1/ "There are two kinds of businesses: The first earns twelve percent, and you can take the profits out at the end of the year. The second earns twelve percent, but all the excess cash must be reinvested-there’s never any cash."
2/ "It reminds me of the guy who sells construction equipment -- he looks at his used machines, taken in as customers bought new ones, and says, “There’s all of my profit, rusting in my yard.” We hate that kind of business." Charlie Munger (2003 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting)
3/ "We love businesses that can earn high rates on even more capital than it earns. Most of our businesses generate lots of money, but can't generate high returns on incremental capital like See's. We look for [ways for See's to wisely reinvest capital], but they don't exist." WB
4/ "We’ve tried 50 different ways to put money into See’s. If we knew a way to put additional money into See’s and produce returns a quarter of what we’re getting out of the existing business, we would do it in a second. We play around with ideas, but we don’t know how to do it.”
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1/ My strategy is to "not sell the dip"-- but you be you tho.
2/ "The market sell-off that escalated overnight we believe is primarily driven by technical selling flows (CTAs and option hedgers) in an environment of poor liquidity, and overreaction of discretionary traders to perceived risks. Our thesis: buy the dip.”bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
3/ "The upbeat view contrasts with Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson, whose worst case called for the S&P 500 to plunge more than 20% from its peak, a scenario that the strategist says looks more possible."
“Something in the region of about a couple of billion dollars of streaming in 2020 came from outside the DSPs, through the likes of Peloton, Instagram, TikTok and the rest. These are what they are betting on to deliver good, continued strong growth.” variety.com/2021/music/new…
1/ "The price per pound of crab meat has gone up from $21 a pound. Yesterday, it was $52 a pound, which is astronomical, so a lot of us have had to take crab off our menus."
2/ Dungeness crab buyers from China are the cause of the current $50 a pound crab price.
In Southeast Alaska, Dungeness crabbers wrapped up an “average” season for a 2-1/2-month summer fishery Preliminary numbers indicate the catch came in at half of last summer’s level.
3/ The crabber sells their Dungeness crab at $4.25 per pound to the distributor and after different businesses add their slice along the value chain you pay $19 a pound in the grocery store at retail for in the shell (ie, not picked) crab. nationalfisherman.com/alaska/alaska-…
1/ "Charles A. See's oldest son Laurance died at age 57. His younger brother, Charles B. (Harry) See, wanted to try something different." He bought a yacht with some of the sale proceeds from selling to BRK. Do you know the name of the yacht (now in a marina near where I live)?
2/ The name of Harry See's yacht can be seen if you look below the bridge. Silverado. It cost $3M and at the time was the largest fiberglass boat in the world. See sold it to Max Wyman for $1M, which is lousy boat unit economics. Max Wyndham had sold the Wild Goose to John Wayne.
3/ The Silverado is currently docked in Poulsbo in Liberty Bay. You can see it right over the shoulders of this Orca. Max Wyman sold it to the Hilton family and they turned it into a five unit time share.
What has been Berkshire's return on the purchase of the See's business?
1/ "Credit cards are a Neanderthal version of what really needs to happen...much more consumer transparency, much more consumer control, [a] really clear sense for what things cost, and when you’re done paying for them, even if you are paying over time." news.google.com/articles/CAIiE…
2/ "What we focus on is making sure that it’s really, really, really clear to you as you decide to use Affirm what the costs will be, what the term will be, that there are no late fees, that you don’t need to be scared about missing a payment. It’s our job to remind you."
3/ The consumer credit value chain is impacted by "buy now pay later." How much revenue is lost by other lenders? How much less do borrowers pay? Is there an underwriting arbitrage? Is scale a competitive advantage for "buy now pay later" providers? newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/i…
"The team will look at life stage, overall health and comorbidity while considering triage"
"The 20-bed critical care unit at Bozeman Deaconess was fully occupied Wednesday. The medical unit was at 95% capacity and the surgical unit was at 114%." billingsgazette.com/news/state-and…
"Over the weekend Missoula broke its record for new daily cases added and one hospital is using ambulance bays for triage. Statewide hospitalization numbers are up 46% over the last two weeks, nearing previous peaks of late last year. Bozeman Health has more than 400 open jobs."