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Problem in China is same as in other Asian countries. Lousy return on capital. They work like dogs and save a ton but invest that money in bad businesses and other malinvestment like trains, empty airports, empty stadiums, overbuilt real estate, etc. So wealth is growing, but only due to working...

M and by extension V has always been a bit mysterious, right? Use a credit card and M is created ex nihilo. But MV=PY is an accounting identity so it's not an empirical statement.

As we rotate around the sun at cyber speed and out flesh turns to energy, velocity accelerates asympotitically until we are all point-masses of pure financial energy.

Let's see, is there a shortage of auto manufacturing capacity? That would be strange, considering that cash for clunkers destroyed a large part of the US auto stock. Houses? No, big housing glut. Ok, toasters? Just bought a toaster that cost less than a loaf of bread. No, the real shortages...

Kansas city spent billions on schools, as mandated by a judge. Made no difference. It's been tried. This is called the "red brick" theory of education, that learning takes place in buildings, therefore building larger buildings is the key to education. Education cargo cult. If you want better...

Money printing doesn't cause inflation. This is a myth. If it did, wudda already happened. MV=PY so it's not just the amount of money it's also velocity and in a world that's getting really old fast, velocity is not going to be accelerating any time soon. See Japan. Plus there are huge forces of...

Yes, I would like a cookie. http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=LPR&p=W&yr=0&mn=6&dy=0&id=p31464075561

NFLX AOL GMCR What these all have in common is an obvious but early short story.

Gap between $1.50 and $2.15. Smooth sailing and good looking chart.

Not as excited about naked kate as I might be. She suffers from peremature aging due to celeborexia. If she looks like this now, it could get very homely very fast. Have a shake and burger. Enjoy life. Take a cue from Harry adn Pippa.

p. 395, Snowball by Alice Schroeder: "He was now [1974] very, very rich but cash poor. The companies he controlled, especially Berkshire, had cash to buy stocks, however. To move some of Berkshire's money to Diversified [a retailing company owned by Buffett], Buffett set up a reinsurance...

Apparently the director is Jarecki, who's father ran a commodity fund.

This could be pulled off without any operating company at all. So the actual corporate results are not in fact relevant, although good results don't hurt.

Let's assume that Berkshire issued rights to shareholders to buy at book. AIG did this about two years ago. The effect of course is that as the stock appreciates, the rights also appreciate. One magnifies the other. If Berkshire buys back shares and retires the shares, it also retires the...

http://www.metro.co.uk/games/809285-roulette-online-the-man-who-put-it-all-on-red Been done

No. Sorry that my explanation was not clear. He essentially traded in his own shares, buying low and maybe even selling high, via the insurance company. Not fraud, simply using "Mr. Market" to his advantage. Henry Singleton who ran Teledyne did the same thing, except he bought and sold the...

It's true that if you mark the shares at market, buying a $30 share for $30 is a wash. The effect would only become evident in the accounting as the share price increased and the holding of BRK within BRK magnified the appreciation. If the shares were cancelled, shares would appreciate to NAV...

From Forbes: "BUFFETT: Imagine if you owned grocery store and you had amanic-depressive partner who one day would offer to sell youhis share of the business for a dollar. Then the next day because the sun was shining or for no reason at all wouldn’tsell for any price. That’s what the...

There is no difference between a) Berkshire buying the shares and retiring them and b) National Indemnity buying the shares. Exact same thing. Different pocket, same trousers.

The great genius of including the insurance company within Berkshire is that Berkshire benefits from the cheap float of the insurance company, and vice versa, the insurance company benefits from the financial strength of the operating company. Berkshire was not initially a great business, but...