Jurgis

Not bad Mephisto. 8) I'll go cynical: if there is a chance of collapse in the future, the best thing now would be to put this into private hands, so next time it collapses shareholders and bondholders can be "conserved" again. However, all these potentialities might assume more smarts and coordination than might be available in Washington. I continue to look at this as a option with pretty unknown chances, high potential payout and zero value otherwise. The price is the only thing that I look at. Things were much more attractive below $1. Right now the price is somewhat attractive, but not very much. If prefs run up to $20 on $50 as they were before recent collapse, that would be not attractive at all. :)

Yes, but is Mr. Big grown up enough to do it? ;)

Great move by GAMCO.

Right. Although I don't care much, I'd be happy to sign or vote for no divvie.

You're talking about the Citi Doublecash card. You get 1% cash back when you purchase and 1% when you pay your balance. The Citicard is a good card since the Amex is not accepted everywhere. Off topic: any idea why Citi went with this confusing scheme rather than straight 2% off? It's not as if they get much for it: if people don't pay off, they pay high rate, so even better for them. Unless this is to avoid paying 2% back for people who get the card and get 0%-rate for first year and keep the balance for that year. That might make sense.

Yeah, but you don't expect them to keep making the same mistake year after year. This is why I think it is bad capital allocation decision as opposed to an honest one off mistake made by management. I said "other than that". Anyway, if it's so significant for you, don't invest. Or write to Prem and request that he cans the divvie.

Personally, Amex never held prestige to me. My main "non-special" card is Fidelity Amex that gives 2% back. But I'd hold any other card that gives 2% back if it was available. And it would be simpler to me if it was Visa or MC. (Yes, I think there is Citi something which does 2% back in two stages... it seemed confusing to me :)). I have a bunch of other "special offer"/"special situation" cards (Amazon, TJX, 5% categories, airline, no foreign fees). None of them are Amex. There might be a segment of population for whom Amex means prestige. Not for me.

+1. I'm continuously surprised how biased this board is towards FFH despite the moves of the past few years. Which moves? Personally, I agree that they should not pay dividend. Other than that, of course they make mistakes. Buffett makes mistakes too. Everybody does. Is there a perfect company that doesn't? Tell me the ticker and I'll buy it immediately. ;D

"When my grandfather died, they used a trust to transfer the shares to Bill Gates." The human mind at work... And the movie... (via a link in the piece above) :o For people who want more drama and entertainment: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/2004-01-29-nebraska_x.htm - more about Nielsen family feud http://dealbreaker.com/2010/04/warren-buffett-hit-with-lawsuit-by-rv-dealer/ - Buffett accused by a sub exec http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/buffett-tax-netjets/2012/03/27/id/433991/ - govt suit against NetJets

I like MA as a place and I am mostly OK with paying its taxes. I am quite pro-government and definitely pro gun control. I am not involved in politics, etc. though. Could Apple make a golden iGun? ;D

Can you snow-throw my driveway and pathways? ;D I hate it. We have a guy who does the driveway, but I still have to do the paths. Plus parts of the roof. And it still ice dams on the roof and leaks into walls and - this year - into house itself. :( I'd be completely happy with no snow (although in CA you can drive for couple hours and get to snow if you want it). I did my Ph.D. in UCSB, spent 6 years there. A paradise. Not counting RE prices and, yeah, taxes are starting to bite a bit nowadays. Not very much more than MA, but yeah. Though I should not hijack the $1M-dollar-watch thread. 8) (And forum crashed as soon as I posted :)).

Off topic: can you elaborate on the reasons? :) This winter is pushing me the other way. :) CA RE is ridiculously expensive, but X feet of snow is getting hard to handle. :(

Except that other conservative (re)insurers are still writing - FFH, MKL, BRK, RE, etc. And GLRE's combined ratio is attrocious. So IMHO they are not good in insurance. Which is a problem. The reason above companies succeed is that they are good in both insurance and investing. Just investing won't carry GLRE. Especially if Einhorn continues to underperform.

About 800+ in custom Excel spreadsheets + 1 master spreadsheet + ~4000 stocks reviewed (mostly 2 minute reviews) and discarded and noted why in same. Mostly posting for p***s envy. ;D Not sure this was useful much. :) Using the SMF addin in Excel (edited: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/smf_addin/info - login required?) to get the data from Google/Yahoo + direct MSN import for MSN price/market cap/etc.

Maybe he did say that they were expensive as was first reported. 8)

"When my grandfather died, they aliens used a trust to transfer the shares to Bill Gates." Here. Fixed that.

I agree with rb

Right. That's one of the reasons most insurance companies still trade at book or below book even after the tremendous bull market we've had last couple years.

Apple Gold Watch must cost ... 10 million dollars! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OjrbRW6e1VE/THP3sett2tI/AAAAAAAAFBw/rsQC8kBELBw/s1600/Dr_Evil.jpg

For stock competitions find a biotech that has drug announcement within the competition timeframe, select it and ... profit. Or not. 8)

They clearly perform better than cash and any non-trivial-longevity bonds. Anyway, read what Buffett said and all that. :) And I agree with rb. Just a note that Fairfax's competitive advantage against other insurance companies is their stocks and captive business portfolio. The same as BRK - though BRK has possibly better quality inflation resistant businesses and stock holdings.

I love how people keep repeating this without spending even a minute to check the facts. Apparently all the 40-80% capex drop announcements are fiction.

It's not clear if GLRE is worth investing into. Einhorn is underperforming market. GLRE is paying him 2 and 20. Combined ratio is atrocious. Their business dropped almost 40% last year. It's not clear they will find good area to write policies at acceptable prices. Of course, the bulls will say that Einhorn will outperform in the future, 2 and 20 is not much, combined ratio will improve when they find where to write policies and they will find where to write policies at acceptable prices really soon now... 8) I'm not convinced. If this did not have Einhorn's name associated with it, it would trade much much lower.

You can hate on the company all you want, but come on, this is important stuff! IBM longs win... how can anybody have an argument against the shortest beer line. This is revolutionary! Buy, buy, buy! The beer first, the stock... maybe after. 8) ;D ;D ;D

I think simple answer is that FFH will perform better than other insurance companies since they hold some percentage of stocks instead of bonds and presumably stocks work better than bonds in inflation / rising rates. But that's just simple thought. There might be other more complicated answers.