All Bogle..note to Mornigstar, make your vid embeddable. Charging $8500 to put the on a blog is insane….has anyone actually ever bought one? Wider distribution will get you more readers, free embeds would do just that..
– How to keep your portfolio on track
– Bogle addresses the notion that “buy and hold” is dead
– What the business of investing is all about
– “This is the worst bear market I have ever seen”
Disclosure (“none” means no position):
10 replies on “Thursday’s Links Bogle-palooza”
Buffett on General Growth:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5422NI20090504?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
"[Buffett] said he reviewed General Growth Properties Inc's finances but took a pass, noting that the now bankrupt mall owner has $27 billion of debt, and "today, their properties in my view wouldn't bring $27 billion."
Anon, we know. Buffett is notorious for telling reporters what they want to hear. What prolly happened is that Buffett couldn't get a deal on his terms.
Another interesting thing to note is that Ackman repriced his Borders warrants at 65 cents. In other words, he basically just gave himself a massive chunk of the company. Investing alongside Ackman on the flawed logic of "our interests are aligned" is truly an amateur approach.
It's pretty much outrageous: Ackman basically stole a large stake in Borders, by diluting existing investors at an insanely low price. It's humorous how so many "Buffett philosophy" investors got wrapped up in BGP. The cardinal Buffett rule is to avoid situations like this, as well as financial manipulators like Ackman.
anom,
you are all over the place…
Buffett, who cares what properies are worth today, nothing will be determined until next year.
borders,
ackman DID NOT reprice his warrants. borders did it when he loaned them $45 million at below market rates and saved them from chapter 11.
Ackman has loaned BGP a significant amount of money to help ease some of their debt. Ackman has helped out the shareholders without a doubt…plus he also bought significant chunks before he got those options.
"Buffett philosophy" investors would prolly be better described as "value investors" which is generally accepted as being developed by Ben Graham and David Dodd…not Buffett…hes just the most successful one at it so far.
And as for the "The cardinal Buffett" rule..i would say that you are way off on that one…I would say that the cardinal "value investing" rule is, once again not buffetts idea, but Graham and Dodd's idea of "margin of safety." But I could see how that's debatable.
Anon, you're just being hysterical.
agreed ryan
I can never take anything all that serious from people who post as "anonymous." Seems to be a very passive approach at trying to get one's point across, and rather futile in my opinion.
I agree with the people above, also isn't buffets cardinal rule not to get involved in buisnesses with no competative advantage, or not moats. Boarders appears to have no moat or competative advantage unless I'm missing something.
You should judge the merit of a person's opinion on its logic, not whether that person goes by the name "Bill Ackman" or "anonymous". This is a pretty fundamental key to success; whereas being dazzled by fancy facades is a key trait to failure.
Moreover, blind allegiance to an investment, and rejection of contrary information, is definitely not a key to being successful. Of course, if your level of success is measured by how many ads you sell through Google, and not being a real financier, then it makes sense to use such a CNBC theatrical approach.