Warren Buffett's Annual Letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders [pdf]

Post by r00fus » Sun, Feb 26, 2017, 3:00 AM UTC

wtf_is_up wrote: post #150

oneplane wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But aren't you still doing that today? I believe that somewhere in your country, someone wants a big pipe on some land, but the people living there don't want it, yet they force it anyway.

That "someone" is really every American who enjoys cheap energy and, by extension, cheap food, transportation, etc. whether they know it or not.

Post by gillianlish » Sun, Feb 26, 2017, 3:36 AM UTC

gizmo wrote: post #18

tyingq wrote: post #5

The transparency and humble tone is pretty unique. "Unfortunately, I followed the GEICO purchase by foolishly using Berkshire stock" " It was, nevertheless, a terrible mistake on my part" "Despite that cautious approach, I made one particularly egregious error" I bet you don't find that sort of thing in many other annual shareholder letters.

Warren Buffett is an expert salesperson, and this tone is the exquisitely crafted product of 70 years of salesmanship. Buffett has worked tirelessly to build his public image, and his "aw-shucks" act is a critical part of that. His image of a down-to-earth person with unquestionable integrity* has enabled him to lock down investment deals under the most favorable possible terms. *) read one of his biographies to see…

Post by cardiffspaceman » Sun, Feb 26, 2017, 4:11 AM UTC

mememachine wrote: post #138

all_usernames wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for economic understanding it's important to note that these were not the major drivers of growth. Two hundred years of slavery was not a major driver of economic growth? Edit: Serious question, rephrased: do economic historians really not consider slavery a major driver of growth? If so, that would be highly counterintuitive. We're talking about the free labor of ~10 million people over two centuries, in an econom…

Slaves were expensive, not free (not to say they werent a contributing factor)

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Feb 26, 2017, 4:23 AM UTC

friedman23 wrote: post #203

jdavis703 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they all represent a net gain for Americans from the barren lands, primitive structures and meager output of 1776. Starting from scratch, America has amassed wealth totaling $90 trillion. This was a gain that was achieved not by starting from scratch but by stealing lands from indigenous people and forcing Africans to work that land. I'm not sure if you can describe the kidnapping, murder, rape and ultimately genocid…

> This was a gain that was achieved not by starting from scratch but by stealing lands from indigenous people Seeing as how you are saying that the growth of America was dependent on 'stealing' land you must be implying that the success is dependent on the stealing of resources. Which is trivially proven false by simply looking at South America. > forcing Africans to work that land Forcing Africans to work the land s…

Post by valuearb » Sun, Feb 26, 2017, 5:06 AM UTC

dsacco wrote: post #248

pg314 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if a hedge fund is actually worth investing in (and there are quite a few) Apparently it is hard to come up with a collection of 5 of them that would beat the S&P 500 over 10 years. At least Buffett had a hard time finding counterparties for a bet.

RenTec, D.E. Shaw, Baupost, Bridgewater, Farallon, off the top of my head. There are others. I agree that it's hard to find firms that beat the market over long terms but it's not quite that difficult. Much like other very difficult but not impossible things in life, it is very difficult but not impossible to beat the market for long periods of time. It's fair to say that most people, millionaires included, should go…