Notes: Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders
1977
- Why you should ignore record earnings
- Why textiles is a bad business
- Competing on price - insurance
- What I look for in a business
Others thoughts:
- What’s happened (aka. investigative deep dives)
- What this means for the future (aka. investigative deep dives)
- ??? (aka uplifting)
- How im thinking - A better way than explaining something (aka. step by step guide).
1978
1978 was a good year for the insurance business, Illinois National Bank and Berkshire as a whole. The textile business needs to turn down the suck though.
- welcome falling prices
- how to treat capital gains when calculating return on capital
- Berkshire had a good year
- The textile business
- An undifferentiated good
- The insurance business
- Edge: You don’t know the cost of your product here (since it’s a promise). You have to price it against buyers who have no idea.
- The Illinois national bank
1979
It’s 1979. Inflation is painfully high. What’s one to do?
- 14% Inflation
- Investing during period of high inflation
- Thoughts on bonds
- Thoughts on stocks
- The misery index (inflation + tax)
- Berkshire’s book value per share, gold and oil
- The dissapointing textile business
- Get the shareholders you seek and deserve
1980
It’s 1980. Inflation is still high. Insurers are still in price wars.
- Real returns, hamburgers and ROE
- Why Buffett expects more severe pricing wars from insurance competitors
- Non-controlled ownership earnings and the earnings iceberg
- Why share repurchases are liked (if the business is undervalued)
- How Berkshire is doing
- Berkshire borrowed $60m anticipating opportunity
1981
Interest rates, valuations, acquisitions. Hello 1981.
- How Berkshire is doing
- Interest rates, valuations, P/Es
- Relationship between market value and business value
- Acquisitions
- The earnings iceberg