This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Warren Buffett Releases Monster 43-Page Half-Century Letter To Berkshire Faithful
The day the Buffet "value-investing" fanatics have been looking forward to all year, almost as much as the annual pilgrimage to Omaha, has finally arrived - hours ago Warren Buffett released his historic, 50th annual letter to shareholders, which is extra special because as the Oracle notes in the foreword, "Fifty years ago, today’s management took charge at Berkshire. For this Golden Anniversary, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger each wrote his views of what has happened at Berkshire during the past 50 years and what each expects during the next 50."
The foreword continues: "Neither changed a word of his commentary after reading what the other had written. Warren’s thoughts begin on page 24 and Charlie’s on page 39. Shareholders, particularly new ones, may find it useful to read those letters before reading the report on 2014, which begins below." The result is the magnum opus of Berskshire letter, one which weighs in at 43 pages and a massive 25,100 words compared to "only" 24 pages and about 14,700 words last year, and 15,300 the year before. Almost as if Buffett is telegraphing that this may be his last letter and savoring the moment...
But first, some of the details of Berkshire's performance, which was not quite the magnum opus Buffett may have expected, after Berkshire Hathaway posted lower earnings for the fourth quarter amid investment derivative gains of $192 million.
As summarized by the WSJ, Berkshire reported a net profit of $4.16 billion, or $2,529 a Class A share, compared with $4.99 billion, or $2,297 a share, a year earlier. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, were $2,412 a Class A share, versus $2,297 a share, thus missing Wall Street expectations of per-share operating earnings of $2,701. Book value per Class A share increased by 8.3% to $146,186 at Dec. 31.
So back to the letter: here are some preliminary observations and excerpts from the letter:
- Berkshire increased its ownership interest last year in each of its “Big Four” investments – American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM and Wells Fargo. We purchased additional shares of IBM (increasing our ownership to 7.8% versus 6.3% at yearend 2013). Meanwhile, stock repurchases at Coca-Cola, American Express and Wells Fargo raised our percentage ownership of each. Our equity in Coca-Cola grew from 9.1% to 9.2%, our interest in American Express increased from 14.2% to 14.8% and our ownership of Wells Fargo grew from 9.2% to 9.4%. And, if you think tenths of a percent aren’t important, ponder this math: For the four companies in aggregate, each increase of one-tenth of a percent in our ownership raises Berkshire’s portion of their annual earnings by $50 million.
- [W]ho has ever benefited during the past 238 years by betting against America? If you compare our country’s present condition to that existing in 1776, you have to rub your eyes in wonder. In my lifetime alone, real per-capita U.S. output has sextupled. My parents could not have dreamed in 1930 of the world their son would see. Though the preachers of pessimism prattle endlessly about America’s problems, I’ve never seen one who wishes to emigrate (though I can think of a few for whom I would happily buy a one-way ticket).
Of course there is the fact that global wealth inequality has never been greater and as a result the entire globe has approached - or crossed - its own "let them eat cake" moment, but let's forget all about that. After all, for Buffett the "long enough timeline" has almost dropped to zero.
Munger explains economies of scale and quasi-monopoly:
- in the early decades of the Buffett era, common stocks within Berkshire’s insurance subsidiaries greatly outperformed the index, exactly as Buffett expected. And, later, when both the large size of Berkshire’s stockholdings and income tax considerations caused the index-beating part of returns to fade to insignificance (perhaps not forever), other and better advantage came. Ajit Jain created out of nothing an immense reinsurance business that produced both a huge “float” and a large underwriting gain. And all of GEICO came into Berkshire, followed by a quadrupling of GEICO’s market share. And the rest of Berkshire’s insurance operations hugely improved, largely by dint of reputational advantage, underwriting discipline, finding and staying within good niches, and recruiting and holding outstanding people. Then, later, as Berkshire’s nearly unique and quite dependable corporate personality and large size became well known, its insurance subsidiaries got and seized many attractive opportunities, not available to others, to buy privately issued securities. Most of these securities had fixed maturities and produced outstanding results.
