I think the main figure that matters to all of us, including people in the media, is: How does GDP per capita grow? And those figures have been very good. There is a huge flux both up and down, so it isn’t like we’re all static in status. What’s important is that pie grows.
The total amount paid out in dividends is roughly equal to the amount lost in trading and investment advice, so net dividends to shareholders are zero. This is a very peculiar way to run a republic.
Kellogg’s and Campbell’s moats have also shrunk due to the increased buying power of supermarkets and companies like Wal-Mart. The muscle power of Wal-Mart and Costco has increased dramatically.
I think you’ll make more money in the end with good ethics than bad. Even though there are some people who do very well, like Marc Rich-who plainly has never had any decent ethics, or seldom anyway. But in the end, Warren Buffett has done better than Marc Rich-in money-not just in reputation.
The laws of thermodynamic s are such that if the water is getting warmer – and I believe it is – the energy of the weather is going to go up.
There’s no way that you can live an adequate life without making many mistakes.
Our biggest mistakes, were things we didn’t do, companies we didn’t buy.
I know just enough about thermodynamics to understand that if it takes too much fossil-fuel energy to create ethanol, that’s a very stupid way to solve an energy problem.
A few public hangings will really change behavior. One of our Presidents said if he could execute three people each year for no cause, it would make it a lot easier to govern. When someone said that’s not enough, he said, “Oh yes it is, because I’d publish the list of people under consideration.”
We have a history when things are really horrible of wading in when no one else will.
I have a black belt in chutzpah. I was born with it. Some people, like some of the women I know, have a black belt in spending. They were born with that. But what they gave me was a black belt in chutzpah.
A rough rule in life is that an organization foolish in one way in dealing with a complex system is all too likely to be foolish in another.
We may well have a competitive advantage buying decent businesses at decent prices. But they won’t be fabulous businesses and fabulous prices. There’s too much competition and money out there, with many buyout specialists.
A director who gets $150,000 per year from a company and needs the money is not independent.
If mutual fund directors are independent, then I’m the lead character in the Bolshoi Ballet.
To say accounting for derivatives is Americais a sewer is an insult to sewage.
The stupid and dishonest accountants allowed the genie of totally inappropriate accounting to descend on derivatives books. And once this has happened – people get status, etc. – it’s impossible to get it back into the bottle.
No CEO examining books today understands what the hell is going on.
If people tell you what you really don’t want to hear – what’s unpleasant – there’s an almost automatic reaction of antipathy. You have to train yourself out of it.
I’d rather throw a viper down my shirt front than hire a compensation consultant.