Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[gfp]

4 minutes ago, Parsad said:

On another note, there was a young 13 year old girl who asked a question about US debt and the U.S. dollar.  She was extremely poised and eloquent.  Maybe Berkshire should hire her or the FDIC should put her in charge of some banks! 

 

Always tough to know if the kids are just reading stuff their parents wrote, but he shut down her "de-dollarization"  question in about 2 seconds.  "I don't see an alternative reserve currency available."

 

I was happy to hear Warren clarify several times that it was the size of the fiscal deficits that were risking inflation and not anything from the Federal Reserve.  He was not concerned with the size of the Fed's balance sheet.  Also interesting that he has been tracking the number of hundred dollar bills in circulation.  He was like, "I wonder where they are" and I was hollering "Abroad!"  It would be interesting to know how much US currency is physically stored by drug cartels.

[dealraker]

2 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

A couple of months ago, I sold out of BAC after holding it from 2009.  I just couldn't predict the different outlier events that could happen and who was holding what bag.  If BRK didn't originate that deal, I doubt Buffett would have held on to BAC...even as terrific a CEO Brian Moynihan is. 

 

The industry does well when things are good, but are probably the worst businesses to own when things turn bad.  With their leverage, and the stupid things bankers will do, they may actually be one of the riskiest areas to invest long-term, because they will get hit at some point from dumb behavior.  And even if you avoided the stupid behaviors of your peers, you will suffer collateral damage for some time from fear.

 

Cheers!

I sway back and forth on banking but it is meaningless now that I have about 1/10th of 1% there.  It was just such an easy cyclical growth sector to make money in for so many years...and I mean years, years, and more years.  It is like a sector that has changed so much that you can't even invest in a bank like East West without thinking you are the clueless idiot of the bunch.  

[Parsad]

5 hours ago, Ulti said:

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/meet01/visguide2023.pdf

Didnt know I could shop from home all week...or am i misreading?

 

 

No, you can shop directly online or by phone.  I've been shopping there for years...mainly BRK memorabilia stuff.

 

Cheers!

[gfp]

I don't know if Charlie has told the story before or not, but it was great when he said he used to always fly coach to the Berkshire annual meeting each year and the plane from LA would be full of all these rich Berkshire shareholders headed to the meeting and they would all applaud and cheer when he took his seat in coach.  "I miss that." he said

 

Now he flys on net jets.  

 

I was also surprised how ruthless Buffett was on "Wheels Up," basically implying that people that gave them money for their jet cards ($1 Billion) would basically lose out (unsecured creditors in line at BK)...  He doesn't want to cause bank runs by naming any firm specifically but went straight for the jugular on Wheels Up.  I don't know anything about them but it sounded like a SPAC deal from context.

[adesigar]

Anyone know if the Buffett/Munger squishimallows are only for sale at the meeting or also available online?

[Parsad]

Their comments on Elon Musk were priceless and classic Buffett & Munger!  I couldn't stop laughing.  

 

"We don't want to compete with Elon!" - Buffett

 

"We don't want to go through so much failure!" - Munger

 

Cheers!

[Parsad]

Another gem from Munger when asked about practicing law.

 

"I don't think I have a lot of advice on how to succeed in law.  I have a son-in-law who works at a modern law practice at a big firm, he says "it's like a pie eating contest where the winner gets to eat more pie!"

 

"And I advise you to avoid that kind of a law firm.  Life is too short but to do nothing but eat pie!"

 

Cheers!

[Spekulatius]

I think his comment on Oxy and Chevron were interesting, he clearly likes that resources are mostly in the US, but he won’t buy them outright as @gfp noted.

 

He also applied the same logic to TSMC - he likes everything about them but their location, so he sold for that reason alone as he obviously changed his mind a out geopolitical risk

 

I also liked the answer about what commercial real estate is worth - the answer “ whatever I can borrow against without guaranteeing it personally” is quite revealing. What it means is that it is almost entirely depending on lending market, not stuff like replacement cost and maybe not even cash flow in many cases

[sleepydragon]

I thought what he said about TSMC was “because of a few reasons “ - it may not just be geopolitical. Might be inflation/capx, currency risk, and geopolitical 

 

also, it feels like to me  Buffett is going to buy more ATVI but he and Munger is not saying more.. Typtically M&A funds are forced to sell failed arb deals within a specified period( But I have no idea if they have sold or not yet). 
 

