Parsad

These were the same concerns that Archie Bunker's son-in-law, played by Rob Reiner, used to say about his generation...they were the Boomers, who had the highest standard of living in generations. These were also the same concerns of my group, Generation X. We were the dark, moody, lost generation that would never enjoy full employment like the Boomers, or the opportunities of Generation Y as the Boomers retired. Well, many of us became entrepreneurs and are ultimately responsible for the prosperity and wealth driving the economy today. These are the concerns of every generation, and so far, barring any catastrophe or large-scale war, this will continue. Cheers!

I agree 100%. I’ve always thought the millennials and especially the generation following them are much smarter then most people give them credit for. And they are certainly better people than my generation (gen X)was at their age. While many go around focusing on the few idiots eating Tide Pods and saying “these young people today.. blah blah blah”. Compared to our generation these young people today give me hope for the future. And the Jeff Sessions generation can’t die out fast enough. Well the whole Tide Pods thing may just be natural selection at work. ::) So the remaining millennials and post-millennials will certainly be a more attractive bunch in terms of potential, income generation and innovation. Cheers!

I think they get the shafted in terms of their abilities and work ethic. Millennials may be harder working and better savers than the last few generations: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/finally-some-good-news-about-millennials-a-growing-number-save-100000-2018-01-23?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo I'm a disciple of Buffett's belief that the next generation will live better than the previous generations due to the free-market system. Cheers!

Patrick is an Irish brawler...he's fought all his life and will continue to do so...it's in his DNA. You might not be fond of those comments or the stance he took, but without Overstock's lawsuits and Fairfax's lawsuits, you would not have seen the changes at the DTC and the end of naked shorting on Wall Street. John Byrne subsequently admitted he should have supported his son and he was right. Buffett also said he didn't see naked shorting as a problem...if you run Berkshire Hathaway and are in the enviable financial position that Berkshire is in, of course you don't see a problem. But it certainly existed, and there were many people who were taking advantage of companies in vulnerable positions due to an external or internal event. In terms of the Sith Lord comment...Byrne was simply alluding to a significant player supporting a broad agenda of naked shorting and pulling strings behind the scene. And as we know, Sith Lords always come in pairs...so Cohen was only one of the players. The other one is now simply viewed as a renowned philanthropist and didn't get sucked into the lawsuits or SEC prosecutions. Byrne the CEO is an acquired taste. I think he's been a far better visionary than operator. The one thing shareholders in any Byrne vehicle will get is an honest CEO who will only benefit if his shareholders benefit...now that must be worth something! Cheers!

Thanks everyone...in particular rbkbabang for updating the images! The logo looks much better now. Cheers!

Mad genius or just plain mad...obvious where I stand on this one, from the first time I heard about him and saw his written crap on TheStreet.con! Cheers! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-man-behind-bitcoin-genius-ads-internet-134441715.html

Eye of the beholder! When it was designed, I thought the bars showed incremental growth...no cannabis or bit-coin...nice 12-15% annual returns. The plane and planet are simply to show that there are investors on here from all over the world, and no matter where you fly, you'll find value investment ideas and value investors. Cheers!

++ simple fix! How about to grab this JPEG file named "cropped-cropped-Handover-Corner-Of-Berkshire-Fairfax-JPG-e1516151433460" from the site, fix it and send it to Sanjeev for a reinstall on the CoBF webserver installation? [ ; - ) ] -I have forgotten how to do [read: manipulate] this in i.e. Photoshop, and nobody has asked me to document my investment returns here on CoBF so far, so I've had no need to refresh my memory! Thanks everyone! I figured the site isn't going anywhere, and it was time to make it a bit more permanent and recognizable. John, I can send you the different JPEGS if you know what to do...I'm not particularly tech savvie. I believe doing a clear version wouldn't be that difficult if you know what you are doing. Cheers!

I think the issue is you couldn't invest in that portfolio as an outside investor. It was his own capital. This is no different from the fund managers who disappear when returns are bad and reappear when returns are good. I have a slew of letters where selective years are missing. To Pabrai's credit he does include everything. There is one lauded value investor who just suddenly stopped including a really bad year. Stuff like that is terrible. So what, we have good and bad years, but don't try to hide it. I agree with you that alot of crap is passed off as results and investment manager memories are very selective. But in Pabrai's case, you could easily argue that PIF3 has similar long-term results as PIF2 (which amalgamated with PIF1), and PIF3 didn't benefit from that first year. Do we now negate the results in PIF3? And even if people are put off by Pabrai's showmanship and marketing, you have to give credit where it's due in terms of sticking with his methodology after two periods where most hedge fund managers would have bailed or started a new fund...after only one such event. This guy stuck with it twice now! Cheers!

