Warren Buffett's Annual Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders [pdf]

Post by nugator » Sat, Feb 25, 2017, 6:46 PM UTC

Shubley wrote: post #143

wokky wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't often see this sort of pride in America. Normally the flavors I do observe are hyper-nationalistic and filled with bravado... I'd go even further: our current presidential administration spends a lot of energy telling us that America sucks because the people in it suck, the government they built sucks, and the ideals they aspire to suck, and that the solution is to deal out cruelty to the right kinds of peopl…

>the people in it suck, the government they built sucks, and the ideals they aspire to suck, and that the solution is to deal out cruelty to the right kinds of people. Amazing reality inversion. Trump never said anything like any of these. He has said politicians and the political class suck. Not 'Americans'. Hillary and others on that side consistently say Americans suck (deplorables), US traditional culture is evil…

Post by caminante » Sat, Feb 25, 2017, 6:54 PM UTC

whitepoplar wrote: post #136

akvadrako wrote: post #86

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It's easy to find funds that had great performance in the past. If anybody knows how to pick those that will perform in the future, they are keeping it a secret. And you might not be able to invest directly in rentec, but their holdings are public [1]. So if they really had a good secret, it could be replicated. [1] https://www.holdingschannel.com/all/stocks-held-by-renaissan...

RenTec doesn't make money off "buy and hold." They're a quant firm that profits from small inefficiencies in the market, trading that with leverage. Their really good secret is that they have superior data sources, and superior modeling (lowering their risk to almost nothing).

Post by ftlio » Sat, Feb 25, 2017, 6:55 PM UTC

wtf_is_up wrote: post #157

Shubley wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Land really isn't that valuable. You can build a great country without it. See Israel or Japan or SK or HK or Singapore. Its the people and way of life that matter. Primary resources can be bought. In fact land can be a hindrance when it induces Dutch Disease.

You have to consider geographical advantages when considering the growth of a civilization. For instance, the Mississippi River has amazing properties for transportation which was obviously great for trade, manufacturing, and settling. Many rivers in Africa may seem similar on the surface but due to things like frequent waterfalls and variation of depth, they are not nearly as advantageous.

Post by tptacek » Sat, Feb 25, 2017, 7:03 PM UTC

gizmo wrote: post #149

pg314 wrote: post #81

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Buffett, as an active investor, can outperform the market, while active investors as an aggregate might not. I fail to see any ludicrousness. > Buffett Annual Report is a long form sales letter to persuade people to buy more Berkshire shares. Nonsense. Buffett doesn't care one whit about people buying more Berkshire Hathaway shares. If anything, he wouldn't mind people selling shares and driving the price down to bel…

If active investment were negative-sum in aggregate then society would be better off if there were no active investors at all and everybody would invest in passive index funds instead. Unfortunately you need active investors to keep the market honest, without active investors index funds wouldn't work! Index funds are needed so investment funds don't overcharge their customers, and investment funds are needed to keep…

Post by psyc » Sat, Feb 25, 2017, 7:24 PM UTC