Still Dangerous

Derivatives are dangerous.  They have dramatically increased the leverage and risks in our financial system.  They have made it almost impossible for investors to understand and analyze our largest commercial banks and investment banks.
—     Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2020	Explaining And Gilding
	That Way
2019	Lead To Action
2018	Listen And See
2017	The Big Illusion
2016	What Are You Thinking About?
2015	What The Framers Chose
2014	Lost Anything Lately?
	A Life Of Science
2013	Serve The World
2012	Acquaintance, n.
2011	On Why His Father Was A Great Teacher
	A Baker’s Dozen

Read Full Post »

The Margin Of Safety

Leaving the question of price aside, the best business to own is one that over an extended period can employ large amounts of incremental capital at very high rates of return.  The worst business to own is one that must, or will, do the opposite – that is, consistently employ ever-greater amounts of capital at very low rates of return.  Unfortunately, the first type of business is very hard to find:  Most high-return businesses need relatively little capital.  Shareholders of such a business usually will benefit if it pays out most of its earnings in dividends or makes significant stock repurchases.
Though the mathematical calculations required to evaluate equities are not difficult, an analyst – even one who is experienced and intelligent – can easily go wrong in estimating future “coupons.”  At Berkshire, we attempt to deal with this problem in two ways.  First, we try to stick to businesses we believe we understand.  That means they must be relatively simple and stable in character.  If a business is complex or subject to constant change, we’re not smart enough to predict future cash flows.  Incidentally, that shortcoming doesn’t bother us.  What counts for most people in investing is not how much they know, but rather how realistically they define what they don’t know.  An investor needs to do very few things right as long as he or she avoids big mistakes.
Second, and equally important, we insist on a margin of safety in our purchase price.  If we calculate the value of a common stock to be only slightly higher than its price, we’re not interested in buying.  We believe this margin-of-safety principle, so strongly emphasized by Ben Graham, to be the cornerstone of investment success.
—     Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2020	In The Path
	Hangin’ Out
	But I Won’t Do That
	Unless You Are #45
2019	Seeking Nobility
2018	My Family Calls It Hoarding
	Day 30: Done & Dusted
2017	Rogers’ Rules (Hexadecimal)
2016	But, It’s Such A Simple Mistake
2015	Crawl Towards The Light
2014	Sweet Songs
2013	The Wife Of An Ordinary Man
2012	Three Words
2011	Know Anyone Like This?
2010	Apoplexy??
	When Breaking Up Is Hard To Do…
	Sibling Awareness

Read Full Post »

True Fervor

Our prototype for occupational fervor is the Catholic tailor who used his small savings of many years to finance a pilgrimage to the Vatican.  When he returned, his parish held a special meeting to get his first-hand account of the Pope.  ‘Tell us,’ said the eager faithful, ‘just what sort of fellow is he?’  Our hero wasted no words:  ‘He’s a forty-four, medium.’
—     Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2020	A Destructive Mistake
	I’d Rather Live In HER World
2019	And #IncompetentTrump Is A Failure At Both
2018	To Excel At Your Craft
	Day 12: Waiting
2017	Like When You Can Order Others To Fight For You
2016	Holding Fast
2015	Alms Or Balms
2014	A Day At The Beach
2013	Pillows
	Steppin’
2012	Invincible Summer
2011	Being Objective
2010	First Things First…
	Northwest Passages – Intro
	Northwest Passages – Day One
	Northwest Passages – Poetry
	Northwest Passages – Evening One
	Northwest Passages – Morning Two

Read Full Post »

One Likely Consequence

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel.  These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects.  Their precise nature is anyone’s guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.
—    Warren Buffett
[Government handouts can get you through a non-market caused depression (like the one recently caused by COVID / relief payments), but without an employment plan which improves the general welfare (like a massive infrastructure bill), only the wealthy will benefit when inflation inevitably begins to roar.  Infrastructure will improve the national resource base (bridges, roads, levies, dams, drainage, parks, beaches, river-fronts, water and waste treatment, trains and airports, etc.), it will also provide medium and long-term employment to re-build our middle class.  The longer the delay in passing a major bill, the less time available for its impact to begin before the next election cycle and the greater the opportunity for the “do-nothing” Republicans to blame the lack of progress on Democrats who wanted more than they could deliver and then failed to deliver anything.  The danger is too little and too late.  With or without jobs, inflation is coming (IMHO).  The question is: who will gain from it and who will suffer for it?    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2020	Know Love
2019	Spoiler Alert
2018	Tic-Toc
2017	Explaining Working Class Support For Donald
2016	Not In My Experience
2015	Effort
2014	Honest Wants
2013	Faith, n.
2012	Surprise Me
2011	Confused With Truth

Read Full Post »

We Need Professional Journalists AND The First Amendment

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is.  For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
—    Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2020	Neither Alone, Nor Lonely
	Giving
2019	That’s Why It’s Called Faith
2018	So We Agree, #45 Is Dumb – Too
2017	The Morality Of Spying
2016	He Doesn’t Remind Me Of Me
	The First Rule
2015	Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow
	The Man Without Fear
2014	I Blame Robocop
2013	Future Trustees
2012	Praise Not The Day…
2011	Educated Living

Read Full Post »

