by jcalabro on 2/26/22, 3:17 PM
> Much of our huge value creation in insurance is attributable to Berkshire’s good luck in my 1986 hiring of Ajit Jain. We first met on a Saturday morning, and I quickly asked Ajit what his insurance experience had been. He replied, “None.”
> I said, “Nobody’s perfect,” and hired him. That was my lucky day: Ajit actually was as perfect a choice as could have been made. Better yet, he continues to be – 35 years later.
This made me laugh. I wish my hiring process was this robust! I'd be curious to know more about why he actually chose him.
by christophilus on 2/26/22, 2:06 PM
One of my favorite thing about this massively profitable company is their website [0]. Buffett’s power point presentations are equally slick.
[0] https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
by mixedbit on 2/26/22, 3:09 PM
Berkshire continues to sit on cash (144B) with a thesis that productive assets are expensive due to the long period of low interest rates:
'That’s largely because of a truism: Long-term interest rates that are low push the prices of all productive
investments upward, whether these are stocks, apartments, farms, oil wells, whatever. Other factors influence valuations as well, but interest rates will always be important.'
Upcoming interest rate increases may create good opportunities for Berkshire to invest this money and grow.
by paulpauper on 2/26/22, 6:30 PM
Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are 91 and 97 years old respectively and have famously bad diets and do no exercise yet are both healthy and productive. Many other examples, like William Shatner, who is 91. Or Henry Kissinger, 98. I think much of conventional wisdom about weight, diet, health is wrong. Outcomes are influenced much more by genes than anything else. That's how these old guys keep going when the 'conventional health wisdom' by the experts says they should be dead.
by throwthere on 2/26/22, 2:53 PM
Oddly this letter doesn’t have an overarching lesson. Some of the teaching points are that interest rates are low driving up valuations of everything, adjusted earnings including ebitda are suspect, don’t bet against America, float is under appreciated by gaap.
by dazc on 2/26/22, 1:44 PM
> we employ decent and talented people – no jerks.
Seems like a good idea few other businesses have caught on to?
by voidfunc on 2/26/22, 2:49 PM
I bought a bunch of BRK-B a few months ago, its a nice portfolio balancer to the S&P500 which is heavily tech weighted now.
by beejiu on 2/26/22, 6:31 PM
> Also, a significant portion of the dollars that Todd and Ted manage are lodged in various pension plans of Berkshire-owned businesses, with the assets of these plans not included in this table.
Perhaps this is poorly worded, but can someone explain how that's not a conflict of interest?
by FredWeschler on 2/26/22, 4:17 PM
The best place on the Internet for Berkshire Hathaway news and discussion is on Reddit: r/brkb
It has more than two dozen value investor moderators and it was created by the legendary and eccentric u/100_PERCENT_BRKB... somewhat of a jerk, but he runs a tight subreddit.
by victor106 on 2/26/22, 8:30 PM
> If the many essential products BNSF carries were
instead hauled by truck, America’s carbon emissions would soar.
I wonder if Railroads will ever be replaceable, maybe if an EV truck is widely available?
by bmmayer1 on 2/26/22, 5:24 PM
Best line: "bull markets breed bloviated bull"
by apollo1213 on 2/26/22, 4:30 PM
by cushychicken on 2/26/22, 5:37 PM
I love the story about TTI's chairman.
Warren and Charlie have always struck me as deeply humanist folks. I really like that about them.
by elevaet on 2/26/22, 2:40 PM
> 2021 percentage change in per-share market value of Berkshire: +29.7%
Oof.
by drexlspivey on 2/26/22, 3:41 PM
If you are considering investing keep in mind that Berkshire is trading at 1.5 price-to-book ratio. Is there an actual reason to buy the stock instead of roughly replicating their portfolio and maybe periodically rebalancing? You might get slightly different returns but you are not paying a massive 50% premium + fees.
Also Buffet and Munger are in their 90s and I am not sure how the stock will react when the inevitable happens. Personally I would stay away