376400+ entries in 0.098s
mircea_popescu: i like it how nobody has a clue what that stands for anymore.
mircea_popescu: n been censured. It has been far safer to steal large sums with a pen than small sums with a gun.
mircea_popescu: As long as investors-including supposedly sophisticated institutions-place fancy valuations on reported "earnings" that march steadily upward, you can be sure that some managers and promoters will exploit GAAP to produce such numbers, no matter what the truth may be. Over the years, Charlie and I have observed many accounting-based frauds of staggering size. Few of the perpetrators have been punished; many have not eve
mircea_popescu: gard look-through earnings as realistically portraying our yearly
mircea_popescu: of value for each dollar they have retained. We consequently re-
mircea_popescu: shareholders, but overall we have garnered far more than a dollar
mircea_popescu: decision that our investees have made has not benefitted us as
mircea_popescu: nesses or by repurchasing their shares. Obviously, every capital
mircea_popescu: capital to great advantage, either by putting it to work in their busi-
mircea_popescu: truly outstanding businesses that can often employ incremental
mircea_popescu: result has occurred because most of our investees are engaged in
mircea_popescu: been included in the earnings we officially report). This pleasant
mircea_popescu: Berkshire asif they had been distributed to us (and therefore had
mircea_popescu: our investees, in aggregate, have been as fully as beneficial to
mircea_popescu: We have found over time that the undistributed earnings of
mircea_popescu: about there, but meanwhile found this one you might like :
mircea_popescu: then honest operators do the one least likely to be mispriced, and dishonest operators (or US people) do the other.
mircea_popescu: the judgement call is mostly "which of these two is the market most likely to misprice to a larger extent".
mircea_popescu: anyway, to close up the dividend/buyback discussion : the difference is really slight in an efficient market. the only way either is "unfair" is if the market is inefficient, and misprices things.
mircea_popescu: pankkake too much money is worse poison than too little for new projects, that's damned sure.
mircea_popescu: rather than perpetually dick around with labcoins and bitcoin gems.
mircea_popescu: ideally we will use it to permanently and deeply change the world,
mircea_popescu: this is the sort of unprecedented power Bitcoin gives us.
mircea_popescu: think if some guy working in his garage had as much resources as 1/10 boeing, to make his new plane.
mircea_popescu: and yes, i don't think it ever happened in the history of computer gaming that a new company with new management working on an indie game ever had > 10% of the most expensive largest corp's budget.
mircea_popescu: buybacks have the disadvantage they mess with the price.
mircea_popescu: well, dividends have the inherent unfairness of post-ex date. (ie, they only reward people hiolding the shares NOW, as opposed to "having hold the shares")
mircea_popescu: in case b, it just safes the 50 btc. now any shareholder wanting btc can sell his share for 0.5, which is exactly the sdame result.
mircea_popescu: let's look into this. consider a company has 50 btc in the bank and 100 shares. in case a, it distrivbutes 50 btc. now shareholders have 0.5 btc per share.
mircea_popescu: tho in general the thing is with share buybacks that they tend to increase the price. seeing how btc is btc, you generally don'y want to increase share price, lest you make them unaffordable per item
mircea_popescu: just as long as you don't stupidly spend it is all good.
mircea_popescu: in practice it makes no difference anwyay, whether you actually pay it out or just keep it in the bank, because in the latter case the share just trades as a proxy of your cash (see apple)
mircea_popescu: this is what you always do witjh capital you can't effectualy deploy, you distribute it to shareholders
mircea_popescu: diablo 3 cost ~65 million if memory serves. it's true that it sucked, but then again we're no blizzard.
mircea_popescu: in other news : the ~8.5k btc minigame collected is still largely untouched, we can now afford to make the best game ever made.
mircea_popescu: ironically, the russian dog leika could have done a great ipo
mircea_popescu: The public’s approval rating for Congress has finally hit rock bottom: For the first time, America has a higher opinion of car salespeople.
mircea_popescu: pankkake all bitcoin jesus references are a meme-ish joke @ that nonsense.
mircea_popescu: One of the world’s leading authorities on genetics says the human race was born into existence after a chimpanzee mated with a pig.
mircea_popescu: and 2. the commies did a lot of machinery exporting, so all over the middle east it's like, o, you're romanian, that means you're like the best engineer in town
mircea_popescu: romania also has the advantages that 1, soccer is popular and romania was really good at it historically, so ppl in latin america are all HAGi !! LACATUS!!!