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Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

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Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#91

Post by 33MHz-i486 »

photochemsyn wrote: post #65
andrewl wrote: post #33

Buffett worked, at least informally, with the Obama administration on some financial policy issues. And he is a proponent of greater taxes on the very rich. Here's one short video (2:46) in which he talks about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJzTsTU1xL8

If the US government really wanted to bring back industrial manufacturing, tax policy is one obvious route - eg a 2/3 tax on billionaire and corporate wealth, such as on the huge pile of cash Buffet-Berkshire is sitting on, but then offer a way out - invest that cash in domestic manufacturing and R & D and it won't be taxed. This could motivate the private sector to go back to the Bell Labs model, too.

that doesnt really work if they have to compete on price with foreign producers that have lower labor costs, looser environmental regulations, deeper supply chains and better process knowledge. might as well eat the tax (waiting for monopolistic opportunities) or light the money on fire

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#93

Post by dehrmann »

nabla9 wrote: post #73
dehrmann wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to diminish any of his accomplishments, but read his quotes and story as being a product of his time. He famously missed out on a lot of solid tech investments because of his background as a value investor. Value investing doesn't exist the same way it did when Berkshire started making a name for itself. Tech investing also isn't them same as 1997, 2004, or 2010.

Berkshire has outperformed Nasdaq and SP500 from the IPO (May 9, 1996), 10y, 5y, 1y time periods and he has now $340B in cash. All this with low risk holding lots of cash. He has not missed anything.

Just because it beat indexes doesn't mean it couldn't have done better.

From 2017:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/06/warren-buffett-admits-he-mad...

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#94

Post by readthenotes1 »

dehrmann wrote: post #41
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #16

I always run across great quotes from Warren Buffett, but I never spent any time actually reading any of his writings or anything written about him. What's the best place to start to absorb some of his wisdom? Anything that's applicable to startups, tech, and life in general, beyond being the CEO of a holding company?

Not to diminish any of his accomplishments, but read his quotes and story as being a product of his time. He famously missed out on a lot of solid tech investments because of his background as a value investor. Value investing doesn't exist the same way it did when Berkshire started making a name for itself. Tech investing also isn't them same as 1997, 2004, or 2010.

It's not that he missed out on it, both Buffett and munger said that they didn't really understand technology so they didn't feel a reason to go there. They felt they better understood insurance and railroads and candies and whatnot and they made Bank doing it.

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#96

Post by Keyframe »

next_xibalba wrote: post #40
tchalla wrote: post #24

Buffet on Tariffs > “It’s a big mistake, in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don’t like you very well, and you got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done - I don’t think it’s right, and I don’t think it’s wise,” Buffett said. “The United States won. I mean, we have become an incredibly important country, starting from nothing 250 years ago. There’s not been any…

Buffett actually does share a fear of trade deficits, though. His proposed solution, as an alternative to tariffs, were "import certificates"-essentially a marketable credit required to import goods. These would be earned via exports by exporters, be freely priced and traded, and would essentially bind import levels to export levels.

That sounds awful a lot like we had it back in the Yugoslavia days. It wasn't exactly free market, as you might know. Companies that exported stuff had credits attached to them and with that quota they could then import goods. They couldn't trade those credits. You then had absurd situations like a company that sells agricultural stuff and has stores for those was also selling, for example, commodore 64 in their stores since that's what they imported.

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#97

Post by sillysaurusx »

tchalla wrote: post #24

Buffet on Tariffs > “It’s a big mistake, in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don’t like you very well, and you got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done - I don’t think it’s right, and I don’t think it’s wise,” Buffett said. “The United States won. I mean, we have become an incredibly important country, starting from nothing 250 years ago. There’s not been any…

I’m a bit slow in this field. Could someone explain how this quote relates to tariffs? I’ve re-read it three times now, looking for the connection to a tax on imported goods, but I just can’t see it.

I think it’s saying that the US population is crowing about how well we’ve done, and so we should be able to tax whatever imports we want? But what an odd way to say that if so. How well we’ve done seems completely unrelated to tariffs.

Then the quote caps off with some back-patting about how we’ve only been around 250 years, and that our rise is unprecedented. Again seemingly unrelated to tariffs.

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#98

Post by nly »

paulpauper wrote: post #92
riffraff wrote: post #5

He's 94 years old, it's honestly impressive he was still there. Still, end of an era.

Munger was still going strong at 99, good genes both of them, i guess

And the best healthcare money can buy anywhere in the world.

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#99

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

lucianbr wrote: post #18
Supermancho wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you trying to say? It's not clear at all.

Pretty clear and funny to me. Not sure how to explain it without just repeating the same thing. It seems the markets will soon go through a period when Buffet's approach will work best, which makes it an inoportune moment for him to retire. Of course at his age retirement is expected, maybe even inevitable - that's the joke.

I don't know how much of Bershire's funds Buffet personally manages nowadays - he's had other people managing a lot of it for years.

Re: Buffett to step down following six-decade run atop Berkshire

#100

Post by KajMagnus »

paulpauper wrote: post #92
riffraff wrote: post #5

He's 94 years old, it's honestly impressive he was still there. Still, end of an era.

Munger was still going strong at 99, good genes both of them, i guess

Having friends also contributes to living longer (Buffet and Charlie)
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