can’t see it but we have millions and millions of people out there trying to figure out how to make their lives better tomorrow and they create companies like oriental trading. this was created by a you fellow here that had a couple of parents that had come over from asia, and you know, look at it. 750,000 square feet and you know, it’s — we create things. geico was created by a fellow and his wife back in 1936 that had $100,000. i mean, so, the dynamism of america is not lost. we’re always looking for the next big thing and jim cramer wrote in. he’s got a question about whether we’re at the golden age of oil and gas. and how burlington is cashing in on it in terms of the train to the refinery will bni switch to natural gas engines on its locomotives? we’ve got a couple we’re experimenting with this year. and we’re probably not the only one. the railroads are definitely experimenting with converting to natural gas. it’s not a simple matter and i can’t tell you the technicalities of it. but, it’s — it’s real enough so we’re spending real money. in fact i think we ordered a couple of units that we’re working with. so it’s — when you get natural gas, you know, 3.5 dollars and you look at where oil is, you’ve got to look at converting any kind of an engine to natural gas. you know, but jim brings up a point that we’ve heard from jack welch and others who have come on the show. welch has said he thinks oil and gas is going to be one of the next big renaissances for america, and that may be where we get a huge number of jobs from down the road. yeah, well, it’s — it’s huge. the job — the job factor is significant. it is — it’s not like — i don’t look at it primarily in terms of jobs although that’s important. but it’s certainly important in terms of the balance of payments which is — you know, i mean we — we can save hundreds of billions of dollars on annually as we get more self-sufficient in oil and gas. so, it’s got — it’s got big, big consequences. and you did mention a little earlier what this means for burlington northern but it’s been a big boone for them to be coming from the — to have so much around the oil formations. fortunately they discovered oil where the railroad was. it’s still only about 5% of our shipments. we ship a couple hundred — 190,000 ars a week in, and it’s about 5% of shipments. coal is 20%. so what we’ve lost in coal we’ve more or less made up in oil. but it’s a growth factor. there’s no question about it. you know, real quickly, warren i’ve been getting questions about some comments yo were making with joe talking about some of the newspapers and someone had written in steve williams this is number 55 says is buying newspapers like collecting cars for you? or is there a real profit motive? oh, it has to pencil out or we wouldn’t be doing it. it’s smaller than the things we normally but we spent the 350 or so million. we will get a decent return on that unless the business is way worse than i think it is and i would say this, in the year or so that we’ve operated we are meeting all the projections and the local salaries. we will never get superrich on it but i can almost guarantee you that we will get a decent return on them. we’re buying them very, very, very cheap. another viewer wants to know if you’d ever something the chicago tribune or the los angeles times because it’s been reported they’re up for sale. no thanks. they’re too tough. you know, i — it’s very hard to edit a paper like the los angeles times, the chicago tribune. if you have a paper in grand island, nebraska, like we do, everybody there is interested in how the high school teams are doing, whether it’s in wrestling or basketball or the state tournament or anything else, if you’ve got the chicago tribune, or the los angeles times, you can’t talk to people about what’s happening with their high schools. it just doesn’t work. you need a — you need a tight community.
all right, i am back again with berkshire chairman and ceowarren buffett. and warren, let’s talk a little bit more about your letter and some of the things you put out sure. you mentioned that you’re going to be doing things a little bit differently this yearat the annual meeting. last year you added a panel of analysts who asked a lot of questions at the annual meeting. along with the three journalists who asked questions and all the questions that come from the audience. thu say you’re still going to have one insurance analyst but you’ve added another analyst who will be looking at the other berkshire companies. the other berkshire subsidiaries or units or businesses or whatever you want to call these and you’re also looking actively looking for a bear on berkshire hathaway. why did you add that? make it more interesting. the crowd can hear somebody that thinks the stock’s overpriced, or that it’s a house of cards or whatever it may be. and we want the media to be interesting. so that