[Jaygo]

40 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

I also liked the answer about what commercial real estate is worth - the answer “ whatever I can borrow against without guaranteeing it personally” is quite revealing. What it means is that it is almost entirely depending on lending market, not stuff like replacement cost and maybe not even cash flow in many cases

I think this goes for lot in our economy. Just look at heavy duty trucks. That’s not a $95,000.00 super duty. It’s only $1,200.00 a month. 
 

without borrowing our current economy would stop dead in a week. 

[backtothebeach]

1 hour ago, sleepydragon said:

also, it feels like to me  Buffett is going to buy more ATVI but he and Munger is not saying more..

Munger said to Buffett something like “you kissed that one goodbye beautifully”. Not sure if he meant ‘you got out of the position beautifully’ or ‘you evaded that question beautifully’.

[backtothebeach]

Wow CNBC posted the whole thing already. Good on them!

 

 

[yesman182]

9 hours ago, Parsad said:

I'm certain that Greg Abel is very capable, but after watching today's Q&A (morning session), I sure wish Ajit was 20 years younger. 

 

He would be exceptional and the perfect successor to Buffett...in intellect, skill, ethics, ability, leadership and doing these AGM's for the next 40 years!  Cheers!

That biggest problem with that wish is that Ajit doesn’t want that job. I hope he stay healthy and can work for another 20+ years. 

[gfp]

41 minutes ago, yesman182 said:

That biggest problem with that wish is that Ajit doesn’t want that job. I hope he stay healthy and can work for another 20+ years. 

yeah that is about the best part of it.  No castle drama, no power struggle - Ajit wants the job he has, which is one of extraordinary esteem in his industry.  I hope Ajit wants to work for us for decades more but it is a huge advantage that he does not want the job Greg is doing/will do. I will take lucky over good any day

[yesman182]

1 hour ago, backtothebeach said:

Munger said to Buffett something like “you kissed that one goodbye beautifully”. Not sure if he meant ‘you got out of the position beautifully’ or ‘you evaded that question beautifully’.

‘you evaded that question beautifully’. Is how I viewed it 

[Blugolds]

1 hour ago, Jaygo said:

I think this goes for lot in our economy. Just look at heavy duty trucks. That’s not a $95,000.00 super duty. It’s only $1,200.00 a month. 
 

without borrowing our current economy would stop dead in a week. 

 

Agreed, the price of the "asset" doesnt matter, neither do rates really because they just extend the term. The same is/has been happening in the boat/RV markets. Auto loan terms of 72mo are becoming more and more common vs previous 60 mo considered "the long option", especially with rates increasing. Boat and RV loan terms are already able to go out 10 years. These will only increase. 

 

Might come a time when the traditional 30yr mortgage becomes 35-40. 

 

When the majority of your potential buyers (middle class America) wages have not kept up, and in fact are losing purchasing power, prices of goods/materials continuing to rise to maintain profit margins etc,  rates rising..the only option is to extend the term in order for them to buy. The entire economy hinges on monthly payments. With manufacturers increasing prices and profit margins and the fed increasing rates, length of the note is the only lever to keep the music playing and the party going.  

 

 

[yesman182]

4 hours ago, gfp said:

I don't know if Charlie has told the story before or not, but it was great when he said he used to always fly coach to the Berkshire annual meeting each year and the plane from LA would be full of all these rich Berkshire shareholders headed to the meeting and they would all applaud and cheer when he took his seat in coach.  "I miss that." he said

 

Now he flys on net jets.  

 

I was also surprised how ruthless Buffett was on "Wheels Up," basically implying that people that gave them money for their jet cards ($1 Billion) would basically lose out (unsecured creditors in line at BK)...  He doesn't want to cause bank runs by naming any firm specifically but went straight for the jugular on Wheels Up.  I don't know anything about them but it sounded like a SPAC deal from context.

Kinda like how he slaughtered the Norfolk southern ceo on that interview in Japan. 

[yesman182]

Anyone do the math to determine the buy back in April? I was surprised to see them buy so much at the $310 average in March. 

[backtothebeach]

7 minutes ago, yesman182 said:

Anyone do the math to determine the buy back in April? I was surprised to see them buy so much at the $310 average in March. 

Yes, $150-160 million additional buybacks in April.

[crs223]

$4.4B in repurchases in Q1 (0.66% of outstanding shares).  This was a good quarter for repurchases.  Apr 1 - Apr 25, BRK repurchased an additional $150M (0.02%).

 

[John Hjorth]

I stopped viewing and listening to the streaming of the AGM at the end of the afternoon section of the Q&A session, where there was a planned break of one hour before commencing the formal business part of the annual shareholders meeting according the agenda in the relased proxy statement filing available on EDGAR.

 

This morning I tried to find the streaming of the formal part of the meeting, finding out, thats it's not public available.

