After a three-year, Covid-19-related hiatus from in-person shareholder meetings, we die-hard Berkshire Hathaway meeting attendees met in Omaha for Woodstock For Capitalists.
There were few changes from the last gathering in 2019. Most importantly, the great Warren Buffett (age 91) and Charlie Munger (age 98) were again sitting on a stage answering questions for about five hours. Vice-Chairs Greg Abel (future CEO) and Ajit Jain were also on stage to answer questions in the morning session.
Buffett seemed particularly in a mood to talk, as there were far fewer questions than in past years -- he even joked about it after the lunch break, noting they'd only answered seven questions in the morning session, apparently because someone (him) talked a lot.
My summary of the environment and some of what was said:
- A smaller crowd than in the past, probably due to the pandemic and people getting used to watching the live stream of the meeting. Also, there was more room to roam in the convention area, things were more spread out.
- These guys hate the way so many approach stock market investing. They treat it like a 'gambling parlor' now that securities prices frequently are unattached to fundamentals. Munger in particular brought up Robinhood (investment platform) and how people are now paying dearly for leveraging their money and on their misplaced faith in it.
- As much as these guys hate the stock market casino action, they REALLY hate cryptocurrency, which they believe is bad for stable currency economies and will be worthless one day. Buffett made the same comment about it that he used for gold investors years ago, which is why invest in a non-producing asset that's only value is what another is willing to pay for it.
- On cryptocurrency, here's Munger's exact quote: "Well, in my life I try and avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad in comparison with somebody else. And bitcoin does all three. In the first place, it’s stupid because it’s very likely to go to zero. In the second place, it’s evil because it undermines the Federal Reserve system and the national currency system, which we desperately need to maintain its integrity and government control and company on. And third, it makes us look foolish compared to the communist leader in China. He was smart enough to ban bitcoin in China, and with all of our presumed advantages of civilization -- we are a lot dumber than the communist leader in China."
- Upon answering a question about investing during inflation like we have now, Buffett said the best investment anyone can make is to invest in themselves. Make yourself an expert at what you like to do -- if you're one of the best, people will pay you regardless, and you will do well.
- Also on inflation.....Buffett mentioned there was about $800 billion of Federal Reserve cash in circulation 10 or 15 years ago, and now there’s something like $2.2 trillion of currency in circulation. That’s about $7,000 per person, every man, woman, and child in the U.S., a lot of which has come from the stimulus programs due to the pandemic. He said it's no wonder we have inflation now -- but we probably had to do what we did.
Of course, there was so much more. Below is a link to this meeting and others.
https://buffett.cnbc.com/annual-meetings/