I’d Argue Wealth, Then Income

I just think that – when a country needs more income and we do, we’re only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that – that – when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.
—    Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2020	Steppin’…
2019	Every Vote Counts
2018	Or A President
2017	Pleasures
2016	Why Not?
2015	Je Suis Charlie
2014	To The Nines
2013	Higher And Truer
2012	Life’s Last Question
2011	A Single Heartbeat
	A Little Male Humor – WHY MEN SHOULDN’T RETIRE

Read Full Post »

We Will Get Through This

We always live in an uncertain world.  What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.
—    Warren Buffett
[And the whole world will get through this, too…    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2019	I Asked My Family Doctor Just What I Had
2018	You Have Just Begun To Climb
2017	Equal Protection Under Law
2016	A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion
2015	Or You Don’t
2014	If You Ever Fall…
2013	Glory Days (part 2)
2012	They Follow A Pattern – If You Know What I Mean
	What I Live For (Precis)
2011	Giving

Read Full Post »

Still Measuring

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.
—    Warren Buffett
[Happy Birthday to me!    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2019	Living On The Couch
	Who Am I – One Interpretation
2018	A Gardening Goal: Feed The Flowers
2017	Freakishly Happy Cowboy
2016	One More, Please
2015	Infinite Adventure
2014	Unpaved
2013	Headstones
2012	Keeping Young
2011	Lessons Well Learned

Read Full Post »

Maybe More Than A Very Few

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
—   Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2019	Missing Failure
2018	Praise God
2017	Necessary Gaps
2016	Nor My Dogs
2015	Say What?
	I’m A Dog, Too!
	Beginnings
2014	Astonishing Choices
2013	Three Hard Tasks
2012	The Only Remains
2011	Personal Capability
	What Price Failure?
	Both Of W’s Elections
	Tea (Baggers) Anyone?

Read Full Post »

Expecting A December Correction

We believe that according the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a ‘romantic.’
—    Warren Buffett
[With the Dow at very near an all-time high, a “normal” market “correction” (a 10% drop) will still leave the market above 25,000 which would still be a historic end of year high.  The only questions are when will the correction eventually happen and how far past “normal” it will go?  Okay, three: how long will it last?  Remember, this is the first Presidency to have an 800 point drop in a single day…  Of the top five daily losses in Dow history (roughly 120 years), ALL five have happened during the current Administration.  So far, we’ve recovered from each quickly…   —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2018	Dominoes II (Update From Last Year’s Post)
2017	Dominoes
2016	Itchin’
2015	In The Not So Distant Future
2014	Sources
2013	Three Essentials
2012	Just Looking
2011	Religious Lessons
2010	View From Under The Bus… (A mid-term report card on the Obama Administration. Long, but still worth reading for historical perspective.)

Read Full Post »

#Impeach45: Once A Buffoon, Now A Bad Joke

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
—    Warren Buffett
[And soon, hopefully, just an embarrassingly bad memory…  A genius for marketing one’s self is only useful if – ultimately – there is something in you of value.  Otherwise, with bad luck, you pitiably end up at center stage with no talent to perform.  #GrifterDon was able to make it to center stage.  Under the bright lights, he has wilted and shown us he can’t dance, sing or even perform a soliloquy.   —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2018	Good Sense
2017	E Pluribus Unum
2016	Lacking
2015	Chip, Chip, Chip
2014	nom de plume
2013	The Real Reason
	From The Book
2012	When Young
2011	14 Ways To A Better Judgement

Read Full Post »

Four Buffett’s

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
—    Warren Buffett
Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.
—    Warren Buffett
Rule No.1:  Never lose money.  Rule No.2:  Never forget rule No.1.
—    Warren Buffett
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
—    Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2018	Change Happens
	Day 13: Ginger / Mint Relief
2017	Still Removing Bricks
2016	Namaste
2015	Still Learning
2014	Dark Processes
2013	To The Last Link
2012	Slept In Again
2011	Home Again, Naturally
2009	Thoughts after a long day of OT…

Read Full Post »

And Government Shutdowns, Too

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can’t be used.  I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they’re not getting some other matter.
—    Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2018	Satisfied
2017	In The Mind
2016	Dreaming
2015	The Best Medicine Is Also Contagious
2014	Eyes Off
2013	The More Things Change…
2012	The Delicate Moment Of Giving
2011	Ready, Shoot, Aim!!

Read Full Post »

Uncertain Times

You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time.  You know, all time is uncertain.  I mean, it was uncertain back in – in 2007, we just didn’t know it was uncertain.  It was – uncertain on September 10th, 2001.  It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn’t know it.
—    Warren Buffett
.
On This Day In:
2018	Satisfied
2017	In The Mind
2016	Dreaming
2015	The Best Medicine Is Also Contagious
2014	Eyes Off
2013	The More Things Change…
2012	The Delicate Moment Of Giving
2011	Ready, Shoot, Aim!!

Read Full Post »

History Judges Incompetent Presidencies, Too

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
—   Warren Buffett
[And some Administration’s are so bad / incompetent / corrupt, we don’t even have to wait for “history”.   —   KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2017	Our Confident New President
2016	Ways
2015	Be Happy, Too
2014	At Least Smile
2013	Comfortably Bound
2012	Certainty
	Thinking About Fathers
2011	And In Every Level Of Media

Read Full Post »