@vic_wattle In my mind, far more important than any direct...

@vic_wattle

In my mind, far more important than any direct costs, is the question of what this sort of thing reveals about where management's focus resides. A focus on the shareprice, rather than on ones knitting, will extract a far greater cost over the long term, thanany visible direct cost.

I make this as a general statement, because it would be unfair to taint REH with that sort of brush. Unfortunately, even the best businesess partake of this sort of thing, though infrequently. And as @eternalgrowth has said, it is the best businesses that willtend to have a "need" with the passing years, thanks to the magic of compounding.

To be fair, for those of us who have investing at front and centre of our focus, or who consider investing to be our knitting, it is easy to be overly judgemental. After all, much as some of us may like to elevate the likes of REH and ARB to the lofty heightsof, say, Berkshire Hathaway, these are businesses who's knitting is not investing, and we probably shouldn't hold their managements to the standards that we would apply were we in their shoes.