9 Comments
Mar 7, 2022Liked by Frederik Gieschen

That 2010 Financial Crisis Commission interview of Buffett is significantly underrated. There are a ton of gems in there.

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Agreed, have to revisit in more detail.

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“I’m not quite sure about the legal backdrop of seizing private property of people loosely affiliated with a hostile regime”

They’re not “loosely” affiliated. You can only hold wealth at that level in Russia with explicit permission from Putin, and the money isn’t entirely yours, you’re holding it as a proxy for Putin.

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Well, "they" are not a uniform group. I guess I'm curious to read more about how that determination is made.

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I don't know, I'll leave that to lawyers. You can't always predict every single future situation in laws.. But they are de facto part of Russia's ruling clique and are holding the assets of Putin, so like with the magnitsky act, they are legitimate targets for sanctions if you want to target the regime. Kind of like you may want to target the family and cronies of Kim Jong Un or the Iranian Ayatollahs too if it came to that.

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I get that and I'm not arguing the legitimacy. I probably shouldn't have used the term "loosely." I'm just interested in who is determining which citizens and companies are part of the regime and how.

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For example, Odd Lots podcast had a sanctions expert on who talked about the State Department and Treasury coordinating sanctions. Just strikes me all of this will continue to be an important process to understand for some time.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7lXlLaDoIVaFChKV3dO4TR?si=82998e11c0cd41b5

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Mar 5, 2022·edited Mar 5, 2022

Fred,

curious to know if you are actively investing yourself? I believe having skin in the game giving one perspectives an mere observer can never have. Potentially make one a better financial journalist as well.

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Yes, I agree that skin in the game is important.

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