YouSaid · the spoken record

Bruce Berkowitz

lines on the record: 97
first: 2024-02-18
most recent: 2024-02-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Yes, I've been told that. I think you're absolutely right. I mean, when you The internet has created a whole new insanity for me, the ability to go back 10 years. And as you do, go back to what someone said 10 years ago, five years ago, a year ago, how they've changed, doesn't make sense what they're saying. Are they willing to address their mistakes of the past? Is it fairly consistent? Spend a lot of time digging in. a lot of time, especially if it's a public company with tens of billions of dollars with a tremendous amount of information on it. And some people know how much to go, and that's enough. But that's the problem with focused investing. If it's 1%, maybe you could stop there. But if you want to make it a meaningful difference in your life, you keep going, especially if it's interesting.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wish you much success. I'm very impressed with your research. I mean, you pulled out some nuggets I haven't thought about in a long time. So I don't even remember talking about that in any interview, some of it. So you have the great skill. Of the digging in for the investor.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nothing to complain about, no hardship, feel good, still have, I think, a good 20 years left in me. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. Because if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it. I don't think, I mean, after decades, I don't think he can fake it. I mean, you have to enjoy it or you won't do it. And if anything, I'm learning more. And I have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wish I could tell you more about my family history, but it goes back a few generations. There wasn't even to a large extent discussed. And growing up was very, you know, could be very difficult. So I understood what it was like to not have any money or to be hungry or not to be out of war. When you go through that kind of hardship as a kid, Don't seem that difficult to have to put up with these severe blows. I mean, I've That's the way I rationalize it. I'm very lucky, super lucky that I'm alive at an age. Some people don't make it to. Kids are happy and healthy. Wife still loves me”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So happy. I try to. I don't want to make it sound like it's that easy, right? A lot of high-performing people are very critical of themselves. Sometimes it's difficult to move forward. But rarely what you learn is your ultimate success is based upon how well you do after a failure. Everyone has plenty, you know, no one's adding a thousand. The question is how do you change your way? How do you perform after it? How do you handle that failure, learn from it, and move on?”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I don't have big regrets. In fact, I'm quite happy. Instead of having a disaster with Fanny and Freddie, what happens if it was a disaster with Wells Fargo early in my career?”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm trying to. There's no one that's more critical. I know what I've made a mistake and I feel it and analyze it to death. I mean, in terms of post-mortems. Let it go and move on.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One aspect may be more up to Tracy than is to me in terms of being tolerant. I think the case of Tracy, I'm sure she's keeping one eye closed when looking at me. I think that's a good idea for everyone to do. You go into something with both eyes wide open, but you got to relax a little bit, keep one eye closed. And you got to realize your children are different than you are. They're going to pursue their own path, and you want them to be happy and healthy and productive. And that's all you can ask for. Anything else is a cherry on the topping. So it's more you'll have to ask Tracy that question about how she's been willing to put up with me as opposed to my ability to keep Tracy happy. Staying with me when she sees this pretty monotonous daily routine”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, they know the most of it's going to be given away via the foundation. And other than that, I just try and help them and give them advice when they want to hear it from me and keep telling them to do what they like. I didn't know anything of art, but Chloe art history and had a knack for artwork. So a supporter in that, Daniel with real estate. I'll support him with that. My son Alex is finishing up law school. So I don't have the slightest idea what type of law he'll be practicing. So whatever makes them happy and productive, that's really all that I care about.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You hit the nail on the head. I'll start with the annual reports. Then when I'm done with the Kindle and or the PDFs, then it's straight to audiobooks, especially the latest was, who is it? The latest club smell. Is energy and civilization very prolific author.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I think that is fair, that less volatility, less chance of what I would call takers, people out there that can take what you have, either by regulation or taxation. Yes, I keep narrowing the list down. The list of possibilities are getting slimmer and slimmer. And maybe I'm studying waste management and rebar and alternative technologies for rebar and the great redomestication of industry in the United States and the implications of interest rates going up. And I keep trying to talk to smart people who I respect. And that's my day. And let me tell you, it goes by very quickly. Five o'clock in the morning starts. The only difference is I don't stay up as late anymore.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Game and most people, I don't think I'm as smart as they are, nor as good looking. I realize every year more and more I have a certain circle of competence. And basically it comes down to following the cash and coming up with some simple valuation methodologies. And then going into minutia. I mean, to try and figure out if I have a long term edge. So to some extent, There may be common elements, but I frankly Know how Bill does what he does with macroeconomics. I don't know how Michael Price had a handle on so many different companies. I'm just going to stay focused on doing what I believe I can do well and continue to do. And just as Charlie Munger would say, you just need a few ideas in a lifetime to be wildly successful. And that's what I've stayed focused on.