Warren Buffett is addicted to Bridge. He has this to say:
You know, if I’m playing bridge and a naked woman walks by, I don’t ever see her.
You have to look at all the facts. You have to draw inferences from what you’ve seen, what you’ve heard. You have to discard improper theories about what the hand had as more evidence comes in sometimes. You have to be open to a possible change of course if you get new information. You have to work with a partner, particularly on defense.
Warren Buffett and Microsoft’s Bill Gates love to play bridge, and they often play together online, and sometimes in person. Warren has also contributed a lot of money into a program to teach bridge to junior-high school kids and lends his name to the Warren Buffett Challenge Match, pitting the USA against Europe in the “Ryder Cup of bridge.”
This post is specially for my Singapore readers (or anyone with vested interest with CPF monies in Singapore).
A few days ago, our government has released details of the new annuity scheme for us. They have nicely called it The National Lifelong Income Scheme.
The scheme is flexible with different payout dates available. If you are rushing to change your default scheme from”Refund 80″ to “Refund 65”, please read this post carefully first.
Last week, Warren Buffett answered questions for almost 90 minutes during his appearance in Toronto to promote Business Wire’s expansion into Canada.
He covered quite a bit on ground on credit, currency and the economy. Warren Buffett also revealed that he made “several hundred million dollars” owning the Canadian dollar, then sold, and now wishes he had kept his holdings in the Loonie.
Warren Buffett mentioned in an interview with CNBC this morning that he has a plan to help the troubled bond insurance situation, but so far it’s not getting a very warm reception.
Warren Buffett had offered to reinsure $800 billion in municipal bonds now insured by Ambac, MBIA and FGIC, effectively giving them a AAA credit rating. Due to problems with subprime mortgages and other loans, those insurers are in danger of losing their AAA credit ratings.
Dispelling rumors running in the market, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) chief Warren Buffett says they have no plans to bail out troubled bond insurers MBIA (MBI) and Ambac (ABK).
In an interview with FOX Business anchor Liz Claman, Warren Buffett said his strategy is to create new companies in the sector, rather than bailing out existing troubled ones.
“We could have some kind of insurance transaction with them but we will not be investing in them or any other bond insurer. We’ve got our own bond insurer.”
Berkshire Hathaway Assurance, Warren Buffett’s newly created bond-insurance company, is already up and running in New York State and has done “a couple” of deals.
After missing a deadline to raise capital, the world’s fourth-largest bond insurer, Financial Guaranty Insurance Co., had its AAA credit rating cut to AA at Fitch Ratings.
The insurance unit’s top rating was placed under review by Fitch, Moody’s and S&P in December after downgrades of securities backed by subprime mortgages. Fitch gave the company until this week to boost capital by $1 billion.
I just read an article by George Soros which was published in the Financial Times. Inside this article, George Soros talks about how the current crisis is the culmination of a credit expansion super-boom that has taken place over the past 60 years.
This week, Warren Buffett paid close to $74 million for about a million shares in Burlington Northern Santa Fe. This pushes Berkshire’s stakes to nearly 18 percent.
The buying of Burlington shares has been picking up speed of late. Last week, another 750,000 shares were bought. There was a purchase made almost every day of that week.
In a filing made earlier, Berkshire says it paid $11.05 million for a total of 141,400 shares bought at $78.18 each on Monday. On Tuesday, they brought 807,400 shares at $77.69 each, for a total price of $62.73 million.
Some of you might be interested in this event. Besides the Singapore event, it will also be held in Malaysia, Vietnam and India.
Asia Trader & Investor Convention (ATIC @Singapore 2008).
Date : 1 – 2 March 2008
Time : 9am to 6pm
Venue : Suntec Singapore, Hall 401
There will be many speakers two of which include Daryl Guppy and Ray Barros.
