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Ladies and gentlemen, this is 
the Business Brew. 

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I'm your host Bill Brewster for 
programming Update V2 V1 was a 

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banger of a show got uploaded. 
Then I realized had no sound. 

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So here goes attempt to bound to
also be a banger. 

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Now for real, it's not going to 
be that much, but I wanted to 

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communicate with you all because
sometimes I'll be listening to 

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my favorite podcast and then 
it'll just kind of go dark and 

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I'll say, huh, I wonder what's 
going on on the other end of 

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that. 
So here's what's been going on 

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on the other end of this mic. 
I recorded a podcast with David 

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Thomas, author of the Fairfax 
way. 

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It was a good conversation. 
I went to edit it and the file 

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was corrupted. 
So that episode did not happen. 

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At least it wasn't released. 
I do recommend the book if you 

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are going through Christmas 
presents and you say to 

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yourself, self, they did not get
me what I wanted this year. 

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Check out the Fairfax Way, 
especially if you're interested 

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in insurance. 
I think that that book does a 

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great job giving you the history
of Fairfax. 

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But you know when I say it that 
way, it's not that exciting. 

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I think that the reading of the 
early years, buying insurance 

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companies for what looks like 
cheap valuations, appreciating 

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how much time and and money and 
work was required to then re 

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vamp those insurance operations 
and get them to an acceptable 

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operating level. 
The I guess Andy Bernard, you 

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know, comes into that 
organization changes it a lot. 

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The appreciating where Prem 
comes from, appreciating how the

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the tenure of the people that 
are there. 

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I mean, it's just it's a solid 
book and you know, it's it's 

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funny. 
I I was not even open to the 

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idea of Fairfax and this is, you
know, dumb, but whatever it is 

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until Charlie Nashef came on the
podcast and then I was listening

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to the podcast and I said to 
myself, boy, that's pretty dumb.

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Some of the things that I have 
gotten hung up on. 

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On the other hand, you know, so 
the the deflation hedge was a 

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real, real drag and and cannot 
be sort of waved away. 

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It did follow a short on, you 
know, the GFC and housing. 

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So one can understand how they 
wanted to make another macro 

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bet. 
I would argue that it was 

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structured wrong. 
I think they would agree. 

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So, you know, it, it helped 
contextualize a little bit more 

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of the history of the business. 
And you know, I don't know, 

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stock stocks ripping while 
they're acquiring companies and 

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putting up combined ratios above
100 and then stock drifts down. 

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Now, you know, now it's it's 
sort of rebounded to at least in

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line with some peers below a 
lot. 

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But like Markell and it are 
roughly the same. 

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So common, common history with 
Markell. 

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So just a lot of stuff there. 
Anyway, I wish that the episode 

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had worked. 
I'm going to try to do something

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similar, but different. 
I don't know what the right way 

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to go about. 
What's the what do I want to say

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the right way to go about 
helping David Thomas promote his

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book? 
Because I think it's a boat book

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that's worth promoting. 
And I think if people are 

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interested in business history, 
it's a read that they would 

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enjoy. 
So that's what went on. 

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Then we had Christmas. 
So the pencils down for the most

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part until January. 
I'm going to start getting some 

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interviews on the books here 
shortly. 

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Hope you all had a wonderful 
Christmas with your family. 

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Had a solid one with mine. 
The kids are happy. 

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I got a Gnu Enu which is 
basically a canoe with a tiller 

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motor and I got it for a dollar 
and I got it 18 months ago and I

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sent it off to get fixed. 
And it turns out that when you 

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have a GNU and somebody has a 
real boat fixing operation, you 

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go to the back of the line. 
And I also didn't really care 

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about getting the boat back, 
because I've always heard the 

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best two days in a boater's 
life, or the day he gets a boat 

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and the day he gives one away. 
So I haven't been a real eager 

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to dip my toe into that water. 
But a Christmas miracle 

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occurred, the thing came back, 
and I'll be damned if I haven't 

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enjoyed dropping it in the 
water. 

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And driving around with a little
15 horsepower tiller motor, I 

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feel like a kid. 
And as long as I don't kill 

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myself, that'll be great. 
So I, I believe Progressive has 

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a bid right now on the 
insurance. 

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So they may get a, a little 
bump, a $40 a year bump in the 

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insurance revenue. 
So build that into your models 

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folks. 
Anyway, what else? 

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Oh, the basic capital episode 
has really, I've thought about 

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it a lot. 
I, I think that there were some 

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things said about Jack Bogle 
that I was not able to verify. 

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I don't know if they're true. 
They may be true. 

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I can't verify them. 
I the big question I have is, is

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the product legit? 
And where I'm coming from here 

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is a 30 year mortgage on a 
house. 

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I fundamentally do not think is 
the most productive use of debt 

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for most people to build wealth.
So the idea of trying to get 

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long term non callable debt to 
buy productive assets is 

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something that intrigues me very
much. 

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How it happens, why there's a 
spread between the individual 

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and the portfolio of companies 
that they're lending to. 

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Those questions I still have 
many questions about. 

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My understanding thus far is 
that the the individual is in an

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LLC with basic capital and the 
individual is 20% in the LLC 

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basic capital is 80% of the LLC 
and then I think that their 

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equity, basic capitals equity is
structured as a preferred 

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equity. 
So I gather that when you have 

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100% capitalization that maybe 
that reduces, I mean, I, I 

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understand that that should 
reduce your borrowing costs. 

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I have some questions as to 
whether or not that makes sense 

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when you're collateral is a pool
of loans that traded a higher 

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spread. 
I, I just don't fully, I still 

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don't fully understand why that 
financing spread exists. 

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Seems to me that a individual is
a riskier bet than a private or 

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a private credit company. 
Unless the private credit 

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company is really risky. 
I don't know. 

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Again, maybe I don't get it. 
I don't see how a pool of 

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individuals is any less risk 
than a pool of private credit. 

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So I I got to figure that out. 
I'll probably do a follow up 

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episode, but I, I, that episode 
is very interesting to me. 

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So if you have any thoughts, let
me know. 

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Also, if you have guest 
recommendations, I must say 

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this, this may really, really 
come back to haunt me, but feel 

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free to write at Bill at the 
business brew and I would like 

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to interview interesting people.
And I mean, you, you basically 

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know at this point, if you've 
been listening to me long 

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enough, what, what interests me 
and what might interest you. 

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So Bill, at the business, 
brew.com and outside of that, 

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have yourself a great New 
Year's, be safe out there and we

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will communicate soon. 
The show will start rolling 

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again here in 2026.