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OtherI'm Warren. He's Shirley. I can see, he can hear. That's why we work together. Have trouble remembering each other's names from time to time.
WarrenI'd like to comment for just a few minutes on the matter of David Sokol and the purchase of Volubrazol stock. I don't think there's any question about the inexcusable part that Dave violated, and that the Code of Ethics, he violated our insider trading. rules and he violated the the principles I laid out I lay out every two years in a direct personal letter to all of our managers. The inexplicable part is somewhat, well, it's inexplicable. But my knowledge, Dave did not disguise the trade, which, you know, that's somewhat inexplicable that if he really felt he was engaging in insider trading and knew the penalties that could be attached to it, that he essentially did it right out in the open. So there we are with a situation which is sad for Berkshire, sad for Dave, still inexplicable in my mind, and we will undoubtedly get more questions on it. We'll be glad to answer him, Richard.
QuestionerIf you were going to live another 50 years and and could add one additional sector or asset class to your circle of competence, which sector would it be?
WarrenIf I could really become expert, and I mean really expert, knowing more than most, almost anybody else about the subject, in the tech field, you know, I think that that would be terrific. It isn't going to happen, but it's going to be a huge field.
QuestionerAre there any significant changes you think could be made to be made to be? either current U.S. economic policy or federal reserve policy or tax laws to get the economy healthy and growing.
WarrenI think generally we have followed the right policies. I think they're less important than most people think they are. I think if you did the wrong policies, it would, it could really screw things up. But, but I don't, I don't, I don't, I think the natural resuscitative powers of capitalism are, will be the biggest factor in taking us out. The place that I feel we're making a huge mistake is not learning enough from the big mess that came from wretched excess in our financial system. I don't think we've throttled the sin and folly out of that aspect of the economy nearly enough. And I think if you look at all the panics and depressions of the United States, they all came from financial collapses, usually preceded by perfectly asinine and greedy behavior.
QuestionerDo either of you gentlemen think that we might be headed down the same type of path years from now when we get into a situation as taxpayers that we might have to bail out a company on Wall Street that is too big to fail?
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WarrenYou have to do things to reduce the propensity to fail, and among those things, I think you have to make it so that the CEO and to some extent the board, but not to the draconian degree that I'll suggest for the CEO. I think that any institution that requires society to come and bail it out for society's sake should have a system in place that leaves their CEO basically and a spouse dead broke. If you are very rich and you bring up your kids to think that they are, they are, more important in society or that they have some special privilege simply because they came out of the right womb, that, you know, that's just a terrible mistake. If you're rich and your kids turn out to have no incentives, I think, I don't think you should point at them. I think you should probably point at yourself. How can a lousy, long-term U.S. economy make you so happy? And why do you see gold nuggets where others see salt? If you go back, I was born. I was born on August 30, 1930. Now, if somebody had come to me in the womb and said, let me tell you what it's like outside now. The stock market has just crashed, but you haven't seen anything yet. All this happened since August 30th, 1930 is that the standard of living of the average American has increased six for one, six for one. You know, that's absolutely incredible. I mean, you look at centuries where nothing happened for the average person, I mean, century after century. So we have a system that works magnificently.