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I fail at hiring people that can do the job that was needed. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I selected the wrong people for the wrong tasks. Or, you know, or I thought person A who was confident in a certain area could extend that competence to an adjacent area. It didn't work out. And in the end, I found out that Would have to do their work anyway. So it was less work for me to do it to begin with. I've always been focused.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My, you know, my greatest success was when I was a lone wolf, when I had a relatively simple operation and I was 100% responsible for the investments. And that's the case today. I have failed miserably in trying to develop a team of people that I could pass the torch on to. I have failed in every way known. And I've now come to the conclusion I'm just not capable of doing that. So I'm staying very focused on the investment process. And I let everybody else handle the widgets and the accounting and compliance. And very good people to do it. But I am the solely responsible for the investments of Fair Home, including the research.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very much still trying to. I very much know that I still have a lot to learn. And I try and learn a little something every day.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm still working long hours, but it's much less with talking with people than it is just investigating, just continuing to try and figure out how the world works, whether it's understanding on new investments in energy-related assets. The latest in the text codes and the various production incentives or how everything correlates with everything else, I'm still fascinated by that. And I'm learning more about topics that I wish I learned more about in college, whether it's how electricity really works or quantum physics for computers or just basic chemistry, biology, and how that relates to the investments. So I have become more amused on learning different aspects and improving my education, more so than I would have thought. I'm definitely not playing golf, and I'm definitely not out there raising money.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Surge. And you have the latest in infrastructure, whether it's gray water management, freshwater, electrical wires, underground. I mean, you have modern infrastructure. So it's quite good. It's actually quite a positive for the area. So we've been through bad weather and we come out of it bigger and better because people realize the natural defenses of the area.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Were right on the bay, but no flooding, construction, no issues. And it's the safest part of Florida. So, I mean, people in Florida will continue to build up in the same way people build up in Venice or in other areas. But you're already built up in northwest Florida. So the insurance costs are reasonable. You just don't have the issues don't exist, even though there's a perception that they do. And yeah, it's a problem. If you're living in a double eyed on the bay, you have an issue. But if you have a house or a townhome or an apartment that's fairly new, something that St. Joe's been involved in, you have a very durable house and you have an elevation where you don't have to worry about.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“An issue for Miami. It's an issue for the East Coast. It's an issue for the West Coast. I mean, the elevation of Miami International Airport, I think it's one foot or seven feet. I can't remember. I mean, all the airports are basically zero elevation. I've been through a hurricane in Long Island. I've been through a hurricane in Miami. St. Joe is elevated. The land, most of the land is between 20 and 70 plus feet above sea level. So there's no surge. There's no surge. Everything. It's fairly new construction. I mean, there are some old parts, but everything that St. Joe does is built to the latest hurricane standards. So even during Hurricane Michael, there was very little damage. The only damage we had was to our couple of marinas, which”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's less ego. Much less ego driven. No, I'm in the third act now. Of a three act leg. Very happy. Want to spend more time with my family. I want to see St. Joe develop into the company it's becoming it should become. And I just want to figure out ways to just these days generate much more cash flow because of the higher interest rates and trying to figure out ways to lower the duration of investments because people, I am a bit worried about all the different possible events around the world and I want to make sure that we're ready for the portfolios are ready for it and the companies in which I've invested in, they are ready for whatever adversity. In fact, not just ready for it, but being able to take advantage of it. What form that comes higher interest rates?”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I feel like the downs was so long ago. I feel like the last few years are getting better. Last year was great. And I believe when the portfolio is in a good position, my family's in a great position. Control my day. Do what I want, only talk to the people I want to. And learning new, and I'm continuing to learn and reading on subjects and understanding where I put my mind somewhere else, petroleum industry, midstream services. I never thought I would be reading books on hydrocarbons and understanding the chemistry and trying to, you know, I spend an awful lot of time trying to figure out how the world really works. And I get significant joy from that. Yes, I want to do better. Yes, I want better performance. But I really just want better performance for the people who are with me. And that's it.