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"Jockey" stocks: 100%.

Very interesting. Thanks Sanjeev!

Very good points Dazel. To me, the main pros are BRK munis, increased allocation to equities overall, disciplined underwriting. The main con is the canadians "cigar butt" investments. The price depreciation of some of them reflect what's happening in the business and it is not only the result of a short term voting machine.

I remember a South Park movie song "Blame Canada". When I red the text of the article and remembered some insurance executives comments made over the last few months, I changed the word "Canada" for "AIG". Here is the original song (sensible ears beware, it's typical South Park stuff): http://www.metacafe.com/watch/428397/south_park_blame_canada/ So let's start a "Investors against AIG" group and blame AIG! ;) Jokes appart, AIG might, like some said, be one of the reasons why you see a substained soft market. Cheers!

There is also a good alternative to buy ORH...it is to not buy it. Balance sheet comes first. We already bought back NB recently and we have a decent margin of safety with our holdco cash to weather some storms if they were to occur. That is a huge asset to have. And, as a FFH shareholder only, to issue FFH shares to buy back ORH is not the kind of deal that would be the best use of our capital IMO. We would issue shares of a very diversified insurance business, both geographicaly and by insurance products, at a huge discount. Yes, we could get the remaining of ORH in return, but the ORH discount does not seems to be wider than FFH, so I don't see the added value here.

Very interesting. Thanks. Here is some other quotes found in the article and the "comments" section. The graveyard is full of irreplaceable people (producers, underwriters, consultants, etc.) Insurance is a business, not a charity. Past history is not always a good measure of what is to come Deal only with clients that are ethical, it will save you a lot of grief and the others are not worth the time. The client is always right, at least as long as they are a client, but know when to cut the cord!! Top Line for vanity bottom line for sanity (note: underlining is mine) "Paper Free in [insert year ending in 3 here]" One for the newbies: Underwriting is a trade where ignorance is actually a short-term asset. I've never seen 3rd-party 'consultant' recommendations make a company better. EVER. When you are absolutely certain; read the form.

This sad story, if true, underline two important things: - Try to live under your means - Be truly financialy independant and sound is far more important than to look wealthy

Oh, thank you so much Sanjeev for the link! I've spoke in the past of some people at Overstock, because our business also does a very significant part of our net revenues online. Overstock is a strong source of inspiration for me. I have a very high level of admiration for Patrick Byrne, now and few years ago when nearly everybody were telling that he was paranoid. When he was critized the most, I've said that he was my "CEO of the year". Frankly, those of have been here since a few years will know that I have respect for FFH and MKL managers, but I have to say that Patrick Byrne is even more to me then them. Not only he started an online business from stratch that now enjoy a very strong online brand recognition and a very high level of customer satisfaction, but he didn't let some hedge fund jerks playing with Overstock for a very long time. If he keep to win some small battles like he does, the benefits over the long term of his actions for our capitalist society might be tremendous! I am so grateful for having herd about these naked short selling stories, shorts attacks and The Fairfax Project. Maybe we would be a target for these jerks if I hadn't herd of that before. No one know the future, but suffice to say that we're still a private company. Cheers!

Thanks Sanjeev for posting this! If these Deep Capture statements are true and it's very reasonable to conclude that several people died because of that, I hope from the bottom of my hearth that these jerks will get a very strong class action suit. Cheers!

You don't build a great capitalist economy by always trying to "kill" companies by shorting them and spreading very negative and false point of views about them and their managers. Actually to call this repeated process as the "vulture" of our society would be an insult to vultures...at least they have the decency to wait for the corpses to be dead before having their free lunch.

In January, Moody's said, the museum's board voted for a more diversified approach guided by an investment advisor, and began a gradual selloff of Berkshire Hathaway, with the goal of Buffet's company making up half its portfolio instead of more than 90%. The rest will be invested in stock and bond funds. I haven't red the article, but if they decided to go from more than 90% of their portfolio in BRK to approximately 50%, it makes sense to me and I would have approved that as board member. But it doesn't mean that I would approve necessarely where they will invest the proceeds (funds....hum hum...wich ones!?). I understand that one shouldn't cut the flowers, watering the weeds, but that being said, 90% in a single stock, no matter how great the business, the management and the price is, is a very very high degree of portfolio concentration. Yes, Berkshire is diversified by itself, but 90%... That being said, if one would want to stick with that "90% in one single stock" policy, Berkshire would be a first class choice. Just my opinion. Cheers!

