" This is simply a buyback.
Since pretty much everybody appreciates that a share is worth more than 1.3 times book, the net result would be to increase the value of remaining shares, so presumably the share price would settle a little higher at some point (even though book per share would be a bit lower). The fact that the share float did or did not change doesn't enter into it."

Good morning, Jim, as always, thanks for your reply. However, I have to give you two I,s in the course, incomplete and incorrect.

HOW, can you respond without mentioning that BRKB buying back 100 Billion of Buffett's shares at 1.3 xs BV, would be very accretive to IV, hence, very bullish news? Buffett has you way to focused on BV, which even he has now conceded was the wrong metric for the past 50 years. Years ago, maybe decades ago, Buffett said that if he and Charlie were locked in separate rooms their IV estimates would almost always be within 5 % of each other. The critical question is, how many xs did they agree brkb was trading at 20 percent of more below IV, yet Buffett still refused to even authorize a buyback at that time?

It's always interesting to me to see how old timers respond to certain, free market concepts, like float and supply and demand. It would be cool if RW, the Brooklyn Investor, or others opined with respect to this hypothetical. Thanks. hc