jestem bez Ciebie nieszczęśliwacieszy mnie każdy świt

podnosząc ciemnych chmur zasłony

od południowowschodniej strony

rozbudza sny

i o poranku jeszcze chłodnym

gdy mnie ubiera Kalyani

dotyka moje piersi młode

zupełnie przecież mimochodem

serce mi drży

i radość taka się wyrywa

że serce miłość mi wypełnia

i drobny usmiech zmieniam w radość

idąc dokładnie za Twą radą

unierśmiertelniam

Każdy z momentów mego życia

bo przecież może być ostatnim

Po tym ponad roku bycia tutaj już widzę, że nie poruszam się liniowo, nie zmierzam do jakiegoś nieznanego mi punktu, rytmem określanym przez łatwo wyodrębnialną celowość, powodującym, że czytam to co czytam, i przyciągają mnie właśnie te zdania i obrazy, a nie inne. Nie, poruszam się w cyklach, w nieustannym kolistym mieszaniu, zataczaniu kręgów, pogłębianiu, przechodzeniu obok tych samych miejsc, co przypomina mi śnienie, pozornie przypadkowo losujące początkowo niezrozumiałe zestawy sennych obrazów. I tak moje senne krążenie przywodzi mnie z nieznanych mi przyczyn znów do pomników, o których pisałam już wiele razy, a być może to co najważniejsze wciąż dla mnie napisałam tutaj. I tu wszystko się rozszczepia – a może właśnie splata – bo druga część mnie jest na stronie internetowej, znalezionej przypadkiem wczoraj, o zapomnianej poezji patriotycznej.  I nie mogę się od niej opędzić, a nic nie umiem jeszcze powiedzieć, ponieważ czytam tak jak czytam, to znaczy coś czyta we mnie, coś patrzy tym wewnętrznym okiem i słucha wewnętrznym uchem, i czasem zastyga z grozy, czytając to, co dawniej wywoływało jedynie odruch irytacji, czy rozbawienia, i nie zawsze ma słowa, żeby o tym opowiedzieć. I to coś, to wewnętrzne oko, wewnętrzne ucho, jeszcze poza rozumieniem przynosi mi dziś poczucie, że słowa mogą być pomnikami, tak, być może przede wszystkim one.

rozchylam usta w noc bez snu

i uda pełne pożądania

i czuję wilgoć moich warg

gotowych do kochania

Zamykam się w sobie i odpływam… daleko… tam gdzie nikt mnie nie znajdzie, tam gdzie nikt mnie szukał nie będzie… Do swojej krainy samotności przepełnionej codzienna walką o byt, do mojego małego światka zamkniętego w czterech ścianach własnych marzeń, z których każde nie ma nawet najmniejszego prawa się spełnić. Wracam na ziemię… Koniec dryfowania w chmurach z głową pełną marzeń i snów, planów i pomysłów, życia i pasji… Opadam w dół…

Sny mówią: nigdy, przenigdy nie umawiaj się ze swoim nauczycielem angielskiego! Mimo dręczącego pożądania i duchoty ogarniającej całe ciało – on i tak cię zostawi… a zaraz po tym obleje z egzaminu końcowego.

We recently discussed the changes that have taken place inside Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) as Warren Buffett has gone higher up the food chain.  In his more focused and more opaque approach, it also seems that after a $44 billion deal including debt to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI) that Berkshire Hathaway needs to further make some changes.  Buffett has been talking on and off about a whale of a deal, and that is what we got with the BNSF buyout.  Berkshire Hathaway Inc. lists 51 different subsidiary links inside the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella that are wholly owned or dominantly owned subsidiaries.  There are also more than 40 public US-listed stock holdings in there, and that is before you get into his preferred shares, convertible debt instruments, and debt for deal financing in big public companies.

