Gongol.com Archives: December 2011
Brian Gongol


December 8, 2011

Business and Finance Warren Buffett speaks with CNBC
The guy gives away loads of valuable knowledge, and yet it's painful to read transcripts of interviews -- the reporters just simply don't get what he's saying. In part 5 of the transcript, for instance, one of the reporters goes off on a tangent about what he thinks about measures like earnings per share (EPS) and earnings expectations, suggesting that IBM's buybacks of stocks are some kind of accounting sleight of hand. Buffett responds: "Joe, there's nothing wrong with fewer shares outstanding...If they get it down to where there's 64 million shares outstanding, I'll be very happy." (64 million shares being the amount Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, has acquired.) Buffett's looking at the fundamentals -- a strong company that repurchases its stock when it's underpriced simply concentrates the ownership of existing shareholders. That's why Buffett elsewhere in the transcript says he'd like to see the stock price decline -- if he owns 5% of the company already, and the company then uses low prices to buy back, say, half of the shares, then Berkshire Hathaway would have obtained 10% control of the company, tax-free, without spending a penny. But in the frantic world of trading (as opposed to long-term investing), a declining price is cause for panic and the long term barely measures beyond the next commercial break. What Buffett does differently from so many people isn't really about being smarter than everyone else -- it's a matter of having a different temperament.

Computers and the Internet Chrome overtakes Firefox as the #2 browser
Chrome is chipping away at Internet Explorer's market share, but Firefox has stopped growing

Iowa Someone just paid $20,000 an acre for Iowa farmland
That price might not sound like a big deal in Manhattan, but in Iowa that's just plain nuts

Aviation News US pilots were being prepared to fly kamikaze missions on 9/11
Since we didn't have armed planes waiting on the ground, Air Force pilots were going to be asked to ram their planes into rogue passenger jets if necessary

Weather and Disasters Awful storm hits Scotland
Wind gusts measured as high as 165 mph made a big mess in Scotland

Humor and Good News Godfather's Pizza sexual harassment training, circa 1986
(Video) Tim Meadows pulls off a hilarious spoof of Herman Cain

@briangongol on Twitter