QuestionerMr. Buffett, are you still involved in pricing decisions at Seas, Candies, and the Buffalo News? And with what other Berkshire subsidiaries do you take more than a hands-off approach?
WarrenYeah, you're correct that at one time, and for some quite a while, both Charlie and I, took part in the pricing decisions at Seas Candy, and certainly for some years, particularly when the question of the survival of the Buffalo News was really in question, I definitely took part in those decisions. In both cases, we had good managers, but we still wanted to, we thought those decisions were important. But it's been a long, long time. very long time since we've participated in anything like that. But I can't tell you what the per pound price is for C's candy, which is because people, and you're invited to join this group, send me free candy from time to time. And I can't, I really, I can't tell you the prices at the Buffalo News. And all I know is it's very, very, very hard to move up prices on advertising, generally. So, no, we, the only, the only thing is, and I talk frequently, and if there's some very big risk, if somebody wants a $5 billion cover on a chemical plant some way, excess of loss of over $3 billion or something, we have a certain amount of fun with him. deciding on the price in his head, and I decide in my head, and then we compare notes. The kind of risk that you really can't look up in a book and see actuarially what it's fairly, the parameters are fairly likely to be, I enjoy thinking through the pricing of that, and I I particularly enjoy comparing it with Ajit, so these are just oddball situations. But we do, we do that sort of thing, and we've done it for three decades, and it's part of the fun of my job. The candy prices, it's got to complain about those, you have to go to Charlie.
CharlieWell, the answer is Warren is still doing it in talking to Ajit, and, but that's because Ashii likes it that way. We have a very peculiar place where Warren's contact with the various people elsewhere in the organization largely depends on what they want, not what he wants. The CEO of one of our... It's very unusual, and it's worked beautifully. The CEO of one of our most successful subsidiaries, I may have talked to, unless I saw him here and just had a little, I probably talked to him three times. in the last 10 years. And he does remarkably well. He might have done even better if I hadn't talked to him those three times. And on the other hand, Ajit and I talk very, very frequently. And he's got the kind of business. Hey, I do know some, I know more about the insurance business. I know about a good many of the other business. And it's interesting. And we are evaluating things that you're just. you don't look up in a book, you know.