We have taken a review of the Full Buffett Holdings and come up with a geared down version of his holdings here.  Some of these ‘encouraged’ sales are because of fundamental changes, and some are merely because they are too small to be a benefit even if they tripled in price.  Some are also a follow-on for action he has already taken or already hinted at.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is an obvious exit in the oil patch.  Buffett wants continued exposure to oil, and there are better ways to get exposure for Mr. Buffett.  He has investigated the Canadian oil sands projects, and he eventually buckled to pressure to sell Chinese oil stocks.  But Buffett targeted ConocoPhillips already all on his own for sale and said he would selectively sell as a tax offset even if it rises. It was also lowered in scope over the last quarter and the recent addition of Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was the right call he should have made in the first place.  Conoco is now at a $78 billion market cap, yet Buffett cam much more easily hide Exxon with almost an unlimited amount of funds as it has a market cap north of $359 billion and is the #1 position in the 24/7 Wall St. Real-Time 500.  Buffett could get his hands on almost $3 billion for the share sale at current levels.

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is one we cannot figure out why he still has in the portfolio other than being ‘long and wrong.’  He has panned newspapers, and the rest of media is challenged still.  At 3.447 million shares, this is also worth a whopping $35 million today.  The notion that this used to be worth 5-times and 8-times more is largely irrelevant now.  The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) might actually be hard for Buffett to exit because volume is so light.  He might just be stuck with it, and its education business may offset the newspaper business.  But his 1.72 million share stake could raise $700 million today if it could be unlocked.

Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) is one that was undergoing a game-changing trend for two years before Buffett decided to start lightening up.  The business is no longer in the same right nor with the same future as it once had.  Buffett wants companies with a “forever timeline” and that is just not in the cards any longer.  Ask this… How does the future of Moody’s compare now to how it was running 5 years ago?  No matter how you cut it, Moody’s has a much less dominant role and one under much more regulation and under more public scrutiny.  We interpreted his recent comments that he’s probably exiting this one anyway…. $900 million is here.

Then there is the train and rail competition.  Buffett has already indicated the sale of competing interests in the rail arena.  That takes the 1.933 million shares of Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) and the 9.55 million shares of Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) off the table.  That was roughly $640 million at the last look.  But there is an interesting take here that has not been discussed.  If Buffett really wants to communicate the value of the rail transportation business, he could also dump his 1.429 million shares of United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS).  That stake is only worth $80 million today, and he could kill two birds with one stone: clean up a small sub-$100 million position and make the effort to further show that rail is the best transport sector to own.

On the healthcare front, Buffett has already decided to lighten up on his health insurance operators. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was listed as 3.4 million shares, down from 4.5 million in the prior quarter.  Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) was listed as 3.394 million, down slightly from 3.5 million last quarter.  But that Wellpoint stake is also down from 4.7773 million shares in Q1.  Buffett might have been an Obama-backer, but he is lightening up in these health insurance stocks.  The only reason he might not be out entirely is either because of ‘hope’ or for goodwill in D.C.  He would raise about $280 million now by unloading these, and he’d surprisingly be able to do it at close to 52-week highs in these two.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK) and Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) are technically not Buffett’s picks on his own.  It is unlikely that Buffett needs these as a source of funds.  And we do not anticipate a sale from Buffett here.  These could generate more than $200 million if they are exited.  Again, we do not expect these to be sold even though they do not fit in on the Buffett scale today.

Ingersoll-Rand Plc (NYSE: IR) is one that we think is one already on the way out and is probably already gone. He cut the stake way down, and this is worth about $23 million at today’s price.  This isn’t worth Buffett’s time, so we won’t make worth wasting our time nor your time with anything more.

SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) is just over 3 million shares, so almost $70 million today.  This may be sentimental or for posterity’s sake, and in all fairness is not one we are picking on.  But with a similarly small Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) stake, the stake size could be more easily grown in BofA if he chooses.  Buffett’s recently increased stake in Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) being worth close to $8 billion and the other banks and lenders already held make this seem to be an easy stock to relinquish.