Buffett's take on the future:
- The bad news is that Berkshire’s long-term gains – measured by percentages, not by dollars – cannot be dramatic and will not come close to those achieved in the past 50 years. The numbers have become too big. I think Berkshire will outperform the average American company, but our advantage, if any, won’t be great. Eventually – probably between ten and twenty years from now – Berkshire’s earnings and capital resources will reach a level that will not allow management to intelligently reinvest all of the company’s earnings. At that time our directors will need to determine whether the best method to distribute the excess earnings is through dividends, share repurchases or both. If Berkshire shares are selling below intrinsic business value, massive repurchases will almost certainly be the best choice. You can be comfortable that your directors will make the right decision.
And Munger's:
- The next to last task on my list was: Predict whether abnormally good results would continue at Berkshire if Buffett were soon to depart. The answer is yes. Berkshire has in place in its subsidiaries much business momentum grounded in much durable competitive advantage. Provided that most of the Berkshire system remains in place, the combined momentum and opportunity now present is so great that Berkshire would almost surely remain a better-than-normal company for a very long time even if (1) Buffett left tomorrow, (2) his successors were persons of only moderate ability, and (3) Berkshire never again purchased a large business.
- But, under this Buffett-soon-leaves assumption, his successors would not be “of only moderate ability.” For instance, Ajit Jain and Greg Abel are proven performers who would probably be under-described as “world-class.” “World-leading” would be the description I would choose. In some important ways, each is a better business executive than Buffett.
- With Berkshire now so large and the age of activism upon us, I think some desirable acquisition opportunities will come and that Berkshire’s $60 billion in cash will constructively decrease.
FInally, some amusing comments by Buffet on the sudden need for liquidity and/or bialouts:
- [W]e will never engage in operating or investment practices that can result in sudden demands for large sums. That means we will not expose Berkshire to short-term debt maturities of size nor enter into derivative contracts or other business arrangements that could require large collateral calls. Some years ago, we became a party to certain derivative contracts that we believed were significantly mispriced and that had only minor collateral requirements. These have proved to be quite profitable. Recently, however, newly-written derivative contracts have required full collateralization. And that ended our interest in derivatives, regardless of what profit potential they might offer. We have not, for some years, written these contracts, except for a few needed for operational purposes at our utility businesses.
To be sure, when it comes to "major demands for large sums" in his investments, Buffett seems to forget that it was the US taxpayers themselves who ended up funding said collateral demands as recently as 2008, but that's what crony capitalism is all about: knowing that when the hammer hits, the US government is there to bail you out. As for Buffett phasing out derivatives, this makes sense: with available leverage declining (due to full collateralization), Buffett, who personally decried derivatives as financial weapons of mass destruction, can avoid being a hypocrite as he himself has no use for such massively leveraging instruments any longer.
Some other notes from the WSJ which has been diligently parsing the letter since its release:
- No successor named, as we expected. But on pages 36 and 37, Mr. Buffett discusses the qualities the CEO would need: “My successor will need one other particular strength: the ability to fight off the ABCs of business decay, which are arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency.” Munger notes: "under this Buffett-soon-leaves assumption, his successors would not be “of only moderate ability.” For instance, Ajit Jain and Greg Abel are proven performers who would probably be under-described as “world-class.” “World-leading” would be the description I would choose. In some important ways, each is a better business executive than Buffett."
- Warren Buffett adds his name to the list of those commenting on the effects of a strong U.S. dollar. In the letter Mr. Buffett says: “[We] expect that the per-share earnings of these four investees [American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM and Wells Fargo], in aggregate, will grow substantially over time (though 2015 will be a tough year for the group, in part because of the strong dollar).”
- Mr. Buffett reiterates the importance of preserving the firm’s culture and believes his son Howard is best suited to succeed him as non-executive Chairman:
- “To further ensure continuation of our culture, I have suggested that my son, Howard, succeed me as a nonexecutive Chairman. My only reason for this wish is to make change easier if the wrong CEO should ever be employed and there occurs a need for the Chairman to move forcefully.”
- Buffett says a dividend, share repurchase or both are possible as Berkshire’s earnings and capital resources will reach a level in the next 10 to 20 years that “will not allow management to intelligently reinvest all of the company’s earnings.” How the company will use its capital has been a hot topic of late. Mr. Buffett has previously said it’s unlikely he will pay a dividend in his lifetime, arguing that money can be spent to grow the company instead. However, a small group of investors have long been pushing for one.