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the road or building a business. And I look forward to the future still many years left. And I believe I'm wise. And I don't think I'm going to make the same mistakes. And I'm looking forward to the next 20 or 30 years. But on my terms, where it's enjoyable, I don't market. I don't raise money. I don't look for no. I'm only dealing with people who want to be with me. And that's it. And so I've changed dramatically and appreciative of the past with all its ups and downs and look forward to the future.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't pay a lot of attention to what people write. I never did, and I haven't. And I'm grateful for what I have. I mean, it's been a very interesting road. And I look back and I think, boy Done a lot better than I ever thought I would. Have a great family Spend time with them, especially make up all those times. You didn't spend time with your family when you were.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, the tips are very painful. Some people say it's easy, but it isn't. It's easier for your own money than it is for your clients and shareholders. Because let's face most shareholders are going to base you based upon the price movement on a daily basis of the fund. That's it. They don't want to really know about the basics. You try and explain the company's good. try and give analogies and so on. Most aren't interested. They just want to see you make the money in it, a possible way. It's just there's no free lunch. It's either not free or it's not lunch. Life isn't that smooth up and to the right process.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Afford for the investment to go down any lower in value. And of course, the answer is going to be no, and that's going to be the rationale for selling the investment. Usually that takes place when people do not have the appropriate liquidity to put aside. Yeah, I think it's important for anyone I'm dealing with or dealing with me that they do have a significant amount in cash. they don't develop huge levels of anxiety over the investments. That'd be the first one to tell them to take money out.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I always have. And I felt the need to. I mean, for unknown unknowns, emergencies, I can't control. And I do it for the funds now. And I have, always had a relatively high hash position for client and for my funds. Yes, it is all that it's financial valium. It gives you flexibility, you should necessary liquidity. Financial valiant being that you don't have to worry about paying the bills and you could think about what something's going to be worth five, ten years rather than tomorrow. Well, get to that critical point that so many people do where they go through a very difficult period and then say to themselves, they always get to the same place, can I afford to lose anymore? In other words, can I?”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Though it's just a shareholder meant each of the funds by far, anything outside of the funds has invested the way I've invested for my other shareholders. I am in. Any investments that Not offering to other shareholders. Once in a while, I'll do something with my children just to help them progress. But no, I don't invest with others, even though they're quite successful people out there. I'm strictly eating the cooking of what I've done for investors and whether it's for my charitable foundation, family. Next generation, we're all in it together. And over time, the funds will be more diversified It's going to take some time.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There is a mismatch. There is a mismatch in terms of you have a daily liquidity of a mutual fund. You have a very large position. The only way I can sort of handle that mismatch is by having being the significant shareholder in the fund and having a significant amount of cash. And when the positions become quite large, continuing to sell some at appropriate times. It is a problem that people want people, investors want it both ways. I mean, you're one investment of many. So how much diversification does a person need that multiple managers, multiple funds, but then you want diversification within each one of those separate funds? I could understand it, but you might as well go into an index fund.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thirds in the United States Treasury bills, and it's done quite so there's a bit of a variation, but I understand if people are not interested in what I'm doing. I'm going to stay with it until the last shareholder leaves. And then I'll be done.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I accept it. And that most of my shareholders I don't know. I mean, I can't really even communicate with my shareholders because if they go through a brokerage firm, that information is considered private. So I'll have a name schwab. Schwab will be a shareholder. But who those investors are schwab? I don't know. So I try and write once in a while. I try and be clear. I try and make sure I eat my own cooking so that I can, you know, I feel the pain. I feel the joy. I have a second fund, which is quite different than the first, which is a focused income fund, which has a very good record, especially for a period, the period we've been through with interest rates. That portfolio, believe us, roughly two.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you have to do what you like. I mean, because it requires a tremendous amount of work. So you have to follow what you like to do and what you think is going to win. It was always my desire to invest clients' money the way I would invest my money. It wasn't to build a fabulous investment firm that could be sold. It was that for a reasonably small amount of money, so everybody take the ride together. And we get to a point, you know, if a St. Joe ended up becoming a Berkshire Hathaway and it was no longer an investment, but everyone had their St. Joe shares distributed and St. Joe did well for everyone. What a nice way to end.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“County assessors of Walton County or Bay County, you could see the transaction prices and what's going on there. It's quite good.