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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: mungofitch ✹✺ SILVER
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Number: of 22354 
Subject: Re: BNSF article
Date: 09/22/23 12:32 PM
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No mention of DG here for those not interested in BRK information.

For the true rhetor, I guess that counts as apophasis, possibly paralipsis, but not proslepsis?

More seriously, thanks for the rail link. It's a great read. Certainly both interlocutors know vastly more about rails than I will ever manage.

An interesting number in there, for those who like me are always trying to reconcile the bookkeeping with the reality in rails.
He mentions $3.96bn in capex for 2023, of which $2.85bn will have been maintenance capex.
Though I haven't looked it up, you can be sure that this period's depreciation on what they were maintaining will be very small compared to $2.85bn, so naive calculations of free cash flow are always off by a mile in rails.

The big projects to improve resilience in the face of weather "outliers" is very interesting. It's not something I thought about a lot for the railroad.
e.g., "Over the past few years, we have raised over 3,100 miles of track over 12' in areas prone to flooding."
12 feet is quite a bit!

Jim
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This community has written 21,861 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
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Summary of 2Q 2026 · 55 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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