- Mr. Buffett said massive repurchases will almost certainly be a better choice than distributing a dividend if Berkshire shares are selling below intrinsic business value.
- Buffett has more to say on page 31 on potentially spinning off certain businesses. That makes “no sense,” he said. “Our companies are worth more as part of Berkshire than as separate entities.” He explains again that Berkshire can move funds between its parts without incurring taxes, but also talks about things like the cost of a board of directors and other administrative expenses that would jump if these companies were split off. This dis-synergy defense sounds a lot like what J.P. Morgan’s executives had to say this week about why it shouldn’t break up.
- Buffett is never one to shy from calling out his mistakes in the letter, and this year he’s got a new one: an investment in U.K. grocery store giant Tesco. Buffett lost $444 million on the company when he sold out of it last year, he writes today, lamenting that he moved slowly as the company faced a barrage of issues and accounting problems. He says in 2013 he “soured somewhat” on the management team and had cut the position by a bit more than 25% but now wishes he had sold more. “My leisurely pace in making sales would prove expensive,” he writes. “Charlie calls this sort of behavior ‘thumb-sucking.’ (Considering what my delay cost us, he is being kind.)” Tesco really ran into trouble in 2014, losing market share, struggling with margins and the accounting issues. As Buffett put it: “You see a cockroach in your kitchen; as the days go by, you meet his relatives.”
Full letter below (pdf link)
- 25247 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


Does it include an itemized list of all the politicos bribed to ensure profits, mapped out into the layers of special interests and lobbying groups? I didn't think so.
Oh Warren...tsk tsk..nothing like being an insider with all of those perks...heheheheehe . You avuncular face and mannerisms have served your masters well. Now take your syphillis and wart infected carcass to the hereafter with history proclaiming you the greatest investor EVA!!........watta joke
"Our most profitable recent investment has been my personal fundraisers for Barack Obama. His dutiful veto of Keystone XL will pay dividends to Berkshire for many decades to come."
recent photo of uncle warren and munger...munger is on the left...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RztfjHdM-pg
Barry handed him the "Medal of Freedom" so who knows ... Warren may be up for one of the Nobel Prizes.
I was born during the time of Henry VIII. As some of you may remember, Henry separated church and state. I invested in many government projects at that time, over the 50 year span of his reign. I made iincredible sums of money, as Henry advised of his policy actions before the common folk were informed. It was a wonderful time and I ask that you judge my performance and human capabilities during that "time" solely based on how much public wealth I hoarded and not on my moral integrity.
I know those 50 years were a very small time capsule in world evolution and global time. But, I saw a way that I could use money and leverage to siphon more out of the economy than my effort was ever able to input. So ignore that for a minute and praise me for my intellect, as it paid handsomely to be a good friend of Henry during that brief economic period. If you like, I'll write a report of where I see the future going, because my ego is inflated being an insider and so I feel obliged to render an opinion on the future, which obviously no human being can do as we aren't God, except me.
Thanks.
Cliff notes Obongospeech version,
We inside traded some folks.
imbalm the motherfucker with juiced money. extract "liquidity" from the green paper and ink and fill his corpse. all he is, is the poster child of a life of greed...
Robber baron for another 50 /yay
Warren and Munger = Warmunger their new logo
Because Warren owns the rail line that transport the land lubbed oil.
And ofcourse he had no clue when he bought rail business, that the oil will never be transported by pipleine but by train.
But nothing is more important for crony capitalism to make the sheeple believe success was only based on hard work and not on the right connections, too. Brilliant and hard working people often are duped by those, who have the better connections.
Interstingly Buffet and Munger, as much as they like to communicate with sheeple, never talk about the importance of connections and networks.
ps: contrary to most others, I am of hte opinion that nevertheless A LOT can be learned by listening to them - for example Buffet's ABC of business decline alone is a gem of wisdom. Or the comparison of dividends versus buybacks. Brilliant and against the usual repeated BS.
But but but "Money is Speech"...Repugnicants are very sure about this point.
Was there anything in that 43 page letter about buying physical gold?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yloaBw80fV4
No, buffet is not an idiot
Unlike Buffet, Hitler's plans to send letters to his stakeholders never reached fruition thanks to the Russian and American armies. Behind Buffet's false mellow Joker-type smile is a monster who treats employees as punch clock slaves, who cares nothing about poisons in the food products his companies sell and who, like Bill Gates, has been complicit in the destruction of American liberties at the hands of our fascist leaders (take a bow, CIA apparatchiK Obama).
