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Berkshire Hathaway on Sale - Financial Times

I have owned A and B shares since the early to mid 1990's. With respect to dividend policy, the frictional cost of double taxation of dividends is avoided by not paying them. This is one reason he split the A shares in the latter Nineties was to enable investors to sell portions of their holdings for 'income'. Commissions now being a pittance, this is viable 'dividend policy'.

As for 'old line' companies, industries, &c., the NASDAQ is a proxy for the opposite. Chart Berkshire v. NASDAQ, S&P, etc. and see for yourself. Berkshire has outperformend the NASDAQ, S&P since the early Nineties. I have (attempted) done this for you here:

(finance.yahoo.com/echa...;range=my;compare=wfc+...

The NASDAQ dividend can't explain all of the discrepency between its lag of BRKA.
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Disclosure: Long A and B, VEU, VTI, VWO, O, VXF, GSG, VNQ, PCY, PFF, HYG.

Even Buffett Makes Mistakes

Even though Warren Buffett observed that the world airline industry has not made a dime for investors in a century of manned flight, escaping with a profit after lamenting he shouldn't have invested in US Air, it seems that NetJets is just another form of the airline animal. Whether the revenue mile is generated via an "owned" or rented "seat", its the 'cost of capital' that never really gets covered.

That said, I added to my position in BRKB (3305) this morning. Warren gets the 'big picture' pretty will. The recent BNI acquisition has more of a moat around its business than do the air carriers. Disclosure: Long A and B shares.

Buffett's Burlington Buy Is Really a Bet on China

Thanks, Texas_Technoman


On Nov 06 10:30 AM Texas_Technoman wrote:

>
> BNI is a much stronger player in the intermodal (trailer/container
> on flat car) sector than UNP. In fact, up until the current slowdown,
> BNI's intermodal traffic has grown more than all the other North
> American RR's combined. UNP is stronger in the Industrial Products
> sector (o/t coal), which feeds an industrial base in the US....that
> is shrinking. The future is in containerized freight (both import/export)
> and domestic...rails do the long haul, motor carriers the pick up
> and delivery....it's all about Intermodal!

Buffett's Burlington Buy Is Really a Bet on China

Why BNI as opposed to UNP?

Not So Easy to Follow Buffett's Picks

This is true. Some deals you can't buy as "good" as Warren. But both GE and GS he got 11 percent to wait and options to convert to common at prices much higher than both commons fell to just a couple of months later. You could have put your dollars very advantageously in Nov thru Jan. Buffett at the time said he doesn't try to time the market on purchases, but when good franchises come available at good prices he buys.

In any event, if you think he gets better deals than can you, you can buy his expertise by buying brka or brkb.

Disclosure: Long BRKA BRKB