Rodent Regatta

Berkshire Hathaway’s shares closed at $90,200.00 and $2963.50 for the A & B shares respectively. The annual report is scheduled to be posted on the company’s website in the next few weeks.

Here’s a link to the pdf file covering Berkshire’s acquisition of Business Wire. The annual meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 6, 2006 in Omaha.

Long-time readers will recall the statement that a thorough reading and re-reading of Warren Buffett’s letters to shareholders is worth more than two years in a good graduate business school. Hyperbole aside, a bit of understanding and insight helps!

Had you invested $25,000 in Starbucks back in 1992, your investment would be worth about a million today. You can see the details here.

Hindsight like this raises a question. What can we see going into 2006 that carries the potential for an annual compound growth rate of 32%? Starbucks delivered in excess of 4000% over thirteen years in spite of a bubble. What’s next?

Mistakes can be costly. Many mistakes result from a lack of proper attention and diligence. This is never so true as it is when a property owner discovers that purchased insurance does not cover a particular risk.

Examples include (but are not limited to) homeowner’s insurance that doesn’t cover damage due to flooding, earthquakes, a neighbor’s tree falling through your house, damage due to a city sewer problem, etc. That list truly can go on and on.

In the face of the very public (media) debate that will no doubt occupy vast blocks of time during the coming months, every property owner should sit down with a trusted insurance representative and evaluate each and every calamity that might happen along. The time and education you’ll receive will no doubt remove many of the surprises you might get.

We talked previously about several of the articles concerning the legal battles on the Gulf Coast. As things move from the ridiculous to the absurd, beware.

A liberal media, pitiful victims, greedy lawyers and courts clearly willing to take property from some and give it to others are now going to make the Hurricane Katrina disaster worse for everyone. It’s happening in the name of something they believe is fairness.

Read on...

Long-time readers know that Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s company, has been an interest of mine for many years. Some of you will recall that I repeated an often cited statement that, “a careful reading and rereading of Warren Buffett’s letters to shareholders from 1977 to the present provides a better education than two years in a top business school.”

To further that education Charles T. Munger has collaborated with Peter Kaufman to produce a masterpiece. It’s a book and it’s called Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. Part of it is biography. Part of it is philosophy. Mostly, it is a book about the kind of knowledge one should accumulate to succeed in life. Mr. Munger is Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman of many years.

For those who are designers and look this way from time to time, you’ll find this is a book unlike any other you’ll pick up in the next year or two. From the book jacket, to the cover, to the illustrations inside, it is one of the great design accomplishments in publishing. If you’re serious about owning books that last for generations, this one is worth adding to your collection.