[HN Gopher] Berkshire Hathaway 2021 annual report [pdf]
___________________________________________________________________
Berkshire Hathaway 2021 annual report [pdf]
Author : rememberlenny
Score : 113 points
Date : 2022-02-26 13:31 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.berkshirehathaway.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.berkshirehathaway.com)
| mixedbit wrote:
| Berkshire continues to sit on cash (144B) with a thesis that
| productive assets are expensive due to the long period of low
| interest rates: 'That's largely because of a truism: Long-term
| interest rates that are low push the prices of all productive
| investments upward, whether these are stocks, apartments, farms,
| oil wells, whatever. Other factors influence valuations as well,
| but interest rates will always be important.' Upcoming interest
| rate increases may create good opportunities for Berkshire to
| invest this money and grow.
| qiskit wrote:
| Also, we've had a 15 year bull run, arguably the greatest in
| history. Sooner or later that bubble has to pop. No? Though if
| we run into stagflation, I wonder how they plan on protecting
| the value of their cash. Regardless, it's amazing how much cash
| they've accumulated. You expect tons of cash from APPL, FB,
| GOOG, etc since they are in tech. But I guess it helps when you
| don't pay a dividend each quarter.
| sanderjd wrote:
| Since I'm not confident I'll be able to figure this out myself
| from the article, I'll ask you: how exactly are they keeping
| this "cash"? It is predominantly some kind of treasury security
| or something, presumably?
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| short term treasuries - that's almost always the answer when
| a company says cash. Sometimes it's other things, with almost
| exactly the same characteristics.
| mornuup wrote:
| It's written plainly in the report:
|
| "Of this sum, $120 billion is held in U.S. Treasury bills,
| all maturing in less than a year."
|
| So, T-bills.
| mrfusion wrote:
| How much if that value was destroyed from inflation though.
| madsbuch wrote:
| Proportionate to the low interest rate. In Denmark money
| appreciates due to negative interests.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Would people in Denmark say their money buys more today
| than in previous years? Including purchases such as land,
| healthcare, education, and legal services?
| skybrian wrote:
| I think you have the causality backwards. Negative interest
| rates are due to central bank policy. It seems in Denmark
| they are trying to keep the Krone pegged to the Euro. That
| is, preventing it from rising.
| hangonhn wrote:
| Yeah I'm a long term investor in GE and the low interest rate
| is actually painful for them cause of their massive pension
| liabilities. When the rates are so low, GE has to keep shoring
| up the pension funds with their own money to make up for the
| shortfalls. Interest on the pension's assets just aren't paying
| enough to keep up with predicted expenses.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| There is a political reason for this. US leaders exempted
| taxpayer funded defined benefit pension plans from any rules
| or regulations, but subjected non taxpayer DB pension plans
| to strict rules and regulations (ERISA 1974 and PPA 2006).
|
| This means GE's pension plans have to use conservative
| assumptions and conservative investments, which is all well
| and good. As an example, GE is required to use the yield
| curves of high grade corporate bonds to calculate pension
| liabilities (~4% and lower in recent history).
|
| But for decades, taxpayer funded pensions have been playing
| fast and loose, assuming enormous return on investments
| (~8%), underfunding the pensions (to keep taxes low), and of
| course, investing in riskier and riskier assets to try to
| make up for the previous years' of underfunding and
| corruption.
|
| Of course, politicians want to keep kicking the can down the
| road, and the best way to do so is to keep deflating the
| dollar and inflating asset prices. It is not politically
| feasible to cut defined benefit pension amounts, but it is
| politically feasible to satisfy the nominal benefits promised
| while providing a much lower real benefit (i.e. one with
| reduced purchasing power).
| christophilus wrote:
| One of my favorite thing about this massively profitable company
| is their website [0]. Buffett's power point presentations are
| equally slick.
|
| [0] https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
| pdpi wrote:
| I suspect a component of it is simply that the sort of
| investors they want don't actually care, and that they're happy
| not to deal with people who do care enough to not do business
| with them.
