who are instrumental in running the business. Cheers!

And once again Vancouver loses to the team that goes on to win the Stanley Cup! We've got a friggin' drought here in Vancouver too you know! At least Philly lost. ;D Cheers!

He needs the time to prepare his defense! Fairfax's case is coming up...SEC is digging deeply...tides have turned against the naked short-selling, front-running, insider-trading crowd. Cheers!

It's funny how such stupid things get written about investing. After all these years of reading these ridiculous things, I continue to be amazed how readily it is written! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Are-Stocks-Near-Bear-Market-cnbc-2857948061.html;_ylt=AtMkf_J2qN6OID77fnR8_hO7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE5ajdtdWs0BHBvcwM0BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzQ29rZQRzbGsDYXJld2VuZWFyYmVh?x=0&.v=1&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=7cadc69438b0468ecb3beafb6413a7fd&ccode=rd What's also so amusing is how David Rosenberg can write such great articles at times, but then say the dumbest things in the world. I've decided that I will now use the word "Fibonacci" as my preferred curse word. If someone cuts me off while driving...Fibonacci! If I run into Herb Greenberg...you damn sweaty Fibonacci! If I see Jim Chanos...you dirty Fibonacci! Or I see Abby Joseph Cohen on tv again talking about how the S&P will hit 1,900 by year-end...you crazy Fibonacci! It's completely universal. Cheers!

Hi Folks, The site was down temporarily, but it has been fixed. According to my internet service provider, there was a vulnerability in the PHP scripting code that the site runs on, and a malicious code was inserted directly into the files. It wasn't only our site, but thousands of sites that were under attack due to the weakness in PHP itself. The malicious code itself doesn't do any harm to your computers, but only redirects the user. The code was removed by my ISP, and the system is fine. If you feel unsure, then I would suggest that users run their normal anti-virus scans, but there was no virus present. Thanks very much! Sanjeev

I wouldn't discount the value of a full-service broker. It's the individual who makes the difference, not the category. We use full-service brokers for both of our funds. They provide back-end office support when cutting checks, wiring funds, client contact and service provider contact. We never ask them to print out 10-Q's or 10-K's for us...that is a complete waste of paper, their time, our time, and mailing costs. You can easily find them on EDGAR for US filings, or SEDAR for Canadian filings. If someone is too lazy to do that, then they should probably just invest in an ETF or something. You are also paying alot for your full-service broker. We don't pay nearly that amount, and in our U.S. fund, we pay a fraction of your cost for a trade. The benefit of a full-service broker for us isn't in the advice...we don't require it. The benefit for us is when it comes to working very specific trades of small-cap or micro-cap stocks. In these circumstances, the bid/ask can move very quickly, especially over several days or months when you are working a trade over a long period of time. The broker needs to pay attention to these moves so they can acquire us shares opportunistically. Discount brokers cannot do this, and it is worth its weight in gold if you find the right broker. I think your broker was correct in refusing to print out the materials, but I think you should fire him solely based on cost for trades. If you don't invest in very small-cap, somewhat illiquid stocks, then you are probably best off with a discount broker. Cheers!

Gabelli's pockets are very, very deep. He's already paid more for the shares than what they are trading at, so if he wants to buy more, he could certainly do so with little problem. I think he will just take a wait and see approach to the vote. If it gets voted down, fine then Sardar gets his $900K salary and continues to run the business...no headache in finding a replacement, nor a proxy fight. If the compensation plan goes through, then I'm pretty sure you will see a proxy fight...be it with Gabelli or someone else. Cheers!

I bet SB has resigned within a couple of weeks. No way in hell he resigns! He will fight it to the end...and it would take an expensive proxy fight to remove him. There is a very valuable franchise there that is in fantastic shape now...in no small part to Sardar's work. But someone with deep pockets could come in and run against him, which is where I think this thing is headed. The irony of that should not be lost on anyone. Executives need to make good choices for shareholders, not themselves! Cheers!

Yup, it will be on the Tuesday night next year. I'll have to figure out what to do about where we hold it. That room was at capacity this year, and while we could open it up to the other room, the kitchen noise would be distracting. Around September, I'll start to get quotes for other venues in the area and what is available, then compare it to Joe Badali's room. It worked perfectly this year, but we would have to limit the total number of attendees at 70...which is capacity for that room and exactly the turn out this year. Cheers!

Biglari Holdings has terminated the exchange offer. Cheers! http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/press-release/aap_bh_biglari-holdings-inc-terminates-exchange-offer-for-shares-of-advance-auto-parts-inc--966448.html