WarrenI'm Warren Buffett. This is Charlie Munger. I'm the young one. Charlie is always the one that gets the girls. And he has one explanation for that, but I think mine is more accurate that. As you know, every mother in this country tells her daughter at an early age, if you're choosing between two very old and very rich guys, pick the ones that's older. I think my youngest great-grandchild will be about seven months old is also here today. And if he happens to break out crying a lot and don't let it bother you. It's just as mother is explaining to him my views on inherited wealth. And Mark Donegan who runs precision cash parts is an extremely. as an extraordinary manager. I mean, we've seen very, Charlie and I've seen a lot of managers over the years. And I would almost rank Mark as one of a kind. Mark does not have to come ever to Omaha to put on some show for me in terms of justifying a billion dollar acquisition or plan investment. And he was, it doesn't have to waste his time on anything that isn't productive. And running a public company, you do waste your time on quite a bit of stuff that isn't productive.
QuestionerWhen looking backwards, what would you have done differently in life in your search for happiness?
WarrenI'm 85 and I can't imagine anybody any happier. So I, by accident or whatever, I'm standing here, you know, I mean, I'm sitting here eating exactly what I like to eat, doing in life. exactly what I love to do with people I love. So it really doesn't get any better than that. I do regret that I didn't wise up as fast as I could have. And, but there's a blessing in that, too. Now that I'm 92, I still have a lot of ignorance left to work on.
QuestionerPlease explain directly why we Berkshire Hathaway shareholders should be proud to own Coke.
WarrenI think if you balance out the calories so that you don't become obese, I have not seen evidence that convinces me that, you know, I'll make it, it'll be more likely I reach 100 if I suddenly switch to water and broccoli. I am a very, very, very happy guy, and I don't know, I think, and I'm serious about this, I think if you were happy every day, you know, it may be hard to measure, but I think you're going to live longer as well. So there may be a compensating factor.
Questionerbecomes the President of the United States and recognizing your public criticism of him and your public support for Hillary Clinton, what specific risks, regulatory policy, or otherwise
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WarrenThat won't be the main problem. Twenty years from now, there'll be far more output per capita in the United States in real terms than there is now. In 50 years, it'll be far more, and the quality will get better. and no presidential candidate or president is going to end that.
QuestionerYou're famous for making a deal over a day or two with nothing more than a handshake. You pride yourself on the small overhead of doing the diligence mostly yourself. You've done some amazing deals. But does your diligence process also put us at greater risk?
WarrenWe have not found a due diligence list that gets a due diligence list that gets us. at what we think are the real risks when we buy a business. And like I said, we've made, we certainly made at least, well, at least a half a dozen mistakes and probably a lot more if you get into mistakes of omission. But none of those would have been cured by a lot more due diligence. They might have been cured by us being a little smarter. How many people in this room who were happily married carefully checked their spouse's birth certificate and so on. My guess is that our methods are not so uncommon as they appear.
QuestionerWhat elusive, yet obvious to you, truth, has allowed you to think ahead of the crowd.
WarrenI would say it's important to recognize what you can't do. So we may have tried the department store business and a few things, but we've generally tried to only swing of things in the strike zone. things in the strike zone and our particular strike zone. And it really hasn't been much more complicated in that.
QuestionerWhere does your sense of humor come from?
WarrenActually, I think Charlie has a better sense of humor than I have, so I'll let him answer where he got his.
CharlieI think if you see the world accurately, it's bound to be humorous because it's ridiculous.