They really need to tax this man, he's even on record saying how he needs to be taxed more.
Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
11–20 of 70 posts
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#12Can someone with more experience explain what does "cash" mean in this context? Is it saying that 100 billion isn't actively invested and is simply being depreciated by inflation? It's said it's tied up in 'short-term investments' but that's not clear to someone who doesn't have knowledge of this domain.
Berkshire has almost all of their cash in short term treasury bills. It's a cash equivalent, because you don't want to keep 100bn in a checking account, and it does get hurt by inflation. But that's OK, because making a purchase when the time is right will more than make up for it. Cash is still king, in Buffet's world.
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#13Can someone with more experience explain what does "cash" mean in this context? Is it saying that 100 billion isn't actively invested and is simply being depreciated by inflation? It's said it's tied up in 'short-term investments' but that's not clear to someone who doesn't have knowledge of this domain.
> $125 billion in cash, cash equivalents[1], and short-term investments[2] in US Treasuries[3] at the end of December
[1]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cashandcashequivalents.... [2]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shorterminvestments.asp [3]: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/off-the-runtreasuries.a...
Regarding [3] the difference between ON-the vs OFF-the, is that the "on-the-run treasuries have a specific maturity date.
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#14Can someone with more experience explain what does "cash" mean in this context? Is it saying that 100 billion isn't actively invested and is simply being depreciated by inflation? It's said it's tied up in 'short-term investments' but that's not clear to someone who doesn't have knowledge of this domain.
It generally means invested in instruments that are considered completely safe and completely liquid, such as US Treasury bills.
They can make a small return on your investment, but they won't typically beat inflation.
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#15Whatever Warren Buffet does at this stage is going to be a success. Everything he does becomes self-fulfilling. People like him don't predict market movements, they cause them.
That's way too reductive. Yes, his reputation helps tremendously, but even as a complete unknown he would still be a world-class investor.
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#16Can someone with more experience explain what does "cash" mean in this context? Is it saying that 100 billion isn't actively invested and is simply being depreciated by inflation? It's said it's tied up in 'short-term investments' but that's not clear to someone who doesn't have knowledge of this domain.
Sure, it’s likely a mixture of cash, short term treasuries, i.e. TBills and a few other things. None are volatile, and short term investments generally exist to protect against inflation, with an easy eject button if you need to convert to cash quickly.
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#17maybe he's got the cash - but i'm doubtful he would blow it on them. As he's indicated, he's gotten better returns from buying parts of companies than buying them out whole. I would be surprised if he does any M&A during this downturn, likely instead opting to invest more into the positions he's already got.
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#18Can someone with more experience explain what does "cash" mean in this context? Is it saying that 100 billion isn't actively invested and is simply being depreciated by inflation? It's said it's tied up in 'short-term investments' but that's not clear to someone who doesn't have knowledge of this domain.
The US government gives out debt of varying duration. Generally speaking, the shorter the duration the lower the interest rate and the higher the liquidity ("ease of conversion to cash").
Treasury bills are is debt with a duration of less than a year and BRK has a lot of those:
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#19Do the world a favor and buy Fox news or News Corp O:)
[flagged]
Re: Warren Buffett has the cash to buy Tesla, Starbucks, or McDonald's
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Insurance doesn't normally cover pandemics.
Insurance covers insurable events, some of them may be triggered by a pandemic, and some of those might be excluded. Check your fine print. * Life insurance is probably going to take a hit. My life insurance doesn't mention pandemic or acts of god. Suicide yes. Pandemic no. * Auto insurance is probably going to be marginally more profitable as miles driven drop. * Home/Property isn't likely to be heavily affected. *…
Health insurance is probably going to be fine, because there will be lots of government money flowing into healthcare to drop prices (free tests etc). And total hospital bed capacity hasn't majorly increased (as in: nowhere near 2x), so the total cost they can incur per month isn't significantly higher. May even be slightly lower per patient because most complex treatments have been put on-hold.
Life insurance may also be profiting depending on the structure of the portfolio. Differs a bit per market but some common products pay a monthly amount from let's say 65 until death. A virus might decrease life expectancy of that group from 81 to 77 or something, a 25% drop in required payouts. On the other hand they're often heavily invested in the financial markets which took a big hit. So could go both ways.