preferred ads of regulatory capital. really? yeah. they are changing our cumulative the preferred to noncumulative preferred. and that changes that category by $5 billion. you know, we’ve — i’ve made mistakes. it doesn’t involve any loss of money or anything. it is structured debt they acquired when they took over merrill lynch. after i took over solomon, i took over 1991. when i took over, there was a plug item in the balance sheet. they had not been able to find — they had not been able to reconcile since 1981. arthur andersen were our auditors. they explained to me, you will see this 180 million or whatever it is move around different amounts. but don’t worry. some day we will figure it out. did that concern you? sure, it concerned me. it had gone — one of the companies had been on cash basis and one on trade basis. it never got worked out. we had a situation many, many years ago. we just ran up the bank account and started all over again.
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, shares his thoughts on General Motors CEO Mary Barra. She is on the hot seat but not one of her own making, says Buffett
securities that you do own, you mentioned over the weekend you metro septemberly with mary barra of gm for lunch, what did you think about that? had you met with her before? i just met her briefly at conferences eight to ten months ago. was that at the most powerful women’s conference? yes, that was the first time i had seen her. and i don’t own that stock personally. mary was there and i think she’s terrific. she can run a company like berkshire does for sure. she loves cars. i mean, i told her she was a car guy. i mean, it just is all the way through. and she knows cars. every aspect that you get into, she knows the impact or the tradeoffs involved between weight, style and price. and she loves general motors. she’s made for the job. have you had concerns about the gm recall news? obviously that happened before her time, but is there anything that’s risen to the point where you think, wait a second, maybe we should reconsider whether we own the stock right now? well, that wouldn’t be my decision. actually, it is ted whistler’s decision, but she — she inherited a mess. and now it’s not a small one, but it’s a particular concern to the american public. it did save general motors in 2009 and that’s the switch that happened prior to that, but general motor is in the forefront of many americans’ minds because cars are important to them. so mary is basically on a hot seat but not of her own making. and there’s nobody better at handling it. it won’t be handled in a week or month. it is just the nature of th
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, weighs in on corporate tax inversion and tax advantaged investments.
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, shares his thoughts on corporations moving operations overseas to avoid paying higher corporate taxes and why tax reform in the U.S. is likely.
you are getting more mergers that are tax driven. you are actually talking not only about buying the business or breaking down the tax rate. it’s been coming along. we saw valeant pull off a couple of things. as they have gone along, the people at pfizer say this is getting out of hand. we have to bring our tax rate down too. it will gather momentum. and my guess is that when you get to companies of this side and with the speed of momentum. congress one way or the other addresses this. it could go in any direction. and whether they try to work on this little aspect of the code that allows us, which is not as significant, or whether that forces them to rethink sort of all corporate taxes, we’ll find out. but i do think it’s going to get attention. the president has already put it in his budget. it’s not been closely focused on except for the companies considering doing this thing. right now if you have 20% of your shareholders outside the united states, you’re allowed to do that. but the president has proposed moving it up to 50%. some pay look at that and say, wait a second, why not make it more attractive rather than moving it for everybody else. everybody talks about tax reform. people love to use the word tax reform. it increases their own taxes. they have all kinds of other things or helping other people. they want to get that corrected. but i have yet to hear from anybody pretty much that wants to. it equates taxes. and the whole thing on the foreign situation i think will will cause one hell of a fight in corporate america.
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, explains why it makes sense not to split up Berkshire Hathaway and what he is looking for in a successor. The chief executive should think exactly like an owner, Buffett says.
Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, share their thoughts on the announcement Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel is stepping down, and the difficulty in working in the retail space.
Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, discuss how Amazon’s “disruptive” business model is likely to change America.
Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, discuss why their partnership works so well. There is enormous respect between us, says Buffett.
Pharmacy biz wants zero tax rate: Munger
Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, discuss U.S. corporate tax codes.
Three traits needed to get elected to Berkshire board
Three traits needed to get elected to Berkshire board
MON 05 MAY 14 | 08:18 AM ET
We look for directors who are shareholder oriented, business savvy, and interested in Berkshire, says Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, talking with Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, and Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, about the criteria they look for when selecting board members.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates tell the story of how he first met Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett.
Bill Gates, Microsoft founder; Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, share their thoughts on activist investors. An immediate bump in the stock price should not be the measure if someone accomplished something successfully in a corporation, adds Buffett.
Bill Gates, Microsoft founder; Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, share their thoughts on activist investors. An immediate bump in the stock price should not be the measure if someone accomplished something successfully in a corporation, adds Buffett.
This stuff is like the top soil of Iowa, says Berkshire Hathaway’s Charile Munger, expressing his views on the nation’s energy policy. Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman & CEO, weigh in. I would always want to have enough to take care of national defense, says Warren.
Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, share their views on patents.