There are two positions in public insurance holdings that either need to be added to or need to be elminated.  Frankly, Buffett has more than enough insurance exposure all the way through the private portfolio.  The Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) is in individual life and supplemental health insurance products and the 2.8 million share stake is worth just under $120 million today.  The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) was such a small stake that Buffett may have changed his mind or just got caught having his broker start buying in the last 15 minutes of the last day of the quarter.  This is literally a $1.3 million stake.  But it is now a DJIA component and I think Warren wants to show he wants to hold the better quality public stocks.  Our guess is that this will be a larger stake ahead.  If not, he just needs to sell it so that people covering Buffett can ignore it.

Will Buffett sell all these positions? No, of course not. He holds on to positions in many cases until long after they have stayed their welcome in the Buffett house.  But some he has started selling and many seem unlikely compared to the rest of his portfolio.  Many of these either do no longer fit in size nor in practice for his ‘forever’ model.  After tallying all these stakes up mentioned here, Buffett could also use $6 billion to use for funding that BNSF buyout or that he could use to buy what he has always wanted…. A utility.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Great news for those of us in the NYC area, the best three-man baseball booth will be in place next year. At the end of this miserable season, Keith Hernandez of SNY hinted that he might not be returning to the broadcast booth the next season. However, after negotiating his contract, reports are that Keith will be back through at least 2011.

His cohorts in the booth, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling are both signed through 2010 so, let’s hope this next season goes better for the Mets and this wild three-way never ends.

[NY Mets]

słowami się wesprzeć jak dłońmi obiema

i myśleć, że jesteś choć ciebie tu nie ma

i gładzić twe uda, dotykać je w myślach,

byś dotyk poczuła i do mnie tu przyszła

nim sen mi powieki opuści już senne,

by poczuć twe wargi wilgotne i pełne,

a kiedy świt z trudem odsłoni noc ciemną,

byś – chociaż cię nie ma – leżała tu ze mną,

bym oczom ten widok mógł boski uprosić,

gdy oddech półnagie twe piersi unosi…

i chociaż cię nie ma, to myśleć że jesteś…

słowami jak dłońmi obiema się wesprzeć.

Alexander

nie mogę zasnąć,

myśl o tobie rozpina moje zmysły

i biegnę do tych chwil z nadzieją

przyszłych

pochmurne niebo przed wieczorem

dogasa światło dnia

a mnie pragnienia ogarniają

i skończą w snach

bo w snach całuję twoje dłonie

i obejmuję  w pół

tak, że mnie czujesz po sam koniec

we wnętrzu moich ud

i patrzysz na mnie i nie wierzysz

że można się tak kochać

ale to tylko w snach tak można

i przy zamkniętych oczach

This was an important week for investment guru and billionaire watchers to see which gurus were holding which stocks.  The full public equity holdings of Warren Buffett via Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) were particularly of note, particularly with those B shares under “BRK-B” soon to split and giving a chance for even the less astute ranks of Joe Public to own a piece of the Berkshire dream.  Obviously the huge change is via the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI) buyout.  As part of this deal, Buffett is exiting Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) and exiting Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) stakes of about $600 million and $100 million, respectively, to avoid duplication and internal competition.  The rail transport play now accounts for about one-quarter of the total Berkshire Hathaway entity upon closing. But the less obvious position in that Warren Buffett in 2009 has made it clear that there will be a simpler and probably less “stock-hound” version of Berkshire Hathaway ahead.

Buffett has gone higher up the food chain and is likely to be a creditor now inside or to large institutions.  We have seen this during the crisis.  Buffett negotiated a better deal for Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) than the US Government was able to get.  Buffett’s preferred stock in Goldman Sachs has a dividend of 10% and is callable at any time at a 10% premium; but Buffett also got warrants to purchase $5 billion of common stock with a strike price of $115.00 per share, exercisable for a five-year term (4 years now), and Buffett would effectively get to pocket $61 per share if he exercised those all today at the market (and with a $2.6 billion warrant profit alone).

