What Are You Currently Reading? 2015

[Backwards Observer]

NICAP: The UFO Evidence by Richard H. Hall (ed.)


Our Dumb World by the Onion

[Roy Batty]

All of Shakespeare's English history plays. They're full of martial pomp, skullduggery and sly dealings, royalist egomania, spectacle and flourish...and contain some of his most memorable characters, such as Richard III, Falstaff, and Henry V.

In historical sequence, they are:

Richard the Second
Henry the Fourth, Part One
Henry the Fourth, Part Two
Henry the Fifth
Henry the Sixth, Part One
Henry the Sixth, Part Two
Henry the Sixth, Part Three
Richard the Third

...I'm leaving out Henry the Eighth and King John because they're annoying.

[Firn]

Berkshire was a mighty success in the last fifty year and any long-term shareholder's slice has become much more valuable. Two special letters were written by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman to look fifty years back and fifty ahead. Munger came up with a handy list of the 'Berkshire system' which has some queer similarities with Truppenfuehrung of all things and some of the stuff in the Human face of War. Obviously there are also vast differences between one 'business' and the other, and I'm no fan of, let us say, Clausewitz for Business. Still in some cases the essence is surprisingly similar.

The management system and policies of Berkshire under Buffett (herein together called “the Berkshire system”) were fixed early and are described below:

(1) Berkshire would be a diffuse conglomerate, averse only to activities about which it could not make useful predictions.

(2) Its top company would do almost all business through separately incorporated subsidiaries whose CEOs would operate with very extreme autonomy.

(3) There would be almost nothing at conglomerate headquarters except a tiny office suite containing a Chairman, a CFO, and a few assistants who mostly helped the CFO with auditing, internal control, etc.

(4) Berkshire subsidiaries would always prominently include casualty insurers. Those insurers as a group would be expected to produce, in due course, dependable underwriting gains while also producing substantial “float” (from unpaid insurance liabilities) for investment.

(5) There would be no significant system-wide personnel system, stock option system, other incentive system, retirement system, or the like, because the subsidiaries would have their own systems, often different.

(6) Berkshire’s Chairman would reserve only a few activities for himself. [ For a 'few activities' a rather long and remarkable list follows]

---------------

Why did Berkshire under Buffett do so well?

Only four large factors occur to me:

(1) The constructive peculiarities of Buffett,
(2) The constructive peculiarities of the Berkshire system,
(3) Good luck, and
(4) The weirdly intense, contagious devotion of some shareholders and other admirers, including some in the
press.

I believe all four factors were present and helpful. But the heavy freight was carried by the constructive peculiarities, the weird devotion, and their interactions.

P.S: Could not resist to post a picture of Berkshire's HQ team, which handles many key tasks of company currently Nr. 5 in US market cap with 'unbelievable efficiency' to quote Buffett.



To be true two could not make it, so it is not quite complete...

[Bill Moore]

Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe

http://www.amazon.com/Savage-Contine.../dp/125003356X

This book certainly shattered the narrative I had regarding Western Europe after WWII. I was quite familiar with cases of retribution and starvation in the West, but not to the scale depicted in this very informative book. Actually the level of chaos and violence in Iraq and Afghanistan in the aftermath of our invasions paled in comparison to the level of violence and chaos in many parts of Europe. High rates of starvation, continued genocide against the Jews (and other groups), U.S. abuse of German prisoners, millions of refugees that took years to resettle, etc.

The author uses numerous primary sources, and does a good job of citing known and suspected numbers (which often varied greatly), and why there is a discrepancy. While I suspect most serious readers of SWJ realize that high levels of savage violence are quite possible in so-called civilized western society, no reader will have any doubt that what we're seeing in Iraq is not unique to Islam. In Europe, in the aftermath of WWII, there were also beheadings, setting people on fire, intentional starvation, destruction of entire towns, etc. A good, even if unpleasant read.

[Backwards Observer]

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

Quartered Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser

[Firn]

After the fine Where Iron Crosses Grow (now pretty cheap with Kindle) I picked up Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front. So far it is pretty good.

Such a vast conflict within a 'world' war is so rich in detail of living, fighting and dying that it is difficult if not impossible to come to concise and clear conclusions. The author does, so far, a good job to put things into context. The importance which training, experience, often superb leadership on many levels, radios, a combined arms approach among others player should be by now well understood. This goes as well for the woeful operational and tactical preperation of Soviet units in midst of a reorganization, the almost non-existent tactical radio communication, lack of ammunition and fuel and so forth. A huge part of the Soviet soldiers were put by this combination in an ofen at best very difficult situation which greatly reduced their ability to fight effectively. So strangely the 'tank shock' is one of those things which stand out for me. The great difficulties if not inability of German tank and AT weapons to penetrate 'medium' and heavy Soviet armor, are actually similar to the one's with heavy Allied one. The sheer number of hits some KV suffered while fighting mirrors instances in France, with the crews of puny AT-guns and Tanks shooting and hitting skillfully and in vain till death. While there is a huge scope in training, organization, people's quality and so forth but one still needs the proper tools to do the job against such strong resistance. The whole package counts both ways.