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't take a penny of compensation. I don't even ask for my expenses to be reimbursed. Don't take a board salary. I've never taken a share of stock. And I won't. If St. Joe does well, I'll do very well. And all shareholders will do very well. And I'm going to point to my life where I want to see that. And I'm going to point now with St. Joe where I can start talking about the cash flows. It's not just the value of the real estate, but it very much is. Think about it. If you combine company and you buy it at $2,500 an acre, it's not that hard a stretch to think about $5,000 an acre, $10,000, $25,000, $100, a million dollars an acre. It just takes time. But we're seeing it now. If you go through the tax roll, you go to the”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was running Sears. I would have done for Sears what I recommended to do at St. Joe, except at St. Joe. I'm the chairman. And the management scene agreed with me. I mean, it took time to find a management team that would agree with me. But it's very sensible. You have to do what's best for all shareholders. You can't be big, wealthy guy that has the ability to roll the dice and take a chance. And, you know, I believe that if you're going to be the chairman of a company, you have to be somewhat the captain of the ship. If your ship's going down, you should go down with the ship. You should not tank your shareholders. Or you should not see your shareholders suffer. That's why it's St. Joe. I don't take a penny.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But never came. So eventually, if I gave up, I thought. Would have been easy, Eddie Lampert's a smart guy. Thought it would have been easy for him to see that the only true defense would be to Focus on the real estate, similar to Alexander and Alexander's and other retail stories of the past, where these retailers were in very popular places, very valuable land. We're not far away from where people lived. And all you're seeing it happen now everywhere. And it should have happened to seers.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had a very simple thesis about CS that it was one of the largest real estate empires in the world. And that from a failed retailer can come a great real estate portfolio. That was my point. And that's what I was trying to push for. I thought it was very reasonable I thought it was sensible I did not think Sia's was going to become the next Amazon, even though Amazon did become the next Sears The board didn't agree with me. Eddie Lampert didn't agree with me. Today, I think that's exactly what they're doing. They're trying to convert all of their remaining real estate into productive mixed-use places, which makes tremendous sense to me. But it would have been a painful process, yes, with employees and so on. But that was my simple point There always seemed to be the recovery of retail always seemed to be right around the corner”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it's crack cocaine for the government now. I mean, how are you going to give up that kind of monthly income when you want to make sure, when you want to expand the social services net or you have an election coming up or you want to show the deficits not as bad or whatever you want to use, tens of billions of dollars a year for.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the government is less reliable than the guy upstairs I can't handicap it anymore. I thought that it was, if you told me that I would lose nine to zero in the Supreme Court of the United States over an issue of ownership and whether or not preferred share owners had a say. On 34 $36 billion of investments, you would think you'd have some say. It's a very country's going down a very slippery slope. Now, I understand some people thought this had to be done, but come on. They've made hundreds of billions of dollars, and now they're just a piggy bank for social programs.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If I thought the rules would not change, and they probably will not change, then there are potentially some very good investments out there. And I am looking at a few banks. But the situation is a lot worse than portrayed in the quarterly reports of financial institutions.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fairly well. There's more than enough earnings power from the company. And that's where I wrote the piece on Wells Fargo many moons ago. And you looked at their pre-perk, you looked at their pre-provision, pre-tax, and they had more than enough wearwithal to get through their problems. They were going to come out and they were going to hit spectacular earnings. Now, the saying should be true. Of the banks today, unless the rules change, but there is this problem with their equity assets. And if they're required to keep the 10, 12, 15% equity assets and there was really accounted for properly, they would not have it. When you would see significant nationalizations across the board So if I understood”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was literally counting the cash flows of the companies in the case of the banks when you looked at their earnings pre-tax, pre-provisioning, you saw a huge cash flows. And those cash flows were going to be needed to resolve bad loans that they may have put on the books, like the proverbial pig going through the Python. there would be a limited amount of time. At the same time, banks put on the very best loans during the most difficult times. They tightened up their standards. They charge more, they ask for more. They want more equity. Tough time. Banks put on money, good loans, the safest of loans. So you could easily see how this was all going to end. And it was going to end.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Banks truly mocked all of their assets to mock it, not just their investments, but their loans. For example, if Bank of America gives me a whole mortgage, a 30-year mortgage for 3%, what is that mortgage that they're holding worth today? It's not 100 cents on the dollar. But that loan, that mortgage will be on their books at 100 cents on the dollar. And if a regulator ever decides that we're entering a new period of regulatory accounting, must be marked to what they can be sold for, both loans and investments, then a lot of major players would be have significant equity deficits. And then it would be up to Wanted two individuals to decide who wins, who loses, who lives, who dies. It surely will not be up to the owners of the company.