The General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) stake was listed only as 7.77 million shares of common stock (about $125 million now), the same as it has been for quarters.  Yet last year Buffett came to the rescue with a $3 billion of perpetual preferred stock in a private offering with a dividend of 10% and warrants to purchase $3 billion of common stock.  The preferred is callable after 3-years (2 years now) at a 10% premium; the warrants have a strike price of $22.25 and are exercisable for a five-year term (4 years now).

Two other investments in preferred or note offerings made in the last year during the financial crunch were in Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) in February via 10% senior notes and in Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HOG) with a 15% rate.  Neither of these are in the Buffett equity holdings.

Buffett increased his holdings in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) to 37.8 million shares versus 19.9 million shares.  This could easily be hiked from about $1.9 billion today to almost infinity with its $208 billion market cap.  With over 10% officially unemployed in the U.S., Wal-Mart has become the shopping destination of millions more of Americans and that value and thrift trend is not likely to end any time soon.

Then there is the ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) bet that Buffett got his timing very wrong on.  He cut his stake again here to 57.4 million shares versus almost 62.5 million shares and still has the tax benefit for selling.  He added Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) with a 1.27 million share stake.  As Exxon is the largest company by market cap at $357 billion, this is much easier for Buffett to invest into rather than $79 billion market cap today in ConocoPhillips.

The Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) stake which he grew yet again is worth over $8.7 billion, and Buffett could probably insert more money there through time if it gets cheap again.  Then there is the new Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) position of 3.625 million shares ($100 million today) where Buffett is just investing alongside buddy Bill Gates now that Gates’ entity has a board seat there and a huge stake.

Then there are the overseas bets, and these are just some:

• $2.5 billion into diversified Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd.
• $4 billion to buy control of Iscar Metalworking in Israel
• $230 million for a 10% stake in BYD for electric batteries in China
• $144 million or so stake in Nestle

Buffett lent $4.4 billion to Mars for the Wrigley buyout.  He also lent Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) $3 billion for part of the Rohm & Haas deal. As noted earlier, Buffett is going higher up the food chain.  In fact, he is almost becoming the default alternative investment bank.  And he has cut down and exiting equity positions as well.

Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN), in power management, and WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC), in parts and systems for mostly commercial vehicles, were dropped entirely this last quarter.  It seems as though Buffett is also systematically exiting the Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) position now that the business model has changed.  He still holds too much there, but maybe better late than never.

Buffett is also not betting against the Obama health care plan as he cut his stakes in both Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH). It will be interesting to see if Buffett hangs on to those drug company stakes in GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), at 1.51 million shares, and Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY), of more than 3.9 million shares.

Then when considering Buffett’s comments about the poor future of print media, you have to wonder if the Oracle of Omaha just won’t take his licks in Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) worth only about $39 million today and Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) worth $730 million today.

It still seems obvious that Buffett would like to hold a large utility as a wholly owned subsidiary.  That may be his next ‘whale of a deal’ after he builds his cash back up over $20 billion.  Buffett got burned on his dollar bet before, but he is active internationally.  The BNSF deal is arguably a China-coal bet rather than an “all-in bet on the future of America,” assuming that is not symbiotic.  This now makes Berkshire Hathaway even more of a financial and transport operation, with far less emphasis on public common stock bets.  And he is going higher on the food chain. It will alsways be interesting to see how Buffett invests the Berkshire Hathaway fortune.  But what is obvious is that he is starting to get out of the way of some bets and make more concentrated bets elsewhere.  The new Berkshire Hathaway is more of a financial and transportation operator now… more than ever… that is also acting as private investment banker.  The investment changes over the last year are showing more of a penchant for debt and being higher up the food chain than just common stock in the U.S.