|
| Sort of the equivalent of this: https://www.microsoft.com/en-
| us/research/publication/why-do-...
| echelon wrote:
| Totally unrelated to BRK's website, but something that it
| brings to mind:
|
| I sometimes wonder if launching a new B2C startup that provides
| utility, but that doesn't look that good or modern, might
| succeed not just in spite of the lack of attention to design,
| but because of it.
|
| I'm talking 1996-2002 era tables and gifs. Nothing fancy.
|
| Would consumers trust it?
|
| Would the usability be greater or worse if it was just plain
| HTML?
| chrisweekly wrote:
| It'd be an improvement for the vast majority of websites.
|
| Related tangent: https://gd.css is a great little tag-only
| CSS reset alternative with a minimalist vibe.
| piaste wrote:
| As long as it's responsive.
|
| A lot of websites from that era are unusable from mobile
| phones. Whatever your business or marketing strategy, there's
| a significant chance the first time a new customer clicks on
| a link to your webpage, he's doing so from a mobile phone.
| trillic wrote:
| I'm building https://regattapages.com right now with a
| similar philosophy to what you described. The majority of my
| users are highly educated, technical, and over the age of 50
| on average. They're not afraid of some monospaced text and a
| console-like input, when it makes sense.
|
| The majority of my layouts are plain text, HTML tables and
| forms, and some SVG charts spruced up with a little bit of JS
| if it's enabled (everything should still work without it).
|
| Performance is fast and it looks modern enough so long as I
| use modern CSS and some reactive design, but makes people
| feel at home because it doesn't FEEL like big tech.
| kaashif wrote:
| Nice website! Reminds me of some of those crusty, old-
| looking tools used in finance (e.g. Bloomberg) which are
| actually really functional.
|
| There is a typo on https://regatta.page/team:
|
| > Former Software Engineer at Fortune 100 Financial
| _Serivices_ Company
| trillic wrote:
| Thank you.
| trillic wrote:
| I will shamelessly add that this is the first time I've
| publicly posted https://regattapages.com, and it is still
| heavily under construction. I did my first live demo at a
| Regatta this past weekend in St. Petersburg, FL.
|
| I am looking for extremely small seed-level funding so I
| can continue to build out the site full-time until I am
| able to sell it to the large number of prospective
| customers I have (this summer, sailing doesn't happen in
| the Chicago winter).
| meirelles wrote:
| > "If you have any comments about our WEB page, you can write
| us at the address shown above. However, due to the limited
| number of personnel in our corporate office, we are unable to
| provide a direct response."
|
| Reading that from them is hilarious. The message might be about
| being a bootstrapper and not spending frivolously.... or simply
| saying they don't care, who knows?
| tim333 wrote:
| They are famously lean staffed at head office. Something like
| 40 staff. Apparently if you call at like 7 or 8am you'll
| sometimes get Buffett answering the phones himself.
| IMSAI8080 wrote:
| I like that approach where you just randomly get the top
| person. Like anyone could just email Steve Jobs at Apple
| and sometimes he would personally answer when he felt like
| it.
| nxmnxm99 wrote:
| This is such a random post right at the top:
| https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html
|
| Warren Buffet really is a 100 billion dollar door to door
| salesman
| BbzzbB wrote:
| I've always found it very funny that their first link is a
| GEICO ad. I think he sees the humor in that too, he's no
| stoic.
|
| Edit: Just finished the letter and he sure is ever the
| salesman, closing the letter with "cousin" Jimmy Buffett's
| pontoon party boat, exclusive 10% discount for shareholders!
| rendall wrote:
| You can also buy a T-shirt: https://berkshirewear.com/
| [deleted]
| Tenoke wrote:
| Huh, this is the lowest priced merch Ive seen (the shirt
| is $7.50). I'm guessing they are selling them at minimal
| to no profit.
| gaws wrote:
| They all look like shit and don't match the simplicity
| that radiates from the company website.
| nxmnxm99 wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I'm copping this
| https://berkshirewear.com/black-t-shirt-w-warhol-warren-
| scre...
