Above the Fray

The following article, authored by Jeffrey Stacey, was published in the Toronto Star on March 8, 2021 with the title “Socially aware investing far more complicated than it looks”. ESG Investing is one of the most important topics in the … Continue reading »

  As you probably know, we have a significant portion of our capital allocated to Berkshire Hathaway, Fairfax Financial and Markel Corporation. While the three companies do have some important differences, they are all also remarkably similar. Berkshire, Fairfax and … Continue reading »

One of my favourite poems is “IF” by Rudyard Kipling. Last Thursday, on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by over 800 points, the following amusing and wonderful paraphrase of Rudyard Kipling’s great poem, as written by … Continue reading »

Over the years, event driven investing (or “arbitrage” as it is also called) has been an important component of our investment activity with the capital that has been entrusted to our care. I find it interesting and somewhat bewildering that … Continue reading »

Since I began my career as a professional investment manager, I have always spent time thinking about what inputs are necessary to create an ideal environment for optimal investment decision making. While this topic has been getting more attention from … Continue reading »

There has been much discussion in the media recently about investment firm 3G Capital. The firm was founded in 2004 by Brazilians Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Marcel Herrmann Telles and two others. Jorge Paulo Lemann is widely acknowledged … Continue reading »

As most of you know, I have been a long time admirer of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Berkshire Hathaway. I am also pleased to report that our two funds have been long time Berkshire shareholders. I recently returned from … Continue reading »

I recently returned from a trip to Ireland. While the purpose of my trip was more vacation than business, I did manage to squeeze in a couple of meetings and site visits that have reconfirmed my enthusiasm for our long … Continue reading »

Corporate Social Responsibility, commonly referred to as CSR, is the new “new thing” in business circles. I must confess that I have been somewhat skeptical about this trend as I have worried that it has been nothing more than a … Continue reading »

I am always amazed at how vilified Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, is by investors and the media. From what is written and said, you could easily infer that he has driven Microsoft into bankruptcy during his time at … Continue reading »