Warren Buffett talks regrets, retirement at Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting

World
Europe

Listening to Warren Buffett never gets old to the thousands of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders who filled an arena to listen to the billionaire investor at the company’s annual meeting on Saturday.

More than 30,000 people gathered in Omaha, Nebraska to hear Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger talk. The 86-year-old CEO and his 93-year-old partner have been leading the conglomerate for more than five decades, but the crowds always listen for new tidbits of wisdom. Buffett is known for his candor and plain speaking.

He said that free trade is beneficial to Americans, but the government should also make policies to take care of displaced workers who are impacted by globalization. ‍

Buffett also said "Medical costs are the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness," and that the Republican approach to overhaul Obamacare is a tax cut for the rich.

He said his federal income taxes last year would have gone down 17 percent had the new law been in effect. "So it is a huge tax cut for guys like me," he said. "And when there's a tax cut, either the deficit goes up or they get the taxes from somebody else."

Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger visits the shareholder shopping day in a golf cart as part of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting weekend in Omaha, Nebraska, May 5, 2017. /VCG Photo

Berkshire’s top two executives acknowledged Saturday that they missed out on investing in Google years ago, but they expressed pride in the company they built through acquisitions and said they believe it will thrive for decades to come.

“In retrospect, I think we were smart enough to figure out Google early, and we didn’t,” Munger said.

Buffett and Munger avoided technology investments for most of their careers because they said it was too hard to figure out which companies will win. Berkshire does now own 133 million Apple shares, but it just sold off one-third of its 81 million IBM shares because Buffett misjudged that firm.

Munger was also positive about investment opportunities in China. "I do think the Chinese stock market is cheaper than the American stock market, and I do think China has a bright future. I also think there will be growing pains of course," he said.

According to Munger, China's room for further economic growth will allow it to see a boom in investments going forward, but speculation may bring some trouble to the market.

Buffett said there’s no change in Berkshire’s plan to eventually replace him. He said one of the most important qualities his successor will need is a talent for wisely investing Berkshire’s cash.

“We need a money mind as CEO,” said the business leader, who has no plans to retire.

Berkshire plans to name one of its existing managers CEO after Buffett is gone, and the decentralized structure of the company allows Berkshire’s subsidiaries to largely run themselves.

“We have an extraordinary group of good managers,” Buffett said.

The executives who run Berkshire subsidiaries look forward to the meeting just as the shareholders do.

Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber said he’s always careful about how much of Buffett’s time he takes up when he talks to him, so those conversations tend to focus just on Brooks’ running-shoe business. The annual meeting offers one of the few times Weber gets to hear Buffett discuss other topics.

“I want to hear him talk about the economy and investing,” Weber said. “I’m looking forward to hearing him as much as everybody else.”

Dozens of companies Berkshire owns set up booths in an adjoining 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall to sell their products and take questions about their businesses. The event offers Geico insurance quotes, See’s Candy, Justin cowboy boots, and RVs and homes manufactured by Clayton Homes.

“I think it’s a neat way to keep the enthusiasm up in shareholders,” said Jerry Meyer, who drove to Omaha with family from Coffeyville, Kansas.

Buffett is the celebrity that everyone wants to get close to at the meeting. When Buffett toured the exhibit hall, he was surrounded by a pack of reporters, shareholders and security officers. While Buffett met Mr. Peanut at the Kraft Heinz booth, Miami Dolphin Ndamukong Suh wandered a few feet away without a crowd.

(Source: AP, Xinhua, Reuters)

10426km