| BbzzbB wrote:
| Basically every company has merch tho, albeit Berkshire's
| is decently priced, in-house (subsidiary) manufactured
| and prominently displayed.
|
| Three first thematic examples I googled (conglomerate,
| railway, insurer).
|
| https://www.microsoftmerchandise.com/Shop
|
| https://www.cnboutique.com
|
| https://uhg.corpmerchandise.com/default.aspx
| [deleted]
| huge87 wrote:
| This is so funny, I would not have noticed if you hadn't
| pointed it out.
|
| That's a pretty good sell to me.
|
| For the record, I happen to work for a Berkshire Hathaway
| company and Geico gives me good rates.
| ant6n wrote:
| > Copyright (c) 1978-2022 Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
| gaws wrote:
| > Buffett's power point presentations are equally slick.
|
| Can you share examples?
| christophilus wrote:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CenqkE5y9X8
|
| I think it's the only time I've seen him do it, and it's the
| best. One of the richest men in the world. That's my no-
| nonsense boy, right there. Love him or hate him, but his no-
| frills frugality is refreshing.
| dvh wrote:
| Is that a Times New Roman?
| voisin wrote:
| I particularly like the capitalization of WEB, like it is an
| acronym.
| samstave wrote:
| W.E.B ; Where Everybody Bitches
| mattl wrote:
| I hear the WEB is best viewed on a MAC.
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| It's probably an inside joke - his initials are WEB
| schuke wrote:
| When I first started to look into this Berkshire Hathaway
| company and this Warren Buffett person, of course the first
| thing I checked out was the website. I was immediately sold.
| Damn, the world would be a much much better place if all
| websites are built like this. (And text.npr.org)
| mooreds wrote:
| and lite.cnn.com
|
| May the text versions of these sites never wither away!
| jason_pomerleau wrote:
| I didn't know about this, thanks. I wonder if the origins
| of this version of the site go back to 9/11 - I remember
| specifically that CNN had to switch to a text-only website
| because they were getting hammered with traffic that day.
| Maybe they kept this around in case another similar event
| takes place.
| dublinben wrote:
| They're much more recent than that, dating to about
| 2017.[0] CNN's main website in 2001 wouldn't have needed
| a text-only site because it was already so
| lightweight.[1]
|
| [0] https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/text-only-
| news-sites...
|
| [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20010912003713/http://www
| .cnn.co...
| pyuser583 wrote:
| Yes! I love text.nor.org!
| tim333 wrote:
| He does powerpoint?
| elevaet wrote:
| > 2021 percentage change in per-share market value of Berkshire:
| +29.7%
|
| Oof.
| qznc wrote:
| FTSE All-World index was 28,21%. Slightly beating the market
| then.
| dazc wrote:
| I beat that index last year, and the year before that, by
| simply picking the right tracker.
|
| Could I keep doing this year on year though - no.
| Forge36 wrote:
| Oof?
| cushychicken wrote:
| I love the story about TTI's chairman.
|
| Warren and Charlie have always struck me as deeply humanist
| folks. I really like that about them.
| parenthesis wrote:
| > I love the story about TTI's chairman.
|
| Which is also a masterful advertisement for private business
| owners in a similar situation to sell to Berkshire Hathaway,
| for less money than they might otherwise get.
|
| This is not a criticism: if I wanted to sell a private business
| and didn't trust any of the obvious trade buyers (nor private
| equity), I can imagine myself happily selling to Berkshire for
| less.
| cushychicken wrote:
| I think that's a big part of their humanism. They understand
| that the folks that they want to invest in aren't in it
| entirely for the money. In return, they make it easy to to
| sell to them: they'll give you a dollar amount, and close
| nine figure deals inside of a month.
|
| It's self fulfilling and self reflecting.
| drexlspivey wrote:
| If you are considering investing keep in mind that Berkshire is
| trading at 1.5 price-to-book ratio. Is there an actual reason to
| buy the stock instead of roughly replicating their portfolio and
| maybe periodically rebalancing? You might get slightly different
| returns but you are not paying a massive 50% premium + fees.
|
| Also Buffet and Munger are in their 90s and I am not sure how the
| stock will react when the inevitable happens. Personally I would
| stay away
| mixedbit wrote:
| Even if they only hold stock positions that you could
| replicate, you would be buying when Berskshire is already done
| buying and selling when they are done selling. For example, the
| recent Bershire's position in Activision was disclosed when
| Microsoft already made the acquisition offer, so it was too
| late to replicate it.