And because the food is so dangerous intelligent people grow older and older. Ofcourse, if you are intelligent like bread and life only on fastfood, sugar and cheese and are too lazy to make sports then it must be someone else's fault if people are fat and not healthy.
Your libertarianism strangely ends abruptly, when it comes to blame the stupid ones for their stupidity. Why?
ps: I love Coke, but I am intelligent enough to drink it only once or maximum twice a week. Whatever may be in the secret formula, it will not kill me. Just like the fastfood I eat once a week.
Is this the year Buffet invests in a chain of abortion clinics?
http://www.mrc.org/articles/warren-buffett-billion-dollar-king-abortion
I am not going to read it to find out (detailed list), so here the wisefool paraphrase version...
Dear Shareholders. 50 years ago, you made the right decision to invest with the current management team. Who could have possibly thought the son of a congressman could amass such wealth, both personally and for shareholders? We carefully bought and sold favors out of daddies Rolex, and the black book maps showing where the bodies are buried.
When we started changing the world 50 years ago, the tax code had 50 pages. Executive to worker income ratio was 10:1. Now the tax code has 80,000 pages. Berkshire had input on every single one. Now executive compensation is 100x median worker, and the effective tax rate on us bilionaries is half of the working stiffs rate like my secretary. We openly admitted this during the US State of the union back in the early 2010. Instead of outrage, the people accepted this as the new norm. What they don't know is that even though we created all the loop holes for a tax free elite, we actually sue and win to get tax rebates for being "us." Including our close personal friends that happen to be corporations, partnerships, subsidiaries, NGOs, 501c3s, LLCs and the press ( both the money and propaganda printing ones).
If we did not provide this leadership for the last 50 years, things could have been very different. Instead being business/legal/bureaucratic functionaries in this great system, the best and brightest would have went to work in low profit STEM fields. They would have probably invented cures for cancer, diabetes, and many other diseases. Instead of having traditional NSA controlled automobiles (to maximize profits for gieco and taxes for government) they probably would have perfected fusion and flying cars that basically don't need roads and therefore do not get into traffic jams and wrecks. The rest of the population could have lived dignified lives based entirely on economic free will, instead of the tax code slave or welfare recipient choice they are forced into now, on permanent, multi-generational timetables. It is not all bad, we spice it up every ten years for them with asset bubbles that we fully control and profit from.
So many things are SO right about this crony capitalistic world we created, it is time to sit back and have our secretaries upvote our facebook pages.
my co-worker's mom makes $87 an hour on the laptop . She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay check was $15653 just working on the laptop for a few hours. try this website... www.globe-report.com
Those Berkshire (A) class shares are cheap. /s
Hey Warren Spock died yesterday.
Buffet did not describe how he made billions on his Goldman Sachs investment due to his inside knowledge that the government was about to bailout Goldman Sachs?
The sage of Omaha is more like the scamster of Omaha.
Crony, corrupt capitalism guarantees profits for the 0.1%
The Richest 0.1 Percent Is About to Control More Wealth Than the Bottom 90 Percenthttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/11/income-inequality-rise-1-percent
What about his BAC (Bank of Amerika) bailout. He had massive warrants (convertable options) @ $5.00. when he bailed the Fed. out during the '07-8 meltdown.
or his massive amount of shares in Moody's that he majically knew to sell right begore the housing collapse.
Ever notice that these guys infested with greed can never retire? gotta have MOAR.
WE call it "limp dik syndrome". :-)
While I agree with all the accusations, what was the reason for YOU, not to buy in 08?
Or if the markets are manipulated and HFT is evil: what hinders you to buy cheap and sell high and manage risk? Stop losses are available for everyone.
But people prefer to blame their incapabilities on others, instead to analyze, what their possibilities are and what they could do better.
ps: I don't want to say, that the system was ok - I only want to emphasize that everyone can make money even in rigged markets, if he follows certain rules and keeps greed and fear in check. But 90% fail to do so, not because of others, but because of their own faults and weaknesses.
I was f**king retard. Hindsight is 20-20.
Againstthelie:
"what was the reason for YOU, not to buy in 08?"