Which is essentially paying $18,800/year for 5 years (or about 100k) for your Canadian citizenship. For US healthcare, it's crazy expensive if you're not on an employer-sponsored plan. It's absolutely ridiculous. If I was retired or whatnot, and not wealthy, I would not be living here. I always ask, who is getting rich from all this? Is it the doctors? I don't think so. The government? Doubtful. Insurance/Pharma? Now we're getting warm... I have my own plan this year. To keep things updated, for a family of six in the US: $960/mo for coverage, with a $3800 deductible and $14k total out of pocket. I think there's a 20% co-insurance or so. This isn't terrible at all. When I was able to buy through a group it was $200 a month, plus a $5k deductible and the company paid $1000 a month on my behalf. I was able to find something better on my own. But all of that said. If you're tapping out on health care that $18k a year is cheap. Also worth noting. I've since done some research into this. The investor visa is ONLY available in Quebec. Canada suspended it, but Quebec still has it. For $1.2m USD you can become Canadian and live in Quebec. Worth considering at least... I can't believe how high insurance premiums are in the U.S. I feel for you guys! Regarding the investor visa program...the loophole everyone is exploiting is that you can still enter the Quebec program, but you don't have to live in Quebec...you can go anywhere. Alot of people have been taking advantage of the loophole to move to BC, Alberta or Ontario. They have not closed that loophole yet...even though they should! Quebec gets the $1.2M, but other provinces end up footing the bill for the participant. Cheers!

"The criticism on the returns minus the first years is warranted. Him trumpeting those returns is slimy." Being selective creates its own issues. At least what Mohnish is presenting are the bald facts from day one...not sure how anyone can argue with that. If he takes the lumps on the bad years, then he should get the benefit of the doubt on the good years. Cheers!

OMG, how can they write such a shoddy article! It says from oct 2003-2018 the s&p500 returned 250% cumulative. Which makes the funds 310% look great over the same period. I punched in the number and that sounds about right. BUT the S&P500 TR returned 340%, comon, you cannot compare a fund against an index without dividends. I think the debate had been going on for a while that Pabrai's funds have not beaten the markets if you strip out those years when it was a $2M fund. And it sure as heck seems like to me that more likely than not, his fund will lag the S&P500 tr in the future. I mean the fund is like VIX on drugs. The 3 highest years when the index was up, he trounced the index. The 3 lowest years for the index he lagged. I think he forgot the meaning of the word hedge. The basic premise of Buffett & Munger's beliefs is that volatility is not the same thing as risk. I think the first time Pabrai got trounced in 2008, you could have equated the volatility with risk, because there was significant exposure to correlated risks in financials. The second time the fund suffered, I don't think you could make the same correlation...it was just undervalued and he took a hit with one stock. So while the opinion always seems to still be out on Pabrai, I would not be surprised to see him out of the fund business in less than 10 years. At that point, his own personal stake would have climbed from the present $120M or so to $350M-500M. He may just decide that he wants to travel the lecture circuit and manage his own money. Nothing Pabrai said to me...but after 25 years of results, those that think you are an asshole and a fraud will still think that! Cheers! Is there any difference between 120M and 360M if you take account of his lifestyle? I don't think it makes any difference. I was just being facetious. Mohnish is not the type to retire, and he likes to face challenges head on, so it's unlikely he'll close Pabrai Funds permanently. Plus pulling in the type of quarterly fees he is getting now that he's back at his high watermark is pretty good incentive to keep going a while longer! ;D Cheers!

Pre-dinner and Dinner details are now updated. Cheers!

Hi All, It's that time of year again. This year's dinner is on April 25, 2018, the night before the Fairfax AGM. Tickets and details can be found below: https://www.pdh-inc.com/2018-premier-fairfax-conference.html If you have any issues or queries, please contact Nicole at nchin@pdh-inc.com. We'll be updating the event page regularly as we finalize speakers, menu, etc. Also, if anyone is interested in sponsorships, donations for the silent auction, etc., please contact Nicole as well. Thanks very much and look forward to seeing you there! Sanjeev

OMG, how can they write such a shoddy article! It says from oct 2003-2018 the s&p500 returned 250% cumulative. Which makes the funds 310% look great over the same period. I punched in the number and that sounds about right. BUT the S&P500 TR returned 340%, comon, you cannot compare a fund against an index without dividends. I think the debate had been going on for a while that Pabrai's funds have not beaten the markets if you strip out those years when it was a $2M fund. And it sure as heck seems like to me that more likely than not, his fund will lag the S&P500 tr in the future. I mean the fund is like VIX on drugs. The 3 highest years when the index was up, he trounced the index. The 3 lowest years for the index he lagged. I think he forgot the meaning of the word hedge. The basic premise of Buffett & Munger's beliefs is that volatility is not the same thing as risk. I think the first time Pabrai got trounced in 2008, you could have equated the volatility with risk, because there was significant exposure to correlated risks in financials. The second time the fund suffered, I don't think you could make the same correlation...it was just undervalued and he took a hit with one stock. So while the opinion always seems to still be out on Pabrai, I would not be surprised to see him out of the fund business in less than 10 years. At that point, his own personal stake would have climbed from the present $120M or so to $350M-500M. He may just decide that he wants to travel the lecture circuit and manage his own money. Nothing Pabrai said to me...but after 25 years of results, those that think you are an asshole and a fraud will still think that! Cheers!

