Subject: Re: The Kingdom is dead. Long live the Kingdom.
Elephant hunting has been much discussed here. Given the size and scarcity of the beasts required, maybe we should start calling it woolly mammoth hunting.

One possibility is Occidental. If they loved OXY at $60, they probably like it quite a bit at $55. Since I am riding the coattails on that one, I just sold some more puts on OXY, now I have some 57.5s, some 55s, and some 52.5s. I assume the higher strike ones are likely to be exercised and I will own some more shares in the coming months. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Berkshire makes a move to acquire the whole thing. But EVEN if they do acquire the whole thing, it'll only make a small dent in the huge pile of cash because OXY is relatively small at a market cap just over $50B and about $20B in debt.

I also view Berkshire as turning into a cash cow and realize that cash will need to be returned to investors in a more typical fashion.

This would be a very sad day for many long-time Berkshire holders. Many people choose to hold Berkshire specifically because it doesn't ever result in taxable distributions of any kind. It is one of those VERY rare investments that both perform reasonably well AND allows for the investor to decide exactly when a taxable event is realized. It is specifically this feature that allowed someone like Ruth Gottesman to donate such a large amount to the charitable endeavor of her choice.