Interview
The
Warren
&
Charlie
Show
The Oracle of Omaha
and his long-time
partner, Charlie Munger,
shared insights right
from moats to crypto-
currencies at Berkshire
Hathaway’s annual
meeting at Omaha.
Edited excerpts from
the Annual Report:
Warren, you previously said
that there are two parts to your
job – overseeing the managers and
capital allocation. Ajit and Greg
now oversee the managers, which
leaves you with capital allocation.
However, you share capital
allocation with Ted Weschler and
Todd Combs. Does that mean you
are semi-retired or, if not, please
explain?
BUFFETT: I’ve been semi-retired
for decades. Well, it’s hard to break
down the percentage of the time that
I was involved. Ajit and George have
been doing a great job. Likewise,
Ted and Todd are doing a very god
job when it comes to investing,
managing $12 billion-$13 billion
24
each. We have $170 billion now
in equities, $20 billion in bonds
and another $100 billion in cash.
And I still have the responsibility,
basically, for the other 300 billion.
Clearly, we’ve got two people in Ajit
and Greg who are smarter, more
energetic, and just bring more to the
job every day. Ted and Todd not only
do a great job with the $12-13 billion
each but they also do – have done
a number of things for Berkshire
that they do it cheerfully, but more
important, very skillfully. There’s one
thing after another that I will have
them looking into or working on,
and sometimes I steal their ideas.
MUNGER: Well, I’ve watched
Warren for a long time, and he sits
Outlook Money June 2018 www.outlookmoney.com
around reading most of the time and
thinking. Part of the Berkshire secret
is that when there’s nothing to do,
Warren is very good at doing nothing.
Warren, have you given a thought
to other Berkshire managers
becoming publicly more visible so
that future generations of successful
business owners continue to bring
deal opportunities to Berkshire like
they have in prior decades?
BUFFETT: I don’t think our reputation
is dependent on Charlie or me but on
the reputation that Berkshire is a very
good home for companies, particularly
private ones. There will be a little
testing period for whoever takes over
but basically we’ve got the money to