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| You should read the actual letter, you can't replicate their
| portfolio, much of it is privately held assets.
| drexlspivey wrote:
| That's why I said "rouglhy", the vast majority of the
| portfolio is publicly traded companies and half of it is
| Apple. Is exposure to those few private assets worth 50%?
| dazc wrote:
| The private assets provide the cash to buy the public
| assets, maybe?
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| Many of the public assets also provide cash.
| [deleted]
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| "vast majority" isn't right though. The market cap of the
| company is $700 bill. The equities are worth around $350
| bill. So people who spend all day figuring the value of
| Berkshire think the other assets make up 50% of the value.
| The book value of those private assets (worth about $350
| billion) isn't especially meaningful. Amazon book value is
| $100 bill or something, the company is valued at $1.5T or
| so. Apple is less than 100 bill book value, market cap 2.5
| trill or so.
|
| One could effectively arb out the 350 bill of equities, and
| they'd be paying 350 bill for a set of assets which have a
| book value of 100-150 bill. So what? It says nothing.
| voisin wrote:
| Aren't the private assets held at book value (historical
| purchase price less goodwill and depreciation) and so
| likely dramatically understate market value?
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| Yup, the book value is almost certainly understating what
| the assets are worth. But that isn't always the case. So,
| it basically means nothing. Folks have to do the
| analysis, and in this case they have.
| vasco wrote:
| The transition plan has been in place for years. At the risk of
| sounding like a wsb meme, it's priced in.
| i_have_an_idea wrote:
| You seem to be confused that Berkshire is some kind of a mutual
| fund or an ETF. It is not.
| elisharobinson wrote:
| they have a huge cash position and when where they chose to
| invest it will create a halo effect causing it to get bigger
| .... also they can and will do stock buy backs if they cant a
| better investment.
| jcalabro wrote:
| > Much of our huge value creation in insurance is attributable to
| Berkshire's good luck in my 1986 hiring of Ajit Jain. We first
| met on a Saturday morning, and I quickly asked Ajit what his
| insurance experience had been. He replied, "None."
|
| > I said, "Nobody's perfect," and hired him. That was my lucky
| day: Ajit actually was as perfect a choice as could have been
| made. Better yet, he continues to be - 35 years later.
|
| This made me laugh. I wish my hiring process was this robust! I'd
| be curious to know more about why he actually chose him.
| vsareto wrote:
| >Ajit Jain is an older cousin of Anshu Jain, who was the former
| Co-CEO of Deutsche Bank.
|
| Connections
|
| >He did his schooling at Stewart School, Cuttack. In 1972, Jain
| graduated from the IIT Kharagpur in India with a BTech degree
| in Mechanical Engineering.[4][5]
|
| Tough degree
|
| > where he earned an MBA from Harvard University and joined
| McKinsey & Co
|
| A second tough degree at Harvard, plus connections from Harvard
| and McKinsey
|
| >Jain was invited by his former boss, Michael Goldberg, who had
| left McKinsey & Co. to join Berkshire Hathaway in 1982
|
| Referral by a former boss
|
| I'd say insurance experience played a very small part in why he
| got the job
| manquer wrote:
| I agree he had the solid foundation [1] [2], but it is still
| not that simple. .
|
| Most importantly at this level Buffet would have hundreds of
| people in his target pool of similar profiles Goldman Sacks,
| BCG, McKinsey and ofcourse insurance guys with similar
| Harvard/Stanford/Yale/MIT kind of ivy league education .
|
| Selecting the right person would still be hard.
