Invite ye felawes and frendes desirous in gold to enter the gates of Shrewd'm, for they will thanke ye later.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 4
Let’s start with the headline:
Combs declined to talk much about his time at Berkshire, which he left in December, or his take on what the future might hold for the company. “I was back and forth from Omaha to D.C. for six years running Geico. That was a long time. I’m very proud—not to go down that rabbit hole—of what we accomplished at Geico. Berkshire is an animal unto itself that’s completely unique.” But of his current job he said a lot:
Except that Combs is hardly a bolt from the blue, having served on JPMorgan’s board since 2016.
“I know the company well,” Combs tells Barron’s in his first interview as a bank employee. “I know everybody from Jamie to the operating committee and the next layer [of management]. I’m well aware of the balance sheet, the excess capital, and how Jamie and the team think and operate.”
…
Combs has mapped out his new gig, which began in January, on a two-column chart he’s sketched on a notepad. On the left are five rows of industries, such as defense and supply chain/reindustrialization, and on the right are their future manifestations, such as defense tech and U.S. semiconductors, respectively. The plan is to invest in “everything our country has outsourced and abdicated over recent decades,” Combs says. “We want to invest in places where the puck is going so that America can control its own future.”
That means deploying the group’s $10 billion into middle-market and large companies in U.S. defense, aerospace, healthcare, and energy sectors to help them grow. Recent investments include mining company Perpetua Resources PPTA and defense tech start-up Shield AI. Full article:
He Was Warren Buffett’s Protégé. Now He’s Running Money for Jamie Dimon. https://www.barrons.com/articles/todd-combs-warren...
No. of Recommendations: 0
Interesting. I think defense stocks are in Berkshire's "do not invest" pile along with vices like alcohol and tobacco stocks.
No. of Recommendations: 0
I think defense stocks are in Berkshire's "do not invest" pile along with vices like alcohol and tobacco stocks.
You never know. As of December 31, Berkshire owned a $20 million shot of Diageo and a decent $1.8 billion slug of Constellation Brands.
No. of Recommendations: 3
I think I recall a sizable Berkshire position in General Dynamics in the early 1990s. And in the current portfolio, Heico is defense-related. Maybe Precision Castparts too.
No. of Recommendations: 6
“ Maybe Precision Castparts too.”
A division of Precision Castparts is the largest manufacturer of receivers for AR-15 rifles in the country.
No. of Recommendations: 21
A division of Precision Castparts is the largest manufacturer of receivers for AR-15 rifles in the country.
That's not something I'd be comfortable with either.
But I tend to think of it this way: it's a small piece of PCP, which is a small piece of Berskshire, which would be a portion of my portfolio. A piece of a piece of a piece, and in particular a piece that can't be separated by me.
As an analogy, like most North American's I'm not keen on eating insects because of the cultural ick factor, and to add to that I'm a vegetarian. But 10g of ground oregano is allowed 1250 insect parts, and 100g of peanut butter 30 insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs. Sometimes the only solution is to figure that the contamination is pretty darned minimal as a piece of the pie (or PBJ sandwich) and try not to think too much about it, as perfection is unattainable.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 4
Sometimes the only solution is to figure that the contamination is pretty darned minimal as a piece of the pie (or PBJ sandwich) and try not to think too much about it, as perfection is unattainable.
And considering that we evolved without the ability to separate insects from our food, it's probably highly likely that we benefit from ingesting at least a few of them. So cheer up, good times!