I did not have any inside information/a direct phone line to our beloved leader
Also bought a shit-ton of MBS right before the fed started buying them.
Then the little troll (Monopoly Guy) bought a railroad.
Buffett’s $15 Billion From BNSF Show Railroad Came Cheap - Bloomberg Business
Hmm, but you have noticed that Buffett started making lots of money 50 years ago, way before he became big enough to obtain insider knowledge.
How is your professional career coming along?
One thing sure about the future, Buffett won't be here.
Another sure thing is that I'm not going to read that document.
Who's that head in the jar with a prospectus?
Buffet is a Wall street mascot. His role is to inspire millions of dupes to give their money to Wall street so they can "be the next Warren Buffet."
But what about his secretary's tax rate? And does he still conduct "deep thought" interviews and dole out investment advice while nekid in the bath tub?
I just gotta know!
I wonder what kind of child Warran and Bill Gates will produce from their pillow talk.
Some guy here yesterday linked a funny YOU TUBE video about Government [with St. Warren right smack dab in the middle], need to go find it.
'what he expects over the next 50 years'.... mmmkay. Our Commander in Chief has a lot of wood left to chop in the undoing of our Constitution, before passing the baton on to Hillary Rodham Clinton. So I am not even sure we have 50 weeks, let alone 50 years ahead of us.
50 shades of Buffet.
50 Buffets of shade.
Buffet The Vampire Slayer
You know what strikes me as odd? I saw no mention of Becky Quick in his musings. Have they separated??
Yes, Becky caught the zionist-talmudist kiddy fiddling and kicked him to the curb!
Criminals.
Screw Warren, he's a parasite 200 years too soon.
I like Jimmy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZHNSrl9KsU
Mention of this is better than a morning constitutional, evidence of which -- a munger -- I happily fushed just moments ago.
It is easy to make money if you have insider knowledge and don't get punished. I have no doubt the token negative years are there for pure show.
And no mention of inflation comparison in those figures either
Those grapes are probably sour anyway
Faithful have something to wipe themselves with.
Thank you fellow fascists for joining with me and my special ties in govenment...
Hey Warren, how are the grandkids?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/21/us-wealth-buffett-idUSN2040437...
Greedy and dumb as fuck.
Read the link GMS, you'll be surprised.
I did. Says the little tosser spent what most people make in a year of Grandpa's money and is 'an artist' (that's what rich people say when they're unemployed, in case that isn't clear).
If the letter she cites is real - and why isn't it posted somewhere? - then is certainly is more evidence of Buffet's sociopathic nature. Cold-hearted mutherfucker would be an accurate description.
Like most people on welfare, Unkie Warren could give two shits about his family as long as the .gov cheese keeps rolling in.
I've got some extra cash and I'm thinking if purchasing some BH stock. I figure the government will never let buffet fail. The problem is I don't know what this will do to my integrity.
zero times X = zero.
Once the US government fails - and it is not that far - BH will be a joke.
Tyler .... some of the post can't be seen...
http://imgur.com/Iw1oWgt
This is caused by padding/margin of posts' tree in stylesheets. There is probably missing a rule to stop the indentation when the nesting reaches some critical number.
I've been linux for the last several weeks. Someone or entity is playing with ZH servers.
I've been on linux for last 10 years and don't see anything special with ZH. Any particular issue you have?
Not since I've been linux. Major issues with Windos 7 & 8.
Sudo me baby/
If you sudo then you too can do what su can do.
Sudo?
Such as?
The LINUX terminal is akin to windows explorer & %APP DATA%.
Once you famillarize yourself LINUX it's really fun. Endless open source posibilities.
How about it popping up "Install Windows 8.1 for Free" and then failing to do so. Repeatedly.
So shitty, they can't even GIVE IT AWAY!
lol . I couldn't agree MOAR. Geat comment.
Besides the ads, I'd guess that the biggest issue is Drupal.
PREDICTION: Buffett and Munger will be taking it up the ass & toiling in Hades in 50 years.
COMMENTARY: SUCK IT UP !!
It's always amusing to see an anonymous nobody try to attack the investment philosophy of the greatest investor of all times. Has anyone kept track of the returns on the all-bearish all the time (except gold of course) Durden model Portfolio?