|
| The pedigree of this kind of education and job helps in
| filtering out a ton of candidates, and keeping the pool to
| high quality, however it won't be a selection criteria.
|
| [1] His academic credentials are impressive, but just to keep
| in mind IIT in 1972 didn't have the same reputation( guys
| like Jain created that their achievements) as later on
| especially terms of difficulty getting in - saying this as
| late 2000s IITb grad
|
| [2] His _younger_ cousin was definitely not factor in 1982
| when getting hired , he wasn 't Deutsche Bank CEO then
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| I haven't met him - but I've heard Ajit Jain is insanely
| smart and hard working.
|
| If I trusted Mr X, and Mr X said "hey that little startup
| insurance thing you want to do could be run by Mr Y who is
| the smartest, hardest working guy I've ever met", and I met
| Mr Y, and he seemed to be everything that trusted Mr X had
| said, and had gone to IIT, Harvard and worked at McKinsey,
| I'd hire him on the spot too.
|
| Also keep in mind - Buffett wasn't the god like figure he
| is today then.
| manquer wrote:
| In late 1970s he was worth $67M by 1982 it was $370M ,
| $670M in 1983 and billonare in 1986 at age 56.[1]
|
| He bought control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 about 17
| years prior to hiring Jain. His model and name were well
| known in the right circles by then.
|
| In the investment world and cricles where he would be
| searching for talent in early 80s he had demigod status,
| making that kind of returns as pure investor without
| being a founder of tech company like Apple/MS was unheard
| of .
|
| He was not as popular with general public , it wasn't as
| big a story for middle aged man making money by investing
| in boring stocks as compared to 20-30yr old tech rock
| stars with more colourful life like Jobs/Gates and type
| of products Apple /MS were building at that time. General
| public popularity came much later when he became the
| richest in the world
|
| ---
|
| [1] It is very very hard to 20x $50M by just investing in
| lower risk diversified assets. We don't fully grasp how
| rich billionaires are. Tom Scott video
| https://youtu.be/8YUWDrLazCg comes to mind
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| Yup, and he got an amazing hire. But he wasn't looking
| for an investment hire, he was looking for an operating
| guy, and he wouldn't have had the same level of interest
| as he would now.
| newyankee wrote:
| If you were in India, the last name Jain is enough of a brand
| if you need someone who can grow the business. The community/
| last name is synonymous with successful businesspeople.
| frontman1988 wrote:
| That isn't really the case. Jains are of all kinds. From
| monks to businessmen. He was probably hired because of his
| IIT + Harvard degree, not his surname.
| apollo1213 wrote:
| Direct link to view the PDF file:
| https://docmadeeasy.com/v/192887667
| voidfunc wrote:
| I bought a bunch of BRK-B a few months ago, its a nice portfolio
| balancer to the S&P500 which is heavily tech weighted now.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| BRK is 45%+ AAPL. SPY is ~21% MAMAA.
|
| https://www.cnbc.com/berkshire-hathaway-portfolio/
|
| https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/holdings/
|
| Seems like SPY is more diversified from "tech" than BRK, which
| would hardly accomplish the goal of balancing away from tech,
| unless that means going heavy on Apple compared to the other 4
| in MAMAA.
| mxschumacher wrote:
| You did not read the letter or look at the financials.
|
| Apple makes up about half of the equity portfolio, but there
| are also massive private ownership stakes (bhe, BNSF,
| insurance and many more) and ~$144bn in cash
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| If you calculate by market cap, BRK's AAPL shares are
| ~$150B/$713B market cap of BRK = 21% AAPL.
|
| Buying BRK still seems like putting more of your eggs in
| the AAPL basket than buying SPY, which to me, would be
| orthogonal to diversifying away from tech.
|
| I guess BRK gives you exposure to Buffet and his team's
| management skills, but I would be very surprised if they
| manage to sidestep a downturn in AAPL's fortunes.
| rybosworld wrote:
| I don't think it's a fair comparison.