To me, it doesn't sound like a sunk cost that went too long. From what Sanjeev said, it sounds like there was a reasonable chance of success right up until a few weeks ago. The way I see things--that is, assuming none of the people involved is clairvoyant--it sounds like it was shut down at exactly the right time. Yes, It may have seemed like a reasonable bet to make, but benchmark has a point that a much larger well capitalized company could have more safely made such a bet. And could have even afforded to give it a few more years to play out. Clinic, stake in goevisit, real estate investments, cash and other investments...worth over $9M on their own...even if equity falls. Clinic, goevisit, real estate are all carried at cost...not what their current value is. Hedge fund is actually in really good shape...PDH was down alot in 2017, but non-PDH assets climbed more than drop in PDH. Can't really say more than that...you'll have to read PDH annual letter at the end of the month and MPIC annual report when it shows up on CMC website in September/October. Cheers!

Hi, It was not an easy decision, but we spent the last three months in due diligence with an offer for $2M in the holding company and $50M in the ILS portfolio. We were so close...but right before Christmas, this very well known firm decided to pull out. So at last Thursday's Sequant board meeting, it was decided to put it into liquidation after exhausting all of our contacts. We will have more details in the annual letter at the end of the month. It's painful to take the loss, but the dilution decreases dramatically, current and new resources will go into actual, growing cash flowing businesses, and losses will decrease by 60% plus after this quarter. We gave it three full years...a year longer than we originally planned...even if we put more money into it, the stigma of a lack of commitment into the ILS portfolio would only create more questions from institutions. Ironically, the model portfolios performed fantastic the last three years, returning anywhere from 7-12% annually, even during such a busy hurricane and catastrophe season. We will continue to focus on the clinic business, goevisit.com and real estate which are all doing wonderfully, and we'll work hard to recoup these losses over the next few years! Cheers!

Yes, the irony of all of this certainly isn't lost on me! Overstock went from a decade of being a pariah to celebrated genius with Cohodes. Weird! Cheers!

Comparing revenues isn't enough. How fast are those respectively growing? What kind of ROIC are they getting on the growth investments, what kind of margins could they get at a stable rate? +1! We thought Overstock was worth around $35-$40 or 0.5 times revenue conservatively. It's now fully-priced by the markets...forget about conservatively...and what you've been seeing is more of a mania around any blockchain potential. That being said, stupid money does very stupid things, and I would not be surprised to see this thing hit $130-150 per share in 2018. It has propelled from a value-stock into something almost purely speculative now. Remember Overstock was an $80/share stock 16 years ago, and that was based on internet mania...we saw what happened over the ensuing years. We've sold about 2/3rds of our position (bought at an average cost of about $14.50) starting at $35 all the way up to just under $86 today. Don't want to take any more short-term gains, but the speculation is just on a tear! Cheers!

We're planning on using blockchain technology for all memberships going forward, putting it in a shell company, IPO and then all members will receive part of the IPO. Your $29.99 fee will be worth $299,999 after the IPO, and then we'll be making a huge investment into Bitcoin and Eretheum with the IPO funds...we expect the $299,999 to be worth $29,999,999 by mid-2019 at the latest. The new company will be relaunched under the ticker symbol COBF later this year on the Nasdaq...our investors will love the new name..."Corner of Bum Fuc...!" Blockchain will change things, but the outcome for cryptocurrency buyers...1999 all over again! Cheers!

Happy New Year all! Cheers!

Merry Christmas all! Thank you for your contributions and friendship...wishing you all a wonderful 2018 as well! Cheers! “Every time a bell rings, Berkshire’s stock goes up a thousand dollars!” - a Berkshire shareholder’s Wonderful Life

No, that's not what I meant at all. I was trying to point out that PDH made up such a huge component of the fund at one point. We have no control over PDH's stock price...intrinsic value will be ultimately decided by the amount of cash that comes out of the business...that has a longer time frame than the more traditional public-company or fixed-income assets in the fund. When we invest in the fund, the ideas we put capital into are undervalued by the market and take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years to get back closer to intrinsic value as the market revalues. The businesses within PDH may take years as they scale up before they are reflected in PDH's intrinsic value. Cheers!

Depends on the time frame you examine...if you measured at the beginning of the bull market we were destroying the index. If you measured half way through this bull market, we were beating it by close to 6% annually. If you measure in totality after one of the longer bull markets in history, we are modestly ahead. We haven't gotten any dumber, and the non-PDH and non-cash portion has averaged something like 70% over the last two years...chances are with PDH making up a smaller percentage of the fund now, we are going to outperform dramatically again in the next decade. But for all intents and purposes you are correct! It is worth noting that our 11 year results were done with an average of nearly 35% cash in the fund over those 11 years. When the S&P500 drops again by 20-30%, our clients will sleep well at night knowing we are taking advantage of circumstances...and they didn't pay us a cent in those down years. For our clients in IRA's...they are doing better than the index with all of the benefits of their non-IRA partners...and that small 2% advantage will be greatly to their benefit after 20-30 years. Cheers!

+1! Especially since no hockey is scheduled. Cheers!