Guys, I think we can agree on two things: - unlike FFH and BRK, most of the active members do not agree in a significant way on the qualities and desirability of behavior of the current SNS management. - all of us had the time to express their opinion on the subject Can we go to the next subject please? :) Cheers!

link, maybe, maybe not, it's just a confluence of unfortunate events. Maybe the truth is in your perception, maybe it's the one that I've written above, and maybe...it's something between the two! With Prem, Warren, Charlie and some others, I set the bar quite high regarding corporate governance and compensation. In today's world, it's getting harder and harder to "compete" with them regarding corporate governance and compensation. In other words, they have that wide moat surrounding themselves that's getting larger and larger with corporate america as a whole. Idealy, they should be the norm in the corporate governance world, the kind of people that other CEO's would envy and compare themselves to, but unfortunately I guess they are in the top 10%, if not 1%, of their peers and CEO's often envy and compare themselves with the highest paid ones in their respective industry. If anyone wants to get in that ring, good luck to compete with them! Cheers!

A short question here: If Biglari is so much against this wage increase proposed by the board, could he have first issued a short press release statement basicaly saying that he will refuse it? I mean not now, but right after the announcement by the board. Because at this point, it looks like: "I'll first get the salary increase BEFORE proving that SNS is making dust again because of me AND at the expense of hard working employees and shareholders".

Brian or not, is pretty obvious for most of us that FFH is cheap and attractive (except for maybe the persons who sell ;) ). We have talented people here who follow the FFH investment portfolio and book value . For sure, it's not 100% accurate stuff because they do some estimates based on last data available, but anyway we get the big picture and, between the quarterly updates, that's enough to me to make my own conclusion with a high enough level of confidence. My family want to thanks Mr. Market for these interesting opportunities. We keep buying shares to hold them for the long run and we're happy with the actual offers. ;D Cheers!

Well, I believe in some sense of forgiveness, but like my mother usually say "Help yourself first and then Lord might help you". So, like you said Crip, a good way to start might be to tell some stuff that authorities don't know yet and help them stop the fraud bleeding of some of his "friends". At least, it would be some steps in the right direction.

I agree with al. Fairfax is actually quite cheap to me. I wonder who is selling at these prices and why. Remember, this board believe, on it's mean vote, that it will generate a total return on a CAGR basis of approximately 17% over the next 10 years. It would be a nice reward to just sit on your rear end and wait patiently. Time will tell (the vote was closed on June 10 2009, we'll see what will be the real return will be on June 10 2019).

a few posters have commented that comparisons to buffett are unfair, that every one is unique. true. that goes without saying. but frankly i think anyone who is compared to buffett as opposed to virtually any one else, whether it be jack welch, or (gasp!) ken lewis or carl icahn, should consider it an honor no matter how much they are bound to suffer by comparison. when people STOP comparing you to the best, that's when you know you've fallen from grace. Cumming and Steinberg, Steven Markel and team, Prem Watsa and team, Brian Joffe and team...yes, you can compare them even if there is significant differences between all of them. But put Biglari in this "Hall of Fame" list? It's Very, very, very too soon to do that!!! And if they still want to do this questionable exercice, then they will have to compare him and his salary and a 100 K and 600K kind of salaries, with decades of tremendous track records of wealth creation for their shareholders, fiduciary duty, integrity, frugality and loyalty.

Smazz, maybe in some way, but take it another way the "real" Michael Jackson like you call him may still live for decades to come. Cheers!

No, Biglari is not Warren, nor Prem Watsa nor Steven Markel. Biglari is Biglari. It's important for people to make a clear difference in all of them. It's not because you write intelligent and well written letters like Warren that you necessarely have his talent, his fiduciary aptitude and his ethic. Everybody is unique and when you think otherwise there is someone who is overrated and the other one is underrated for each trait of their respective personality and aptitude. That being said, even if everyone is unique, you can compare them if you want to. You can look at the track record of all of them, their respective compensation and make your own conclusion about all of them. Cheers!

RIP Michael Jackson

And oh, I know that they are not really around anymore, but that's just another nail in the coffin of the short's thesis against Fairfax. Hello guys, do you hear us? :P

Gosh, I tought I would be the first to post it ;) Another bad chapter is over! By the way, regarding this SEC conclusion, talk about not being too soon...

Ahaha nice chart Omagh! :D Human psychology and investing in the stock market 101. Cheers!

Whats going on with the stock? This is starting to get ridiculous cheap. Well, I don't know why it's going down, but anyway my brain, my will and my wallet clearly know what to do ;-)