Partner24

But I hate automatically getting screwed on the exchange rate. They do make far more $ with me with their exchange rate conversion hidden fee than with their trading fee. It's like the seller who would say: our cars are cheap...but you will have to tank with us solely. I don't have the exchange rate negociating power that FFH have and I wonder what is the value added for FFH to give us dividends in US $. By the way, do most of the shares are held by canadian shareholders or US shareholders? I would guess canadians, but I don't know for sure.

"Great line Partner" Thank you, but I don't deserve the credit for it. I've heard it at the FFH 2007 AGM. Prem was making jokes about the three letters different meanings of FFH and said about this particular one something like "We are not there yet, but...".

My top pick for the new year: Found Financial Heaven ;)

"Partner, If it is easy as you suggest to identify beforehand which of the Phoenix type of investments that Prem has made will work out perhaps you could identify today amongst the various fallen angels that FFH has exposure to will work out and why". Well, there is the "home run or 3 strikes/out" situations, there is the base hits and some grayer stuff between the two. I think it's reasonable to say that The Brick is a fixable situation and, based on what I've heard about him, the actual surgeon is a skilled one. I'm not 100% sure that it will work out, but I'm more confortable with that than some others who have poor balance sheet and strong and secular headwins. If you're looking at the safer base hits, Johnson and Johnson and Kraft Foods are among them. Maybe they will not work out, but frankly it's more difficult to me to conceptually "kill" them over the short and mid terms than some others. That all being said, Prem and team batting average is terrific and they mostly invest in pretty different kind of situations that I'm usually confortable with. These situations are mostly within their own circle of competence, not mine. A good tool to figure that out is to ask yourself if you can find a way to conceptually "kill" the business and if you think it would be easy or not. How can you kill Berkshire, Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola, etc.? Would that be easy? Nothing is impossible, but...

"Ex-ante, you really don't know which outcome you will get" Stubble, while I respect and appreciate your opinion, I disagree with it. There is a huge difference with a localized cancer operated with a skilled surgeon and a generalized cancer operated by a plumber. Abitibi was a "generalized cancer" situation and it doesn't take a 200 IQ to understand that. Canwest were a grayer situation, but still a generalized cancer with tons of debt on top of that. There is the Berkshire, Johnson and Johnson, Wells Fargo, Walmart, etc." of this world, an there is the "Abitibi, TIG, Canwest, etc." of this world. And...there is the other ones between the two "categories". Some have times on their friends, some have time as their enemies. Cheers!

It's very tough to get any firm insight on these supposed facts until they are verified and proved. A lawyer for Jiang didn't return several phone calls. Tong's lawyer, Parisis Filippatos, said his client could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the prosecutors' office in Brooklyn declined to comment. It's not clear why the investigation in Brooklyn ended without any action being taken. Nor is it clear what precipitated the inquiry. A related investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into Tong's sexual harassment allegation was closed in April 2008 with the agency taking no action against the hedge fund or Tong's former boss. I do not want to defend SAC by any way. By the way, I'm not a particular fan of cryogenically dead sharks... http://longorshortcapital.com/efficiency-in-wasting-money.htm Recommendation: We see a long term rise in top-tier spenders’ ability to fritter away stupefying amounts of money. Go long cyrogenically-frozen elephants, a likely next target for money-wasting.

Terrific indeed. Thank you Sanjeev for posting it. Cheers!

In my opinion, FFH is a perfect fit for the Davis family investment style. Regarding AIG, as far as I know, it's been a Davis family holding since decades ago.

"shorts can suck it" I have nothing to add, except for that I wonder if we would not get the quarterly holdings anymore...

"Jack is gone but he is a shareholder, trust Barrette and gives him his voting rights" Yes, I know. But that being said, even if he trust him and that's ok to do that, Barrette is not Jack. But that being said, even when Jack was there, I was preferring MKL and FFH anyway. Cheers!

Yes, but since Jack is gone, I like it less. Prefer FFH and MKL. Cheers!

