The Berkshire acolytes will have to forgive me: There’s too much going on in the world (and also in markets) to give Warren Buffett’s cash pile top billing this weekend.

Typically on Berkshire weekends, I spend some time crafting snarky, but still good-natured, Buffett satire, but the conglomerate’s Q3 results just aren’t major news right now. Again, with apologies to the Berkshire super-fans.

A new record for Buffett’s McDuck vault was at least mentionable, though. Berkshire’s cash pile reached an all-time high near $160 billion as of September 30, according to the ledger released on Saturday.

It was the fifth consecutive quarter during which the The Money Bin’s balance increased.

Buybacks were around $1.1 billion during the period, bringing the YTD total to $6.8 billion.

The concern, both for Berkshire shareholders and investors more generally, is that if Warren and Charlie don’t see anything worth buying other than stakes in themselves, it’s a bad sign for valuations or at least for bargain hunters and value investors. Berkshire was a net seller of other stocks for a fourth consecutive quarter.

GEICO showed another pre-tax underwriting profit, the third in a row. Recall that the unit reported a half-dozen consecutive quarterly losses beginning in Q3 2021.

In May, at the shareholder carnival in Omaha, Buffett suggested profits across Berkshire’s businesses might drop in 2023, but operating income of $10.76 billion topped estimates. All two of them. Who needs deals when you’re earning 5% risk-free on $157 billion?