|
| Berkshire has more or less concentrated their tech
| exposure to what they view as the very best of the bunch
| (Apple). You can also make a very reasoned argument that
| Apple isn't a (pure) tech company. You can't really make
| that argument about Alphabet or Facebook in my opinion.
|
| When people say Berkshire diversifies you away from tech,
| they mean that you are diversifying away from the dozens
| of tech companies in SPY of varying quality.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| > You can also make a very reasoned argument that Apple
| isn't a (pure) tech company.
|
| I cannot envision what this argument could be and be
| congruent with my working definition of "tech company".
|
| > When people say Berkshire diversifies you away from
| tech, they mean that you are diversifying away from the
| dozens of tech companies in SPY of varying quality.
|
| I can see that as a possibility. I did, possibly
| erroneously, assume in the original post I replied to
| that tech was shorthand mostly for MAMAA, so I guess we
| would need voidfunc to weigh in on what they meant.
| ant6n wrote:
| This assumes brk market value = book value. I'd guess
| they trade higher than book value.
|
| I guess you can always call the difference between market
| cap and book value "good will" or something...
| mmmpop wrote:
| Well, I trust Buffett more than your average financial
| advisor. I'd say it's a fair premium.
| victor106 wrote:
| Another way to look at it is that you are getting the
| other assets of BRK for $419bn.
| 713-(150(apple)+144(cash)). Which I think is a steal.
| mmmpop wrote:
| Same. I quit my salaried gig and cashed out retirement into a
| Roth IRA chock full of about 25% BRK/B, 25% AAPL, and the other
| half more boring stuff.
|
| The boring stuff has really been dragging down the otherwise
| stellar performance of my portfolio.
| jedberg wrote:
| Be careful, your BRK is about 1/5 AAPL, so those two will
| track together. If AAPL takes a dip BRK will too.
| mmmpop wrote:
| Yep, cool by me!
| paulpauper wrote:
| Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are 91 and 97 years old
| respectively and have famously bad diets and do no exercise yet
| are both healthy and productive. Many other examples, like
| William Shatner, who is 91. Or Henry Kissinger, 98. I think much
| of conventional wisdom about weight, diet, health is wrong.
| Outcomes are influenced much more by genes than anything else.
| That's how these old guys keep going when the 'conventional
| health wisdom' by the experts says they should be dead.
| victor106 wrote:
| This also surprises me.
|
| Is this survivorship bias?
|
| Also, I think a stress free happy life could be equally or more
| important than diet and exercise.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| I'd posit that more important to longevity than diet, is the
| relation to retirement and work. It may not be much of a
| coincidence they're working and living until their nineties.
| I've noticed too many people decline precipitously after
| retirement when there was nothing in the way anymore of TV and
| sedentarism, which is the natural state of things in modernity.
| zemvpferreira wrote:
| If you're interested in learning more about the factors
| influencing ageing, you could do worse than listening to dr
| Horvath talking about epigenetics:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_aaBKubJnA
|
| The summary as I understood is that hereditary factors will
| determine about 40% of your ageing rate. Doing the right things
| (eating your greens etc) will affect maybe 10-15% of your
| ageing rate if you're generally healthy. Avoiding the bad stuff
| (obesity, smoking, alcohol) will drastically affect your
| healthspan and lifespan.
|
| It's hard to take these men as an example not to care. Who
| knows what genetic cards they were dealt, and who knows how
| much luck or invisible preparedness they have with their
| bodies. The conventional health wisdom you mention is borne of
| millions more examples and unequivocally points in the
| direction of keeping your body in as good a shape as possible
| through your whole life.
| marvin wrote:
| Hard to reason from world-famous anecdotes. They could also
| just have supremely healthy genetics, thus explaining why
| they're able and willing to work very hard far beyond the
| normal retirement age. You'd need large studies to learn more.
| beejiu wrote:
| > Also, a significant portion of the dollars that Todd and Ted
| manage are lodged in various pension plans of Berkshire-owned
| businesses, with the assets of these plans not included in this
| table.
|
| Perhaps this is poorly worded, but can someone explain how that's
| not a conflict of interest?
