Panic is now getting up a head of steam and the selling in mutual funds, 401k's and hedge funds is now significant.

     The world is essentially deciding, for the moment, that there is only one safe place and, somewhat ironically, it is the beleaguered U.S. $. (To a lesser extent there is a flow into the Yen but that cannot take the place of the $).  In this chaos things, like gold, which normally shine (pun intended) are being dumped along with just about every other asset. Erstwhile favorites like commodities and oil have just been massacred and emerging markets have seem massive declines. A number of countries are now in serious trouble and might join Iceland in the International junk category. Argentina, Ukraine, Hungary and, astonishingly, Russia are the most obvious examples.
 
How does this affect us and what are we doing in this environment?
 
      It can certainly mean, and it has, that things we own and things we buy will fall in price. As a value investor one merely knows what is cheap and not how cheap it might become in a market panic. This is essentially what Warren Buffett said last weekend in a prominent piece as he outlined the fact that he was a heavy buyer in his personal account.
 
      Our portfolio is distributed in the following fashion:

      Here is a table of our 15 primary investments that make up 86% of our common stock and oil positions. These are the things that will have the most influence on the daily fluctuations in the portfolio. They are ALL strong, well capitalized survivors of any financial turmoil that we might experience.