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Warren Buffett calls insurance Berkshire Hathaway's most important sector

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Re: Warren Buffett calls insurance Berkshire Hathaway's most important sector

#31

Post by thirdinline »

ggm wrote: post #17

I think whats interesting is the role of insurance in economics going back to the fourteenth century or earlier. Trade demanded ship insurance. Risk capital was locked up behind usury laws (can't lend money and be a good christian, and we killed or expelled all the jews so thats a ... bit of a problem right there..) but insurance for profit at end was legal. The whole UK debt finance from life expectancy, actuarial t…

That is interesting, where did you learn about the longer term history of insurance? It sounds like it would make a good book.

Re: Warren Buffett calls insurance Berkshire Hathaway's most important sector

#32

Post by Nokinside »

mathattack wrote: post #29
Nokinside wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real genius of Buffet is not the ability to make series of good investments, it's how he has structured his business. Berkshire makes steady amount of money (float and profit) from insurance business. They have always cheap money to invest, even in bad times when money is expensive. When there is downturn and buying opportunities arise, other investors must sell something good, arrange expensive financing, or dil…

It's actually both. He's also able to buy whole business cheaper than what they'd go for in an auction. And he gets access to deals that allow him to leverage his brand name. (Example: Goldman Sachs https://qz.com/67052/heres-how-warren-buffett-made-3-1-billi... )

GS investment was prime example of Buffet having money when others don't during crisis.

Money was tight, others tried to stay liquid and hoard cash. Only the government and Buffet were there with large amounts of money to spend.

Re: Warren Buffett calls insurance Berkshire Hathaway's most important sector

#33

Post by tptacek »

kchoudhu wrote: post #27
valuearb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We do not want our million plus customers that do not have solar to be buying solar at 10.5 cents when we can turn it out for them at 4.5 cents or buy it for them at 4.5 cents,” Buffett told CNBC Monday morning during a wide-ranging interview. “So we do not want the non-solar customers, of whom there are over a million, to be subsidizing the 17,000 solar customers.” The real shark was Musk, who was just mad that he…

Where have I heard this line of reasoning before? Oh yeah! "We don't want healthy people to subsidize sick people."

This reads like a non sequitur, and a nasty one at that.

Re: Warren Buffett calls insurance Berkshire Hathaway's most important sector

#34

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

thirdinline wrote: post #31
ggm wrote: post #17

I think whats interesting is the role of insurance in economics going back to the fourteenth century or earlier. Trade demanded ship insurance. Risk capital was locked up behind usury laws (can't lend money and be a good christian, and we killed or expelled all the jews so thats a ... bit of a problem right there..) but insurance for profit at end was legal. The whole UK debt finance from life expectancy, actuarial t…

That is interesting, where did you learn about the longer term history of insurance? It sounds like it would make a good book.

Well, here's the first result for "books on the history of insurance"

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kkiFKCO5BAgC&printse...

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