| throwthere wrote:
| Oddly this letter doesn't have an overarching lesson. Some of the
| teaching points are that interest rates are low driving up
| valuations of everything, adjusted earnings including ebitda are
| suspect, don't bet against America, float is under appreciated by
| gaap.
| gwern wrote:
| It was another lousy year for Berkshire Hathaway. Hey, at least
| this year they matched blind dumb indexing! But no interesting
| major purchases, no benefit from their cash stockpile despite
| another extraordinary year of volatility & opportunity, and
| reading the letter is unimpressive - as much as ever it reads
| like a rambling copy-paste job from the previous year. One
| wonders at what point the shareholders should hold a family
| meeting and take the keys away from great-uncle Warren, and if
| that point is already past.
| voisin wrote:
| He had some lousy years in the dot com bubble too and some
| investors jumped ship. I think those investors are likely
| regretting that decision in retrospect.
| elisharobinson wrote:
| full picture . they own biggest 'infra' position holding on
| cash to weather the shit storm . will buy back stock if we fall
| behind index funds to deliver value .
| dazc wrote:
| > we employ decent and talented people - no jerks.
|
| Seems like a good idea few other businesses have caught on to?
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| This might depend on his definition of "jerk":
|
| https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/12/a-capitalist-is...
| dazc wrote:
| It also depends on whether you think everything should be
| measured in a political context?
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| Every billionaire probably should be. The vast wealth they
| have means they have exceptional power in society to do or
| not do things that affect many people; a power that can be
| equal to or greater than that of the actual politicians.
| adventured wrote:
| That depends on whether the linked article has any validity
| (it doesn't).
|
| > But when the rubber meets the road, Buffett and [JP] Morgan
| are basically the same person.
|
| Word for word one of the least accurate articles I've ever
| seen linked on HN. Shallow on content and it gets nothing
| right, it's an impressive feat. It wasn't even well written,
| if it were at least it would be well written fiction and
| there might be something to enjoy in that fantasy aspect.
|
| The character and personalities of Buffett and Morgan are
| very different and not "basically" the same. How they treated
| people - including workers - is dramatically different, that
| alone ends the article.
|
| Rather comically - as one would have to be exceptionally
| ignorant of history, or a lying clown to miss by so much -
| the article is pretending to equate the barbarity of the late
| 19th century labor conflicts (a time during which Morgan
| thrived), with workers only getting a $2,000 signing bonus
| and small pay raises each year.
|
| Only a fool would proclaim - on a thin argument at that - to
| judge a person's 90 year life on one matter. At numerous
| turns throughout his business career (including in regards to
| Berkshire Hathaway itself, the textile mills), Buffett
| delayed or avoided layoffs even when it's exactly what he
| should have done as a rational business move, missing out on
| large sums of money by not doing that.
|
| Of course Buffett isn't a Socialist, which is a good thing.
| gaws wrote:
| Don't hire jerks. It's that easy.
| xibalba wrote:
| The key distinction is that they own a lot of Apple stock, but
| not enough to call people who work at Apple their own
| employees.
| victor106 wrote:
| > If the many essential products BNSF carries were instead hauled
| by truck, America's carbon emissions would soar.
|
| I wonder if Railroads will ever be replaceable, maybe if an EV
| truck is widely available?
| FredWeschler wrote:
| The best place on the Internet for Berkshire Hathaway news and
| discussion is on Reddit: r/brkb
|
| It has more than two dozen value investor moderators and it was
| created by the legendary and eccentric u/100_PERCENT_BRKB...
| somewhat of a jerk, but he runs a tight subreddit.
| mrfusion wrote:
| I don't find much activity in that sub. The discussion that
| does happen is really well educated though.
| FredWeschler wrote:
| The discussion is mainly in the Live Chat. Tell me if you can
| find a better source of Berkshire-related information.
| mrfusion wrote:
| > Tell me if you can find a better source of Berkshire-
| related information.
|
| I can't! That's the problem.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| Best line: "bull markets breed bloviated bull"
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