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The government, two government agencies did a deal with themselves with each other as to how to keep all the money and push out all the owners for undetermined amount of time. Yes, that's basically what happened. Under conservativeship, a conservator, or in the case of Fannie and Freddie, a federal conservator can do whatever's ever in the best interest of not just the estates, but for what's best for the country, which is a, turns out to be a slightly different definition of what it means to be in conservatorship. And if that's the end, you saw it recently with the bank takeovers, high flying one day gone to Malaro. The owners did not have a chance to put more money in. They did not have a say in the matter. They were just told, you're wiped out. So if, you know, given how interest rates Risen from zero to where they are today.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Whatever you want to come up with, then what does that have to say about your ownership position in those companies where the owners had no say, no vote, and where companies don't even talk to the owners? So normally I would be a very heavy investor in banks today, given the rising interest rate. So it's pretty obvious what was going to happen with interest rates going up. And the fair market value of banks' assets and liabilities dramatically changing, but how do you invest in a business where, again, one regulator on one panicky day can take your assets away from you?”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've been forced to change the way I invest. If you look at my history, it was Wells Fargo. It was Goldman Sachs. It was a Bank of America coming back. It was AIG. And then it was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still in conservativeship after generating hundreds of billions of dollars. And after I lost 9-0 in the Supreme Court of the United States on the issue of can the government continue to keep all the money that Freddie and Fanny earns? You have to come to the conclusion that in highly regulated industries, there's a possibility that ownership is an illusion. In other words, if one bureaucrat can decide that two companies with five, six trillion dollars of assets can be taken in the name of national security.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Beats to MLPs that investor has to think about. But it's a great cash flow. The money comes in and up markets, down markets, sideways markets, at least over the last 25 years. And the next 25 years look pretty good. It's an easier story than saying, Joe. And I wish I understood the nature of midstream companies sooner. I'm sorry, it's a bit of a random process sometimes how you get from one place to another. But I'm very impressed with the company. And you can count the cash easily. And the cash is quite significant. And you're starting off with a 10% roughly about a 10% cash yield, distributable cash flow. And it's going to grow every year. That's all you need in this life to do very well. I think the richest man in the world in days gone by, I think 9% was all he needed”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's happening. The US is already reducing its emissions. It's just the rest of the world that wants a higher quality that's catching up. And Deprize and others have done a very good job in efficiently getting there, helping the United States to become energy independent, especially what's going on with Russia, Ukraine, whether it's Iran. It's good that the United States is energy independent. It's good that the United States is able to help their friends when it comes to energy. But throughout history, energy seems to have been the ultimate form of wealth or currency. So the product's not going anywhere. It's absolutely essential. We're going to use more of it. We're going to use it in a cleaner way. And enterprise is going to continue to grow. And seven and a half percent distribution. Now it's a master limited partnership. So there's some attributes.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Allows them to make a good profit. So that's why I call it a toll booth where you want to call it an annuity with upside. And they're going to be in the lead with now carbon sequestration. That is capturing of carbon from the flu stack and getting it underground. We eventually turns into rock or whether it's going to be the ammonia hydrogen value chain. Hydrocarbons are not going anywhere. We need them for 97% of all products. If you take a look at medications, Thailand, all aspirin, ibupropan, you name it, Advil, all the names, they're all petroleum-based. Most drugs are. So the product is needed. It needs to be delivered in a cleaner form if it's going to be used for energy transportation.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The case of enterprise, they have a very large distributable cash flow, about three and a half dollars per share. They pay out 7.5% dividend distribution, a bit over $2 per share. So they've averaged $12, $13 to 15% per annum on the investment over the past 25 years. They've increased their dividend every year. behave in a way that allows them to make money at all price environments. You look back, it didn't matter the price of oil, natural gas, or enterprise, their fee basis.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And wood products. I mean, we burn more coal than we've ever burned. We burn more wood than we've ever burned. I mean, just substituting natural gas, a much cleaner energy source would be a huge element in cleaning up the environment. And especially when the world is growing and everybody around the world, they want what we have. They want a high quality of life. And there's a direct correlation between energy usage and quality of life.”
2024-02-18 · We Study Billionaires · RWH041: Ignore the Crowd w/ Super-investor Bruce Berkowitz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT