Liberty

Buffett's position has always been, afaik, that while alive he could compound wealth and so have more to give away later. That ends up helping more people (it's not like he's spending it on caviar and hookers in the meantime). For example, if he had given away a billion dollar 20 years ago, that might be a 100 fewer billions (numbers plucked out of thin air) that he gives out in the end, so the opportunity cost is high. Before calling him selfish, I suggest you look at how much you are giving to charity.

I can confirm that he did, I just watched that part.

They run into issue Jan / Feb, probably extended to March... Glad that they have some cash to burn. Yeah, this could be a delayed reaction to the earlier problem. If they had to shut down for a bit, inventory probably piled up and now they're reducing how much they buy until they've had a chance to burn through it. Just a guess, though.

Do all people or Irish descent look the same to you? ;)

Thanks, I was waiting for it to be published online.

More details here: http://www.savoryinstitute.com/

http://www.alderonironore.com/_resources/news/ADVNR20130322.pdf Alderon Acknowledges the Assistance of the Federal Government

Warning: Not financial/investing related. Great talk about desertification and how to heal the land.

Off-topic: Am I the only one that, even after all these years, read SHLD as "shield" every time I see the ticker?

Thanks!

Mr. Market can be so weird at times. Both ADV and ALS are more or less back to where they were before the announcement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/business/economy/in-us-surprise-housing-demand-catches-industry-off-guard.html

Got this in the mail today. Guess I'll find out for myself if it's good or not. :P Will report here when I'm done.

http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/03/aig-ceo-benmosche-on-his-cancer-and-greenbergs-lawsuit-preview/ AIG CEO, Benmosche on His Cancer and Greenberg’s Lawsuit

It could become a factor over time, though I think there must be a pretty high opportunity cost in switching from one to the other; the cost of the switch itself, the risk that something goes wrong during the conversion work, and the production time lost during the swing. Is anyone here more familiar with these swing producers? Have they switched from one to the other often historically?

Sales numbers looking pretty ugly, and over time it should start showing up in prices (they are very sticky on the way down, so sales will go down before prices): http://www.greaterfool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SALES-PLUNGE.jpg

BRK has 14% of all Wind energy in the US; Don't know the % of Solar but it is also large. BRK is the front runner and about to break away from the crowd. $100B into S&W over the next decade. If the costs keep coming down, it will be like "just sit there and make money" One of the paradigm shifts that's coming with Wind and Solar is how we think of energy production/transmission/consumption. With solar and wind the day of local production/consumption is coming. No more transmission (atleast over great distances)! Ideally we'll combine wind & solar with (relatively) cheap grid-scale liquid-metal batteries like these where large hydro isn't available to act as a way to store power:

http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.ca/2013/03/markel-2012-annual-report.html

Work on potential acquisitions going down maybe?

Welcome to the board, Dartmonkey. I think the market used to be over-optimistic about FTP, and now it's probably over-pessimistic. All good news will probably be discounted until there's a change in Mr. Market's psychology, which will probably happen after a few quarters of solid operations.

Yeah, I've had the same experience. Seems like they didn't expect the growth spike. I'll wait a bit and then try them again, because apparently they are supposed to be quite fast.

NewsBlur seems like a good alternative for power-users.

Not quite. Eric also posted his cumulative returns. They were 28,000%+.

If they're going to do buybacks, I'd rather it be at low prices than high prices. They can always do a bigger dividend later, but for now, buybacks seem like a better use of capital IMO, and if the absence of a higher dividend allows them to buy cheaper, I think it's a good thing. And if in the meantime they keep piling up capital on the balance sheet, it just means a bigger dividend and buyback next year, and a more solid balance sheet in the meantime, so it's not lost.

I was actually thinking about exactly the same thing earlier today (though you've put it very well). But I do wish cotton would raise to a level that brought DP to around 1200. No need for crazy prices like we had a couple years ago, as that would just lead to oversupply and another crash, but something a bit higher, around the level at which high-cost DP producers start to break-even, sounds like it could be fairly stable and provide nice margins for FTP. Your point about timing is good, though, and I wouldn't mind softer prices in the short term if that helps on that side.