Liberty

Sorry, BG referred to the Validea Benjamin Graham screen that Harry used as an example. :) Thanks! I'm usually pretty good at keeping track of acronyms, but sometimes there's one that could mean a few things and I can't quite figure it out :)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investor-education/investopedia/why-warren-buffett-might-not-be-buying-stocks/article1961208/

What is this "BG screen" you talk about?

I just want to thank everybody who has voted in the poll and shared their approach. It's very interesting. Obviously this board seems to have a pretty strong bias for relatively concentrated portfolios. Close to 60% of the people who voted have between 1 and 10 businesses in their portfolio.

Yes, thanks for posting. Curious to know: What is your current estimate of IV?

You can get it here: http://fairfax.ca/Assets/Downloads/AR2010.pdf

Indeed, but maybe it just means he's pretty busy running operations at a few businesses so he doesn't have time to sit and read annual reports all day like Buffett. What matters most is his judgement once a short-list has been established, and maybe if he were to become CEO, he'd have more time for research and dealmaking..? Just my guess.

Very interesting. thanks for posting! update: found this on the WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704517404576223383008589922.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

I'm just curious to see how many here follow Buffett/Munger and how many are more like Peter Lynch (sorry if a poll like this has been done recently, but I couldn't find any). If you want to give us more details, I'd also be curious to hear what your philosophy is on diversification, and how many businesses you own stock in. If you also invest in indexes, bonds, etc, please mention those separately. For example, personally I own shares of 6 different businesses and some cash. A few of those are pretty diversified, though (like Berkshire...). thanks!

Nothing new, but this one is very important, IMO.

I had seen the original version a while ago, but I just re-watched it again. Good documentary, though there's not much in it that isn't in the biographies. But it's always nice to see Warren and Charlie!

Very good observation, lealane. Welcome to the board!

What's the Canadian equivalent to See's Candies? ;) But seriously, I don't know, but as long they allocate money to the best place, I don't care that much if it's insurance, stocks, bonds, arbitrage, or whole businesses. All I know is that having the ability to invest anywhere should in theory lead to higher returns than being limited to only one industry. Let's hope it works out that way in practice...

I wonder if the instability in the region created a buying opportunity, or if this deal has been in the work for many months and it has nothing to do with it..

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104364&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1541682&highlight=

Videos of Warren in South Korea, talks about the GS preferred at the end of the first vid. http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=126647 Update: This is the extended version of the Goldman discussion: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=3000011835&play=1

EBIX seems pretty interesting, Harry. I'll put some time aside to read all their annual reports and conf. call transcrips...

Some choice excerpts:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/03/16/the-canada-bubble/ A topic that interests me a lot as a Canadian who is paid in US dollar and who decided to keep renting rather than buy a house. I try not to make specific macro predictions, but I certainly try to position myself in a way that I can benefit if things go down and that I'll still be okay if things keep going up for a long time. One of the things I potentially see on the horizon is a crisis in China causes by their misallocation of capital (lots of activity, but not always much profit) which could impact Canada a lot. If not that, the eventual rise in interest rates could pop the bubble.. Curious to know what people here think about Canada's economic prospects.

Indeed! This post by Geoff Gannon explains just how good it was: http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=120419

Yeah, that's what I was asking myself; will Buffett keep the GS stock for the long-term or dump it? I'd guess dump, if only because he learned from Soloman that these types of banks are great for bankers, but not so great for shareholders. At least Wells Fargo, US Bancorp, and American Express are going to increase their dividends, so it's not just bad news...

Andy and I exchanged a few emails and he clarified things for me: The 2011 edition is mostly the same as the 2010 edition, with some additions. It has a smaller number of pages because the format is different and pages have 2 columns, but it still contains the whole biography. So I'll just pre-order the 2011. Sorry about the confusion everybody!

That's awesome Marlinls, thank you very much! I'll email Andy right now.

I did ask him, and he eventually said he could sell one to me, so I said that I'd like that, but that was weeks ago and I still haven't heard back so I'm starting to despair a bit that this will happen and am trying to find alternative ways to get my hands on it...

How much do you know about management? What kind of compensation? Are their underwriters rewarded over long cycles? Does mgmt own a large fraction of the business? Good track record of integrity?