Buffett Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter
Warren Buffett on Saturday released his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, covering the year 2017. This year it struck me as newsworthy more for what was omitted than for what was in there.
Despite Buffett’s Democratic-leaning politics, there was nothing in the letter complaining about President Trump. No pleas for free trade, no pleas for immigration reform to accommodate the “dreamers,” no pleas for gun control, no major complaints about the tax law (though some brief discussion of how it affects Berkshire). No mention of the #MeToo movement, though there is a borderline inappropriate comment in Buffett’s letter about how board members encouraging CEOs to consider possible acquisitions is “a bit like telling your ripening teenager to be sure to have a normal sex life.”
Nor was there any discussion of Berkshire’s selling of its roughly $10 billion stake in IBM. There was no discussion of the problems at Wells Fargo, which at year-end was Berkshire’s largest single common stock investment, with a stake valued at $29 billion. Buffett previously has been all too happy to testify to shareholders about how “very well-run” a bank Wells Fargo was. There was no discussion of the joint health care project that Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, and JP Morgan Chase announced recently.
Much more at the link, from Ira Still.
h/t GR