Jurgis

Is Booking.com different from Priceline.com? I've used Priceline.com in the past and never used Booking.com I'm one of the "zero CAC" ;) customers since I go directly to OTA site and don't do Google/whatever searches. But having multiple brands/websites for the same company confuse me, so... clarification would help. 8)

Their past 5 year compounding was very low. But 2017 bumped it up to ~9% (ex divs, so perhaps 10% with divs) by a sub sale and the rest of 2017 results. So I guess it's your call to decide whether to treat that as a legit contribution to 5 year book value compounding or not. And to decide if they can repeat that going forward 5 years. 8)

OT? This is normal for FB. If you want to see posts of user X or club Y, you have to go directly to that user's page/feed whatever they call it. You're almost certain to see very little of it in your own feed unless you do magic gestures to make it more prominent. Anyway, that's what I do for people/clubs/whatever that I want to read on FB. 8) I don't write/maintain FB pages, so I don't have expectations that what I write will be in followers' streams. FWIW. Have fun 8)

It's the world we live in... where clicks are all that matters. Some members here may hate pretty hard on the article, but they still clicked on it to read it. That's all good in the eyes of the author. Mission accomplished. The funny part is that likely most of the people here (who presumably do the real-value-investing-DD ) did not even bother to click another link to the real (long) article (on thenation website) and just posted their opinion based on Marketwatch summary click bait. ;D Not that I endorse thenation full article. 8)

Tough audience here. ::) Propose your own questions if you think they are better. 8) IMO both for DJCO and BRK meetings there is not much that can be asked in short question that would be very insightful. You want insightful, you buy that lunch with Buffett for $XXM. ;D And yeah, I think analyst questions at BRK meetings are usually good (best?) though CoBF crowd disagrees. BTW, that question was not about bitcoin per se. Munger just caught the bitcoin part and went with it. Just dangers of having one easily anchorable word in your question. ::) Disclosure: I was not in the meeting this year. I watched the CNBC video. I thought it was OK/par for the course. I have asked a question @ DJCO meeting in the past that likely would have been considered "poor". ;D Won't happen again likely. 8)

I thought other tech companies also self-insure on the money basis, but still contract with healthcare companies (United/Aetna/Cigna/etc.) for actual handling/benefits/accounting/etc. So that would be no different from Amazon and would have the same two points. Amazon/JPM/Berkshire project IMO is interesting only if it does more than above: does not contract with healthcare companies for service? But perhaps tech self-insure is something that comes and goes. I can't quote how many companies do this year to year.

http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/events/djco-annual-meeting-2142018/10/ Live now

Did not work on Firefox & Opera with Privacy Badger & ADP Plus Working on IE.

IMO, don't ask abstract or meta questions. Have fun. 8)

The hedge fund is doing better than PDH. Yes, PDH stake was high, but it was less than 30% of fund even before the Sequant drop. And unlike PDH, the fund had some large gains last year (OSTK?) offsetting PDH loss. So it's painful at fund, but not as painful as at PDH proper.

Carmo http://www.cafecarmo.com/ is also really great.

Great Falcon Heavy launch.

Investment ethics? "Greed is good" 8) If it's your own money, you pick whatever ethical stances you want. If it's OPM, then still probably pick whatever ethical stances you want and decide whether to tell your investors or not. SRI/ESG ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socially_responsible_investing ) might make sense for large® funds, but not sure if it's a good strategy for small funds - unless you really know your investors and they share your principles. Most ethical stances (mine too) are inconsistent and politicized, so not really worth posting here. (PM if really interested 8)). "Money corrupts" I won't point fingers, but read almost any controversial thread on CoBF and notice how "ethics" goes out of the window the moment someone has money on the line. Almost any company behavior can and will be justified once someone invests into it "cheaply enough". Especially if/when investor starts making gains. 8) I am guilty of this myself too. Have fun. 8)

Strippers declined to take cryptos for lapdances? Bitcoin conference motto: "Invest in crypto and get screwed!"

Yeah, did Cochon today. Was great! Could not make Chewbacchus. :'( I think I am little short for a Stormtrooper. 8)

Search this site. There have been at least couple of threads about this.

Forrest Gump

+1. Denial, no responsibility, blame shifting, blaming customers. New CEO too. I might buy some BRK if it gaps down enough on Monday. Not buying WFC. Do not own it either. Good luck.

Cochon is on my list. Will try to make it there. 8)

New Orleans is value investors heaven... $0.25 martinis... and then there's http://greengoddessrestaurant.com/ I just gonna buy the whole restaurant... They are so good. 8) (Yeah, I said this last time I was there. Yeah, I'd probably eat every meal there)

Did they get ahead of themselves? ;D

Great message, but then we are back to the way he's treating his car... I know, I know hamburgers and coke are God's food. Period.

Thanks for a thorough review. I had the same feeling as you did to “Guns, Germs, and Steel”. I'll put this book on my (long and hopeless) reading list.

Thanks. I'll see if I can make these. Yes.

RIP.