Buffett Out Of Ideas For $150 Billion Cash Mountain
I say it every quarter: They always sneak up on me.
"They" means Berkshire weekends.
And every quarter, I repeat myself, mostly verbatim. I only know one way to cover Warren Buffett, and that's by reiterating that although I don't generally bother myself with what any industry "legends" were (or weren't) buying (or selling) last quarter, you can't not mention Berkshire’s "earnings" (that term is something of a misnomer in this context, hence the scare quotes).
Every three months, market par
Sadly, too many people have failed to see that for any portfolio as large as Berkshire’s finding something to move the performance needle significantly is virtually impossible, especially when most large targets are vastly overpriced, at least by Buffett and Ben Graham”s standards. Undoubtedly there might be some giants in waiting in the dross that is the market, but they, too, are mostly overpriced and it would take 30 of them to make up the earnings boost from one good “adult” company. I can sympathize with WB because even with my miniature pile, I find myself with new money every month that must be put to work in this crappy environment of low bond yields and overpriced stocks. When I was acquiring my assets I never really thought about how hard it would be to find new stuff for all the cash that needed work. I feel ya’ Warren.
I don’t “dislike” Buffett. There’s nothing to “dislike,” really. I’ve just always contended that Jack Bogle should be more revered. It’s apples to oranges in many respects, and in the era of Robinhood and meme manias, the whole discussion is becoming anachronistic, but Bogle doesn’t get the credit he deserves in discussions about long-term investing and prudent capital management. Again, not that anyone cares about such things anymore.
Bogle is certainly more relevant to most retail investors.
He created investment possibilities that hadn’t been easily available, before his low cost mutual funds.
Bogle is kind of an anomaly in a Capitalistic system. He ran a private company, but worked to create wealth for others. I’m sure he did just fine. But compare him to the Johnson family of Fidelity, who built wealth for themselves. Vanguard could have charged higher fees and grown almost as fast. Bogle seemed focused on building wealth for his clients. Who else in the private sector does that?