Stephen, Thank you for sharing your inspiration. Partner

I've followed Alleghany over the years, but never bought some shares because I preferred other holding companies. I didn't like their MBS investments and called the IR department about that. The guy took time to speak with me and I did get some answers, but was not satisfied by them, so I preferred to stay with FFH and others only. Cheers!

Even this board has selective hearing. Oreilles de c..! Hi Omagh, and wich stock was that? Thanks.

"The price quote means far less to me than the specifics of the Q3 report..." So, you're looking at what's happening on the basebal field instead of the scoreboard that his managed by a drunk and depressive fellow ;-) I'm on your side Steve! Cheers!

Let me guess just for fun: - Fairfax is an insurance company - Insurance is boring, unless something really bad happens (AIG, hurricanes, etc.) But anyway, the weighing machine will do it's job over time...just too busy with more popular stocks actually ;-)

So we have got all of that – those options available to us and I just wanted to continue to add to you like we say at all our conference calls and meetings, is that number one priority, Jeff, is to keep our financial condition really strong. So we won’t do any of those things at the expense of our financial condition. ...and that's terrific. Cheers!

As usual, that's a good interview.

After reviewing the quarterly results and looking what Fairfax has accomplished over the last few years, here's what a blue-collar worker had to say: "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!" Fred Flintstone

"And with fund manager fees, you're looking at more than 40% to beat it... unless you are the fund manager" Ericopoly, ahahaha ;D I will not double check your math, but anyway I trust you. So, is there anybody who want to put some chips on the 5 or 10 years poker table to beat that? Not me. If you want to play that game, I'm in the FFH side of the table ahahah ;) Cheers!

Unless we think the reserves are too low (and the the book value is overvaluated actually), I think Fairfax is cheap and 10 years from now, their owners should be happy. Can they compound book value per 12-15% over the next 10 years? How about: - a huge investment portfolio - managed by overall some of the better investors that I've ever seen - with insurance operations side under control - some underwriting gains with a hard cycle that's reasonable to think that will happen over the next 5 years (just ice on cake, you can ignore it if you want). So, it's a price to book of 1,5 would be a fair deal between the seller and the buyer? I'm in the "yes" camp. Will that happen over the next 10 years? I would be very surprised if it will not happen at some point. Is it cheap and attractive enough? Yes. So I've been buying lately. It it insanely cheap? No. We've been buying all the remaining shares of a private business lately. We didn't have any daily quote, volatility and anything like that. The fact that it's a private business 100% owned or a 0,00001% position in a public company doesn't change the most basic facts to me. I can handle a lot of volatility and anxiety if the deal make sense. What matter is the intrinsic value of the business. I've also been buying a home lately (after 5 years of waiting to get a good home at a decent price). The seller was in a hurry to sell so I did get a fair price. When you only have few days to make the deal on a home, not unlike volatility in the stock market, some people get too much anxious and let some deals go. I can handle some temporary anxiety and keep my head very cold if a deal make sense. FFH deal make sense. Like I said before I've been buying lately and would be happy to buy more at these prices (but will have to sell some since I'm funding 20% of the home). I know far too much that the few FFH shares that I will sell will be a good deal for the buyer (not me), but you know your children rather prefer to live in a good home than to have a stock certificate on the wall of their appartment bedroom. My 4 years old son took a look at the pool and raised his thumb with a smile. Cheers!

2008: breakeven The main reason: FFH

Thanks shalab for the review of your visit. Cheers!

As I remember it, there is three main subjects in this book: - The Davis family values and history, with a focus on Shelby C. Davis life and his relationship with his family members. - The markets (bonds, stocks, etc.) historical data and general investors humor over several decades in his long lifetime (and several people, included medias in general, who predicted some stuff were dead wrong in retrospect) - The investment style of Shelby C. Davis That being said, I've red it few years ago, so maybe I'm missing some important topics here. Cheers!

members of the original investor group that formed Symetra by acquiring a group of life insurance and investment companies from Safeco Corp. in August 2004 may participate in this offering as selling stockholders. Well, suffice it to say that I will let you guess on wich side of the transaction table I prefer to be (on the Berkshire side or the opposite side). Cheers!