Parsad

You know, my roommate weren't that taken back by Steak N Shake either. It's actually something we often wonder about -- especially me since I'm invested in the company. Like you, we both prefer Whataburger. I'm happy to hear that prices have come down though, that was the biggest issue we had with them. The one thing I learned is that my preferences have very little to do with whether something will make a good business or not. McDonalds does not make very good food, but it is consistent, their restaurants are clean, the prices are cheap and their execution is impeccable. If I think about many of the things that I enjoy, they are often poor businesses. Many things that I think have superior quality to their competitors often trail simply because of management's vision and capabilities...think Krispy Kreme donuts here! You don't have to like Steak'n Shake's food for it to be a great business. I think Dairy Queen's food is quite inferior to many other fast food restaurants, yet they do perfectly well. If you can somehow combine quality and execution, then you really have something special...See's or Chik-Fil-A come to mind. With Steak'n Shake, Sardar has the history and the commodity. He can tweak it, improve it, and vary it, but it will all come down to execution and value for the money. Over time, the food quality will get slightly better, but his execution should continue to improve markedly through the years...and that's where the real money is. Cheers!

Excellent notes and comments by TMFCanuck once again! Cheers!

Interesting little article on Beryl Raff who is the new CEO of Helzberg Diamonds. Cheers! http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/chall/stories/DN-hall_06bus.ART.State.Edition1.3ab16c8.html

I will second the market action comment about financials today. BAC needs to raise $35B, WFC needs to raise $15B and they both are off to the races.... what??? I might be jaded since I was fighting with folks in a lot of places at $20, $15, and $10 about why Wells was a great choice, and now it seems that no one is fighting it anymore. Well, we thought Well's was a complete no-brainer at around $10 or less, and I let you guys know that at the time. So in all fairness, since yesterday morning we own no Wells Fargo in any of our funds or corporate accounts...options have all been sold as well. Had no idea about the $15B stress test shortfall till this morning, but we think Well's will do fine long-term. Just that we have exposure to other financials which remain undervalued and Well's has gotten significantly more expensive relative to them. The cash hoard is growing nicely in every account till the next big idea! Cheers!

Yeah, it seems to be working that way, so I'm going to turn the feature off. I want only something that would recommend a single post. They have regular update packages, so over time someone will probably add that function at which point I will update the software and incorporate it. Cheers!

So the feature is activated. On the left hand side of user posts, it will say "applaud" or "smite". I'm not sure exactly what it will look like until people have started recommending. If you don't see it, check your settings on your personal profile to activate "karma". Cheers!

Votes have been tallied, and it looks like people want some sort of recommendation system. I will activate the "karma" feature that the board has. Then I'll do a vote a month from now and see if people want it to stay or not. Cheers!

Ok Miguel, The votes have been tallied, and I'm sorry to say that it looks like more people would prefer that those Nightly Value Investing links not be posted here. Cheers!

In an article today, SEC Chief Mary Schapiro says that they are determined to creat new short-selling legislation. There are arguments being made on both sides regarding the need for or relegation of short-selling. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/SEC-chief-says-new-apf-15135872.html?sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode= This is now driving me absolutely crazy. Six years after the original attack on Fairfax and all this publicity on short-selling, and the government is thinking about all sorts of rules for short-selling which will do nothing regarding the real problem...naked short-selling. I don't want to see the government enact certain rules they are thinking about instituting, such as banning all short-selling in an issuer if the price falls 10% in a day. There are some companies where the price will deserve to fall, and perhaps all the way to zero because of fraud, bankruptcy, etc. What they need to do is enact some sort of requirement so that fail to delivers are eliminated. Or at least the lag between the short sale and delivery of certificates is minimized as much as possible. Be it through penalties against the broker dealers or legislated into law. Cheers!

Sorry Barry! I've got so many online nicknames and their respective names in my head. Cheers!

