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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Madharry who wrote (30946)	5/14/2008 11:15:51 AM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78732

It's not as black and white as you suggest. If - a big if - I had money to buy the debt at discounted prices, I could retire it all at exactly the number specified on the balance sheet - the market price. Of course the problem is that MBI or anyone does NOT have money to retire the debt and that's why it's trading below par. ;) However to suggest that they are cooking the books somehow is not really correct. I like what Marty Whitman says about financial reports, to paraphrase: "Financial reports cannot be prepared and should not be prepared as if they could provide simple answers to equity investors. Most of the adjustments are made to make the some number 'simpler', but this just confuses matters more. Financial reports should be prepared so that sophisticated investors could figure out what they need to know about the company and that's it." Take a look at Berkshire financials. Buffett is supposed to be a gold standard in investment community, yet I can pretty much guarantee that you will not be able to figure out what the values, investments and risks are from Berkshire report.