QuestionerLast year, I asked how the internet might affect some of your holdings. Since a lot of the internet companies have gone out in a business, has your view of the internet changed?
WarrenWell, that's a good question. I think that the internet probably looks to most retailers like less of a competitive threat than it did a couple of years ago. For example, if you look at the jewelers who have been on the internet, and in many cases, in several cases, at least, had very large valuations a couple of years ago. So the world was betting that they would be very effective competitors against brick-and-mortar jewelry retailers. I think that that threat has diminished substantially. I think that's been true in the furniture business, and both of those industries. very prominent dot-coms that had aggregate valuations in the hundreds of millions have vanished in short orders. So I would say that we think the Internet is a huge opportunity for certain of our businesses. I mean, GEICO continues to grow at a significant rate in Internet business. Seas Candies, Internet business is up 40% this year. Last year was up a much larger percent from the year before. It grows, and it'll continue to grow. So the Internet's an opportunity, but I think the idea that you could take almost any business idea and turn it into wealth on the Internet. Many were turned into wealth by promoting them to the public, but very few have been turned into wealth by actually producing cash results over time. So I think there's been a significant change in the degree to which, I perceive the Internet as a possible threat to our retail businesses. There's been no change in the degree to which I regarded as an opportunity for other of our businesses. What the Internet offered was a chance for people to monetize the hopes of others, in effect. I mean, you were able to capture the greed and dreams of millions of people and turn that into instant cash, in effect, through venture capital in the markets. And there was a lot of money transferred in the process from the gullible to the promoters. But there's been very little money created by pure Internet businesses so far. It's been a huge trap for the public.