Mandeep, I think Munger speaks a little slowly partly because his words are very, very carefully measured. Listen to anything he has to say...he's actually been more accurate than Buffett since I've listened to both over the years. If he had gone out on his own instead of hiding away at Berkshire, I think more people would have recognized him as one of the greatest intellects of the 20th, and now 21st century. Cheers!

Thanks very much for the additional comments Jim! I really liked the format of the questions asked this year. Much improved from the last few years. Cheers!

Hi Scott, Welcome to the board. Just a note of caution, as a new investor, if you run into any blunt comments by our boardmembers, take them in stride. They are ardent students of Benjamin Graham and don't take kindly to modern portfolio theory (MPT)... so please forgive their trespasses! ;D In terms of beta, that is a metric that has little value for those outside of MPT. Seth Klarman did a terrific webcast for the Richard Ivey School of Business, and that link is in the General Discussions section. Seth lays it out in plain terms how he feels about beta...which is commonly used as a yardstick for volatility and risk. For example, the markets have been extremely volatile over the last year, yet has risk actually increased or decreased? The answer is that MPT would argue using beta that risk is high, yet the values of businesses relative to their intrinsic value have plummeted...risk in the markets has significantly decreased in actuality. So looking for a chart or graph for Fairfax's beta won't do you much good long-term. Cheers!

Wow, this one is dead even. I'll let it run a while and then we'll see. Cheers!

I received a request to add a "recommendation" feature. The board has one that isn't activated, but it operates more in line with how the Yahoo recommendation feature works. If you like a post then you click it, and if you dislike it you can click it and it subtracts from the recommendations. This poll just checks to see if there is demand for the feature. Cheers!

Hi Miguel, I'll leave it up to the board to decide what they prefer. Personally, I don't mind. If you were saying, "Hey, why don't you come over to this board" or "Here is an alternative board...", I might be a little offended. If you are taking the time to actually post the links here as a service then that doesn't really bother me. If members can get more quality information, then that's great. I'll put a poll up and let the members vote. Cheers!

Wow- "if Buffett could have invested his whole net worth, it would have been in Wells Fargo when they ticked below at 9.00/share" Hey, I got that one dead on! Now if he only said the same thing about GE under $9 per share! ;D Cheers!

Another Indianapolis Business Journal article on Steak'n Shake and their move to more standalone restaurants. They also quote Jeff in this article. Cheers! http://www.ibj.com/html/detail_page.asp?content=36801

That comment of Munger's on credit derivatives is just about the most perfect sound bite you will ever hear! Cheers!

Fairfax bought $65M of a $125M debenture offering by Mullen. Cheers! http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2009/01/c7501.html

Susie Gharib interviewed Munger: http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/gharib/charlie_munger_of_berkshire_hathaway_090501/ Cheers!

I think that's primarily because Prem qualified the quarter with the improvements in the 2nd quarter. Otherwise you know that the papers would have come out with those headlines...since they usually don't read past the first three sentences of any press release! ;D Cheers!

For anyone not going, Morningstar will have a live blog of the AGM: http://discuss.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/blogs/berkshire/default.aspx Last year a couple of other news sources also had live blogs going. If you know of any others, please add a link on this thread. I will be up in the morning following them. Cheers!

From Atlantic.com: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice Cheers!

One of the biggest issues that Fairfax faced during the tough years was to stick to their guns on disclosure, or let the media and hedge funds run amok and create panic around the business. Prem's comments are simply part of their attempt to provide enough information, so that shareholders have the correct information around material events. With mark-to-market accounting, significant changes in equity are occurring quarter to quarter with the amount of volatility the markets are experiencing. Thus, they need to provide enough information so that investors are informed, but not so much where they start to create earnings guidance. It's a very tough balancing act, and they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. The earnings conference calls were something they never did as well, but if that's what they have to do to make sure the correct information is transmitted to shareholders, then that is what they have to do. It's kind of silly for investors to even discuss this issue if they saw what happened in 2003. Any extra information provided regarding the 2nd quarter is disclosed publically, and it won't change what happens one way or another. Cheers!