P.S: Both 'The Viaz'ma Catastrophe, 1941' and the 'The Rzhev Slaughterhouse' are now the available for Kindle at roughly half the price I payed for the hardcovers. The former is in my humble opinion especially valuable.

[Firn]

PAM 20-202 German Tank Maintenance In World War II enriches that side of the story.

In the course of the war it became evident that the factors determining the operation of a tank maintenance service varied according to theater of operations, technical developments, etc. These varia-
tions necessitated constant adaptation and improvement in the organic structure and equipment of the maintenance units. Consequently, no standard tank maintenance system having a general application could be evolved. On the other hand, some basic principles worth remembering can be derived from the German experience in World War II.

It is worth to point out that the peacetime logic of a centralized 'factory maintance' was obviously more compelling and efficent in peace. It also made some more money. In war it was obviously different. From an social and economic point this aspect was fascinating:

Since the advance dumps and army group depots were usually out of those parts for which there was a heavy demand, the tank maintenance companies began to send details to the depots to represent their interests. Upon the arrival of a supply train carrying spare parts, each detail tried to secure the parts its company needed most urgently. When more and more companies adopted this procedure the depots became the scenes of fierce struggles for priority items. As soon as a detail had secured some parts, it would contact its parent organization by radio or telephone. In a matter of minutes the trucks would be on their way to the depots to pick up the spoils.

...

More arbitrary measures were often employed by some of the tank maintenance company commanders who believed that they were acting in the interest of their own unit. During the latter part of the war
some of them even resorted to bribery. Others would contact manufacturers in the zone of interior outside of normal channels to procure parts directly at the source. Occasionally, even tactical com-
manders took part in the hunt for parts when the number of serviceable tanks at their disposal began to dwindle.

...

Such expedients obviously did more harm than good. Moreover, the persistent shortage of spare parts affected the morale of the tank maintenance personnel who, though capable and willing, were unable
to accomplish their mission at a time when every tank counted.

[Steve the Planner]

Razor's Edge.

To Backwards Observer's selection, I am on my third lifetime read of this book.

Curious provenance that I think is accurate. Christopher Isherwood was in Berlin (He was the Caberet inspiration of the Englishman). Maughan and he were (Gay) friends. Isherwood, after many adventures, moved to Santa Monica, CA, to work as a screen writer with all the other Euro ExPats: Huxley, Hesse, and later, Maughan.

After all of his adventures, Isherwood settled down in Santa Monica and found religion---Buddhism, etc., later providing the English Translation of the Bagavadgita. Isherwood was Larry (Razor's Edge) and Siddartha (Hesse) and appeared in many other guises (Cabaret) by that group of writers--- including his own (Mr. Norris Changes Trains, I ama Camera, Etc...)..

From the above, my exploration of the backstory for Razor's Edge took me far afield from what I expected, but confirmed that (like Maughan's Larry) Isherwood did become the Boatman, popping up in many places with a wry smile (Cheshire Cat?).

[Backwards Observer]

Hi Steve!

Back in the day on the other side of the Pacific from Santa Monica, one of the reasons for callow scribes to sit on the verandah at the Raffles Hotel (buying one ice lemon tea for the whole afternoon, looking thoughtful, learning to smoke ciggies cough, not writing anything) was the Somerset Maugham/assorted notable authors angle.

Maugham was but one of many writers who immortalised the historic hotel. Among those who sojourned there included Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Han Suyin, James Michener and so many more. Many of them lend their immortal words and even their names to the hotel. A few had suites named after them.

Somerset Maugham first visited Raffles Hotel in 1921, and was inspired to write the short stories contained in The Casuarina Tree. Shutzman wanted to use Maugham's name in promoting the hotel and wrote to the author to ask his permission, and invited him to stay at Raffles. Maugham answered, declining the invitation but granting the hotel both the use of his name and his quote that Raffles Hotel "stands for all the fables of the exotic East" in advertisements.

Raffles Hotel, The Grand Old Lady of Singapore, has Its Own Museum. - thaiairways.com

Regarding 'The Razor's Edge'; the consensus seems to be that it was kinda goofy, but I actually preferred the film! I'm shallow.



Also Bill M. (Murray, that is.)