It's always amusing to see an anonymous nobody completely misinterpret a piece of writing.
Crony much?
I'm not dead. Oh! I forgot the best news - none of my minions have been caught doing insider deals lately.
Corzine? Dat you?
And none of my minions have been caught with hookers and blow recently either.
America's foremost crony capitalist is increasingly sclerotic.
No tears shed here.
As if the thoughts about what he's done themselves were weighing that waterhead down.
Wow... now I know ZH'ers really are just jealous little men. This guy is one of the greatest investors ever and has made many people money. And, it doesn't matter if he had inside info or not. We all want insider info. Heck, we even got some here on ZH, but did anyone take advantage of it? Probably not. All the sour grapes here truly makes you look bad. Go ahead and downvote away.
Buffet doesn't have insider information that matters. When Berkshire buys, people follow on. Plus as the ZH writers have pointed out repeatedly, fundamentals are bullshit. There's nothing fundamental about the last 50 years of investing except "be the first in line to feed at the money trough from the Fed".
I own Berkshire shares. They've done well. But I consider it to be my "wide moat crony capitalist" mutual fund. They buy companies that have several government industry protections (monopolies) or large government RFPs written by a revolving door of govt to corporate influence. They're no bidding contracts. And this is all in line with feeding at the trough. It's good to be the king.
But where I draw the line that this takes some sort of great person or intellectual capability to achieve. And I've seen it first hand being a part of companies Berkshire has attempted to acquire. They're not that savvy. Their due diligence is not better than someone else's. And they have no crystal ball. They're just liquid when it matters.
Raycist/ There's plenty of smart women that read the HEDGE.
He's a douchebag who thinks all of us "little people" should be paying higher taxes (you know, our fair share), promotes the growth of giant centralized government and massive regulation to destroy his competitiors, is the ultimate crony capitalist in bed with people like Obama and his socialist/corporatist pals, funds all sorts of anti-freedom causes and you dither about what a great investor he is? I don't freaking care. He's harmful to the United States and what's left of its freedom loving citizens.
A "great investor" doesn't need inside information. So you are sanctioning insider trading? You think it is okay as long as you don't get caught? No wonder these thieving scum get away with their crimes when the sheep think trading on inside information makes you a "great investor."
Here's your buddy praising LLOYD BLANKFEIN going as far as saying he is straightforward and decent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPKucOzZYcQ
Business practices of "straightforward" Lloyd :
"Goldman Sachs agreed Thursday to pay $550 million to settle a fraud suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that accused the storied Wall Street bank of selling a subprime-mortgage investment that was secretly designed to fail."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/15/AR201007...
How can everyone here hate this guy so much?
Because he's perfected the collusion and foul play they can only aspire to, in many cases.
Along with pushing for more welfare and having the little people pay their "fair share" for it. He's a complete hypocrite as he stashes his fortune away from the taxman.
Berkshire can move funds between its parts without incurring taxes?
Buffet hasn't realized it yet, but he can't take it with him.
However, rumor has it he plans to bury 100 of his most faithful servants with him in his tomb chamber.
This explains the trains full of straw bricks moving towards Omaha.
Because the assclown took advantage of a situation and used it to SPITE the real hardworking " Middle Class".
The greatest tax cheat in the history of capitalism, Warren Buffet!!
If you have a close personal relative who held any elected office at anytime (like buffet's daddy), you are allowed to put the super secret invisible sheep blood on your outside door. The IRS passes you by and collects 10x the ammount from those who don't have the mark. If they refuse and it gets bloody, well, how do you think those above the law got the invisible sheep blood to use in the first place?
Exactly.
The corporate take over of this country is one of the most corrupt things to ever hapen to mercantilism in general.
The only way for the average joe to operate like the big corps do is to do everything in cash off the books and just give enough breadcrumbs to the government to keep threm off your back.
So..use whatever you receive in cash to buy food and other neccesities. it adds up over time
Being very lazy we always liked the idea of being investors, using Capital to ride on the back of others who do all the hard work.
It puts you on the right side of the trickle up effect:
a) Those with excess capital invest it and collect interest and rent.
b) Those with insufficient capital borrow money and pay interest and rent.
It used to be quite easy in the early days, but later on everyone wanted to be an investor and no one wanted to do anything useful.
For every person doing something constructive, they had ten investors riding on their backs.