 

While I certainly understand the position of likely a lot of attending shareholders, management and board being totally fed up with the formal shareholder meeting being more or less high jacked by evrironmentalists and the likes getting the word promoting own personal ESG related agenda by having submitted ESG related proposals, that from a voting perspective have absolutely no chance to carry through with a majority of "FOR" votes as voting outcome, I still find this decision questionable, because I am as a non-participating shareholder without access to the voting results, at least by now [here, it's 13:15 Sunday afternoon rigth now].

 

I suppose a transcript of the meeting at least will be released soon, or perhaps also a 8-K filing next week.

 

Or has something skipped my attention here?

Edited May 7, 2023 by John Hjorth

[Dynamic]

I was at the meeting (my first in person) and did attend the formal meeting where all shareholder proposals were defeated based on votes submitted in advance alone. Results will be filed with the State of Delaware and SEC in due course including those votes from the floor which won't change the outcome just the numbers. There were problems with the microphone at the initial station they used which delayed things in that section and they limited proposers to about 3 minutes rather than letting them go on and on with their soapbox.

 

I think only one of the proposers came across really well with her two sets of remarks. I think they'd stand a better chance next year if they proposed something less far-reaching that would be simple and convenient to implement and perhaps seek to expand from there in future years. A very brief, clearly written proposal with very limited scope on one of the topics chosen might actually stand a modest chance.

 

Perhaps the Board or CNBC even, realised that one of the guys was planning to use the platform to promote his Conspiracy Theories and ended up saying some pretty nasty and defamatory things mostly aimed at Bill Gates. He ended up being removed from the meeting after being given a second opportunity to continue at the microphone in a sensible manner. I'm quite relieved that only the in person audience was exposed to his soapbox rant, rather than exposing more people online to misinformation and political tribalism/extremism that feeds from it. Free speech may have its place, but hijacking a business meeting is not it. I would defend the right to free speech, even of that sort, in public places, but not allow them to hijack a platform such as Berkshire's AM.

[Luke]

10 minutes ago, Dynamic said:

I was at the meeting (my first in person) and did attend the formal meeting where all shareholder proposals were defeated based on votes submitted in advance alone. Results will be filed with the State of Delaware and SEC in due course including those votes from the floor which won't change the outcome just the numbers. There were problems with the microphone at the initial station they used which delayed things in that section and they limited proposers to about 3 minutes rather than letting them go on and on with their soapbox.

 

I think only one of the proposers came across really well with her two sets of remarks. I think they'd stand a better chance next year if they proposed something less far-reaching that would be simple and convenient to implement and perhaps seek to expand from there in future years. A very brief, clearly written proposal with very limited scope on one of the topics chosen might actually stand a modest chance.

 

Perhaps the Board or CNBC even, realised that one of the guys was planning to use the platform to promote his Conspiracy Theories and ended up saying some pretty nasty and defamatory things mostly aimed at Bill Gates. He ended up being removed from the meeting after being given a second opportunity to continue at the microphone in a sensible manner. I'm quite relieved that only the in person audience was exposed to his soapbox rant, rather than exposing more people online to misinformation and political tribalism/extremism that feeds from it. Free speech may have its place, but hijacking a business meeting is not it. I would defend the right to free speech, even of that sort, in public places, but not allow them to hijack a platform such as Berkshire's AM.

Curious what exactly did he throw at Gates? At the AGM we also had the question at Charly about the MRNA vaccines..:D

[hasilp89]

19 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

 

Agreed @gfp,

 

I'm pretty sure he follows just about everything that may be going on with US T-bills, and that's certainly for a reason of being a material buyer.

an answer on this topic that made me chuckle - believe it was in response to being asked about enjoying what he does (paraphrasing)

”some days I have stuff to do, some days I don’t, at the least I can roll some t-bills” 

 

 

[Dynamic]

Yeah, but the questioner called them Gene Therapy, which is not factual, a red flag that he was a pseudoscientific antivax proponent. Anyway Charlie immediately said he completely stood by his previous remark and in seconds moved on to the next serious question from Becky.

 

Suffice to say, many conspiratorial talking points that the Gates Foundation evilly indoctrinates Kids with Critical Race Theory and other idea on the evil "Woke Agenda" (with scare quotes), the defamatory accusation that having met Epstein at some times in the past means Bill is an evil something or other. Don't think he went full David Icke and accused him of being a shape shifting lizard person, but perhaps with another minute at the microphone he might have. I'm doubtless being unfair but extrapolating what he might have said next, which is deliberate and simply a way to show my frustration at the idiotic and defamatory rant he embarked on before being rightfully cut off.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Dynamic