Never bet against America and more sage advice from the Oracle of Omaha
Warren Buffett, one of the most successful and admired investors of our time, held the 2020 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting of Shareholders from the company’s Omaha, Nebraska headquarters on the first Saturday of May. The Berkshire Annual Meeting, which has become an annual Woodstock-like event for investors around the world, drew a record 40,000 visitors last year, but this year (2020) the event was live-streamed instead due to COVID-19. And the Meeting was also limited to 89 year old Buffett holding court without his 96-year old friend and colleague Charlie Munger, who did not attend given the stay-at-home orders. But the almost 5-hour event, even without the fans, did not disappoint. Buffett’s presentation covered a lot of ground, including the performance of Berkshire Hathaway, the airlines, stock buybacks, succession plans, cash positions, the coronavirus, the federal government’s response, his office attire during the shutdown (sweatpants) and America’s prospects going forward. Here are just a few takeaways from the Oracle of Omaha. Buffett Dumped All Airline Stocks Before the Annual Meeting, there was a lot of chatter about Berkshire’s selling of airline stocks in April – positions Berkshire started making in late 2016. In fact, Berkshire held 10.1% of Southwest, 10% of American, 9.2% of Delta and 7.6% of United as of December 31st. And he sold all of it.
High Regards for the Federal Reserve Chair As has been well documented, since early March the Federal Reserve has taken bold and drastic actions to combat COVID-19, with many suggestions that such drastic actions have not been taken by the Fed since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. In all, the Federal Reserve’s actions have provided the bulk of the more than $6 trillion worth of liquidity to our financial system because they adopted:
Here is what Warren said about the Fed and its current Chairman, Jerome Powell:
“Never Bet Against America” That is not a pithy title, those are the exact words spoken by Buffett when asked about the impact of COVID-19. And he had a lot more to say. He acknowledged that the range of possibilities are wide and it will likely take years before investors truly understand the full impact of the virus, from an economic perspective but also from an emotional perspective. But he left no doubt that the markets would regain their footing, especially in the U.S. On comparing the current virus to the Financial Crisis of 2008:
On whether America will rebound:
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AuthorPaul R. Rossi, CFA Past Articles
April 2022
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