Anyway, 50 years without a single day of hard work producing anything useful.
We just used Capital to ride on the backs of others that did all the work.
Can’t complain,
Warren and Charlie
Beautiful explanation of popular trends.
the central bank and gubbermint worked hard to make sure that maggot never took a loss. when his days are done i hope they don't dump his rotting carcass in the ocean because it would pollute all the fish except for one or two big ones.
Sounds like the IRS needs to drain warrins dreams.
I don't have the resources to look deeper than this, but this is one of the quickest ways to rank these companies against their competition.
http://research.investors.com/quotes/nyse-intl-business-machines-ibm.htm
Sales % Chg (Last Qtr) -12%, 3-Year Sales Growth Rate -5%, Debt % 277% <- Winning! (Not to mention being ranked 20th in their industry group ranking) Just screams out for more buybacks. BTW, other than Meg Whitman (and the jury is still out on this), can someone point me to an example of a female CEO of a technology company that hasn't been like watching a slow motion train wreck?
Seriously, IBM is a hollow shell of what it once was, and now that it has divested itself of it's East Fishkill semiconductor facilities, one can safely state that IBM is no longer a technology company, but has devolved into a very high priced services company. And those services can be readily purchased elsewhere. BTW, Cringely was right.
Cringely hasn't been right all of the the time on IBM and kind of glosses over it when he isn't right. Still, his general message has spot on and he has generally nailed them on several things including what a complete and incompetent fraud Rometty has been. Inept and out of league as Whitman at HP. Dump US-based employees at even faster clip than the early/mid-00s, borrow and buy back shares at even more accelerated pace, and vehemently go after any tech bloggers who expose their stupidity on a regular basis.
When oh when will this nasty old crusty zombie turn to dust?
never. that nasty mofo drinks gefling essence three times a day.
This thread is now komplete. Thanks to the refreshing truth from Banzai.
It's said people are remembered for their last big deed. Thats why Mandela is remembered for his peace activism and not the terrorist acts he did before imprisonment. But for Buffet when I point out the shill he was for the government during the GFC many proclaim he was a great investor but I say his best days are decades behind him and he will need another crisis to get good deals out of .government. By that I mean deals that are cheap but back stopped by taxpayers.
Çommunist Manifesto .... absurd lies that hide their treachery ! Warren Buffet Report To Shareholders .... Real accomplishments !
Seems the oracle has forgotten "Derivatives are weapons of mass destruction' as he now buys and sells those same weapons. hhhmmm Reminds me of what happened to the largest bond house in the world when Buffett was running it. Salomen Brothers.
I hope these men are alive in 50 years time so they can both see the gold standard in play and silver in circulation.
On a personal level I can't bring myself to say anything more explicit than that because at the moment it is Sunday in my time zone.
Legend has it (bloodsucking) vampires live for hundreds of years. The only thing that will kill them is sunlight or a stake through the heart. Lol
This fuckwad is one of the most crooked Pieces of Shit ever to leave the womb. Love the 50 year out part....at least I can take some solace that that prick will be nothing but a rotting corpse...hopefully burning in hell when it's time to roll out the 100 year letter.
Arrest him don't let him get away through old age and death.
IBM, Coke, Wells Fargo, American Express, UK Tesco?
They are all in serious decline, their time has gone.
Where is the innovation in any of these companies (outside of organised crime)? All of their share prices have been held up artificially in recent years.
Better start buying up farmland Warren
Buy and hold strategy can work as long as you don't hit a depression. Berkshire never has thus it doesn't have the experience to deal with this.
I agree that these major companies they hold are some of the next to go to $0.
Didn't he tell his daughter to get a bank loan to fix her kitchen instead of 'giving or lending' her the money?
Your born like that.....tight.
If it means his estate will have to pay taxes, then Buffett will refuse to die and will still be around 50 years from now.
MarketWatch just posted an article titled: "Buffett’s 2014 letter: Corporate cancers, preachers of pessimism and lessons of history".
I got too excited when I saw the words "Buffet" and "cancer" in the same sentence. Yet, upon closer examination I realized there was no actual reason for celebration.
The headline was probably generated to spoof HFT bots.
You're jealous? You still working at Walmart?
F* Buffett - the man is a monster with in ice cream cone and candy for the children.