Liberty

Part 4 http://www.cnbc.com/id/41873444/

Thanks for posting this.

But would they announce it? If Berkshire is their buyer of choice, wouldn't they go directly to Buffett (especially now that everybody knows he has the pile of cash)?

Any of those sounds likely to you?

WRB increasing share buybacks: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/48323/W.R.+Berkley+Ramps+Buyback+

Some speculation in the WSJ on the next elephant: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704615504576172722252292438.html Potential targets from the article:

Bill talked about it - and other energy challenges - in this TED talk:

2010 annual report is out: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104364&p=irol-reportsAnnual Update: I thought this was a good observation:

Thanks for the feedback. What I'm really trying to get my hands on is Andrew Kilpatrick's Permanent Value 2010, but amazon is out. Is it a sign that the 2011 edition is coming soon? Does he release one every year in April? I emailed him, but never heard back.

Could you elaborate on why you think so? Just curious.

Unless I'm mistaken, BRK actually made even more than 37% because of the inherent leverage of its float. (let me know if I'm missing something here)

How would you rate that book? Worth reading? Well written? Good story? The man's life definitely seems interesting, but that doesn't mean that a book about it will be, so I'd love your feedback (and if anyone else has read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts)...

Thanks for posting, Onyx. I hope he's right, but not too soon. I want quality insurers to stay cheap for a while longer so I can load up ;D

Just curious. Who's the #1 capital allocator in your opinion?

I haven't followed Bilgari as closely as some here, but to me it looks like he thinks that what made Buffett so great is *what* he did rather than *why* he did it. He won't get there just by getting the right look and mechanics... He would also need the brilliance, patience, and integrity.

I'm very happy for Buffett! He deserves it.

I'd like to see the Munich Re deal happen. Buffett can no doubt invest the float much better than they can (even taking into consideration that there are few elephants), so that would probably give them a better ROE than they have now. I'd also like to see Mars/Wrigley deal happen, but I don't know much about the owners of that business.. Anyone here has some backstory on why this isn't likely?

Thank you for posting this!

Congrats to the people of Egypt. Peaceful revolutions don't happen every day.

There's some interesting stuff in this presentation that Bill gave recently: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/BER/1102439904x6155673x425342/35d81438-9559-406c-988b-2a1d6ad4ba9c/Merrill%20Lynch%20Lunch%2012-2-2010.pdf Interesting slide about the market cycle in the P-C business.

The MKL conf call begins in 10 minutes (10:30 ET): http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104364&p=irol-irhome

I wish it was too, but I still feel it's going to be a pretty big improvement over a computer screen, and worth it because of all the other functionalities. But if someday I don't have access to a good public library anymore, I'll buy an e-ink reader like the Kindle and do more of my reading there.

That would be correct if I bought the iPad just for this. I would be buying one anyway for a variety of other uses (web, music, apps, ebooks, games, photos, etc), and I'll just be adding PDF-reading to that list of uses. In the meantime, I read PDFs mostly on a screen.

Markel Reports 2010 Financial Results http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104364&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1523502&highlight=

I'm waiting for Apple to update the iPad (hopefully with a higher-rez screen), and then I'll buy one and read the PDFs on it. I don't like to print too many things, it feels wasteful.