This all acts to make Berkshire Hathaway more predictable in operations and even more of a true conglomerate.  And it makes the passive investments a bit more opaque.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, key analyst calls, and more.

Again, here is the full list of Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway US public stock holdings.

JON C. OGG
November 19, 2009

Dziś chyba w ogóle nie powinnam pisac…jest szaro i w ogóle nie można odróżnic poranka od południa, południa od zmierzchu!

Chciałabym byc całkiem sama przez dobę, nie wyłazic z domu, przemieszczac się pomiędzy sypialnią a salonem w poszukiwnaiu kolejnej filiżanki kawy, nacieszyc się ciszą.

Jakoś to życie ostatnio przyspiesza, pojawiają się nowi ludzie, wracają uniwersyteccy przyjaciele a ja sama czuję się coraz bardziej pusta.

I nie wiem, dlaczego dostaję kolejny bukiet róż, choc są prześliczne i sprawiają, że się uśmiecham.

The FDA is routinely criticized for being a poor steward of drug research and pharmaceutical side effects. The agency proved once again why much of the criticism is justified.

The FDA today said that two drugs, each of which has been on the market for many years, react badly when taken together. It is a wonder it took so long to figure this out since each of the drugs is very widely used.

Prilosec, an antacid marketed by AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), hurts the effectiveness of Plavix which is the world’s most prescribed blood thinner, Plavix is marketed by Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY) and Bristol-Myers (NYSE:BMY).

Plavix is essential to the treat heart attack victims, patients with vascular stents, and also helps prevent blood clots in the brain. Any drop in its effectiveness is likely to cause real danger to many patients using Plavix.

The FDA is slow to market with news, once again.

Douglas A. McIntyre

This is the list of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) public US equity holdings as of September 30, 2009.  As noted in the “A to F” and “G to O” lists, there have been changes since the cut off date and those have been noted where applicable. Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’

• Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, the same as before.
• Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) 3.625 million shares; NEW POSITION following Bill Gates.
• Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, same as before.
• Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) 3.079 million shares; DOWN FROM 3.2+ the quarter before.
• Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
• Travellers Cos (NYSE: TRV) 27,336; NEW POSITION but small.
• US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million; Same as quarter before.
• USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
• United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 3.4 million shares; DOWN from 4.5 million last quarter and down from over 6 million in Q1.
• Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, same as quarter before but this does not matter as Buffett is dumping his non-BNSF rail holdings.
• United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) 37.8 million; WAY UP from the 19.9+ million shares last quarter.
• Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
• Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) 313.3 million shares; ABOVE THE PRIOR 302+ million last quarter and above the 290+ million in Q1.
• Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 3.394 million; DOWN SLIGHTLY from the 3.5 million last quarter and from the 4.7773 million in Q1.
• Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) IS GONE after being 2.7 million shares last quarter.

BUFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to F’

BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘G to O’

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, key analyst calls, and more.

JON C. OGG

Senna, zamykam się po raz kolejny na jeszcze jeden zamek, owijam w kolejny sweter, umieram z zimna…

A jednak nie czuję nic.

Chciałabym, abyś przyszedł i strzepał ten szron z moich wciaż chyba nagich ramion i otulił czymś ciepłym.

Chciałabym usiąść na piasku i poczekać, aż umrze słonce – przerazona, że może tym razem już na zawsze.

I chciałabym obudzić sie w twoim uśmiechu i nie dbać, ani o sny, ani o chłod, ani o słońce.

Tonight at 7:30 p.m., SNY will debut “Mets Yearbook,” a half-hour show featuring Mets highlight films made between 1962-1988. A lot of this footage hasn’t been seen in years, so it should be fun to see some “new” material.

Tonight’s show features the 1971 material, said to include footage of an old-timers’ day game with Satchel Paige pitching.

Read more about the show at Newsday and The Mets Police, and tune in tonight if you can. It sounds like it should be fun.