You ought to see the one they wrote up for shale oil. They REALLY
twisted that story. Once I researched it it turned out that a quote
from a guy backing it up (out of context of course) and in reality the
guy thought it wasn't a good fuel at all. They quoted him as calling
it a National Treasure, when I looked it up it turned out he meant the
nature part of the area was a national treasure, NOT the shale oil -
which really isn't oil but kerosan or something - it's a poor fuel
which uses a lot of energy to get some out. I can't see how it can be
a net gain. I don't know if with high oil prices that will turn out to
be a viable thing or not, but I was really angry that they did what
they did in that sales pitch. Now Canadian oil sands are a different
story altogether.....

Tom C. wrote:
- quote -


Tom,
I love a good riddle too.

Spam-guy wrote: "...one single investment in what the Seattle Post
Intelligencer called 'the ultimate hedge fund.'"

The Seattle P-I site shows only one hit for "ultimate hedge fund" (at a
$1k discount): "Buffett's insurance and investment conglomerate has
often been characterized as the (drum roll!) ultimate hedge fund, in
effect if not in name."

-Tad

On Thu, 18 May 2006 14:57:18 -0500, Tom C. <the.worlok[at]gmail.com> wrote:
- quote -

One A share, or 30 B shares are economic equivalents, with some minor
exceptions (lower voting power of B shares and ability to direct
charitable contributions).

I am not Buffett, so I cannot guess what he is thinking exactly, but
my impression is that he does not want momentum traders, unintelligent
institutions, and financially desperate people to own his company
stock. He is known to not like, and warn against, when Berkshire stock
was traded at too much above its conservatively estimated value. So he
wants to not attract various stock pumpers and such. I think that he
is concerned that their participation will eventually tarnish his
name.

There is a collection of letters to shareholders going back many
years, free on his website berkshirehathaway.com, worth printing out
and reading.

The hyped newsletter sort of implied, quite incorrectly, that past returns
would continue in the future.

i

If you don't mind me asking, (and assuming that you can answer such a
question briefly, or would bother) who should "not" invest in
Berkshire? Why would someone invest in the "B" shares? (other than
that they are cheaper price per share?)

"A" shares are nice, but you'd already have to be pretty well off to
buy many of them, so hence my question revolving around the "B" shares.

--Tom

Yes, he is likely talking about BRK indeed.

I have owned (and accumulated more over the last few years) BRK for a
while and it represents approximately 25% of my total net worth (and
an overwhelming percentage of my stock investments).

I would not pay for that spammed newsletter however, and would not
generally consider its publisher to be trustworthy. He is just trying
to hitch a free ride on a great train. His promotion is targeted
towards people who should not invest into Berkshire.

BRK is also not sold at 82% discount to its value, if one adopts a
modestly conservative approach to calculating its value. The discount
is close to 20-40%. Still a nice deal (buying a dollar for 60-80
cents), but not mouth watering.

i

On Thu, 18 May 2006 11:33:59 -0500, Tom C. <the.worlok[at]gmail.com> wrote:
- quote -

This is a Stansberry (Agora) advert. Whoever writes their ad copy can
be VERY misleading as I have found blatant lies in some of them, (using
out of context quotes by a critic of something in order to promote that
very thing, for example. VERY cheeky.) which is why this one I'm SURE
is not what it seems and in fact isn't a real "hedge fund" because they
really mean it metaphorically.

I was Googling various quotes from this advert, and I kept coming up
with Warren Buffet as the target of the various quotations within. The
only thing I can come up with is BRK-B shares, but they are priced a
bit less than $3500. It's obviously not A shares. ;-)

Anyone know of any other Buffet thing that this might be? I don't have
a grand to p!ss away just to satisfy my curiosity, and besides, they
emailed the advert to my Inbox, so they started it. Oh, and who
doesn't love a good riddle?

TIA. (and I'm not shilling for them I'm a real person who enjoys
figuring these things out - and sometimes I do -but sometimes I need
help)


http://www.isecureonline.com/Reports...05249&l=782035

--Tom