March 2010

The Odds of Everything Are 100%

Wed, 03/31/2010 - 22:25

Some of you have seen the news about unusual weather in New England. Tonight we have the heat back on in part of the house, and hot water for the first time since Sunday. David and I spent a couple of days racing up and down to the basement managing a variety of permanent and temporary sump pumps. We have had a small flood and a small fire and only a little damage and are really lucky compared to the guy in Massachusetts whose car fell into a sinkhole and the poor folks in Rhode Island whose houses and cars are underwater in conditions that are just unspeakable.

Bullish on Innovation, Not so Bullish on Jobs

Tue, 03/30/2010 - 18:06

Buffett just appeared on the cover of Professional Builder magazine (hat tip to Steve Jordon at Omaha World Herald for picking this one up). The reason is that MiTek is buying Simpad, a computer design company that sells software for 3C-CAD (three-dimensional computer-aided design) and BIM (building information modeling).  What he said (as always) has implications for the economy.

Rewriting the Back Stories of History

Mon, 03/29/2010 - 23:27

Lorax has recommended a book, The Ascent of George Washington, that rewrites the portrait of our first president as a narcissistic self-promoter who was maniacal about controlling his own image. This book has received some highly favorable reviews. So I plan on reading it.

On Folksiness and Media-Friendliness

Sun, 03/28/2010 - 17:32

Yvette Kantrow complains that Buffett gets a pass from media in this column in The Deal magazine. She makes the point that:

All Catastrophes Are Created Equal

Sun, 03/21/2010 - 10:00

The electricity is back on in our house. Verizon just called to confirm that our phones our working. After seven days, I finally have Internet access. The first thing I will do (after writing this blog post) is to order an iPad. Never again will a cable company hold my Internet access hostage to a broken power line.

Lehman Bankrupty Examiner Report on Buffett role

Fri, 03/12/2010 - 17:51

This is interesting. From the newly released report by the Lehman Bankruptcy examiner. My notes in [brackets].

Berkshire letter, part 4 -- Leasing operations, secular vs. cyclical, and goodwill

Fri, 03/05/2010 - 10:35

 

Here's an interesting sentence from the shareholder letter about "How hard our furniture (CORT) and trailer (XTRA) leasing operations have been hit by the recession. Though their competitive positions remain as strong as ever, we have yet to see the bounce in these businesses."

But Where is Warren Buffett?

Tue, 03/02/2010 - 11:12

ABC has unveiled the official cast of Dancing With the Stars season 10, which premieres Mon., Mar. 23 at 8PM.

Among the famous faces headed to the ballroom are 'Baywatch' beauty Pamela Anderson, astronaut Buzz Aldrin (whom host Tom Bergeron referred to as the "original moonwalker") and -- wait for it -- reality star Kate Gosselin.

Berkshire letter, part 3 -- dividend

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 09:57

In his letter, Warren Buffett repeated (from an earlier letter) the remark that "[s]ince we purchased MidAmerican ten years ago, it has never paid a dividend."

This puts into a new light the sentence "Anticipating ... that Berkshire will generate ever-increasing amounts of cash, we are today quite willing to enter businesses that regularly require large capital expenditures."