In May this year, I made the very long trek to Omaha Nebraska to attend the Berkshire Hathaway AGM – often referred to as “Woodstock for Capitalists”. Whilst many of you may not have heard of Berkshire Hathaway, you almost certainly have heard of its Chairman, Warren Buffett. Since inception in 1964 Berkshire returns have been an eye watering 3,787,464%.

Joining him as always was Warren’s right hand man and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. In addition, and for the first time ever, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain also answered questions. Greg was announced back in 2021 as Warren’s successor when he finally retires - voluntarily or otherwise. Greg currently oversees all of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses. Ajit is the Vice Chairman of the insurance operations. Both have been integral to the success of Berkshire to date having been there 23 and 37 years respectively.

The event is now recorded and made available to the public, so for those who are interested you can watch this and prior years’ presentations online. https://buffett.cnbc.com/annual-meetings/

Whilst this makes it hard to justify sitting on a plane for over 50 hours, there is something very special about being there live with over 30,000 like-minded people to witness the spectacle. I think it’s a must do for every investment enthusiast.

The one thing that is still exclusive to those in attendance, is the short satirical movie that Warren and Charlie do with the help of several well-known celebrities. This year’s movie included some montages of past meetings – there was a question from the 1994 meeting where Warren (63 at the time) was asked the perennial question “what happens if, God forbid, something happens to Warren Buffett”. Warren responded with “Well, I’m glad you didn’t say Charlie Munger.” The fear of Warren’s retirement/passing has cost investors a lot of money over the years – back in 1994 Berkshire was trading at $16,000 a share and today it’s over $500,000 a share!

Question time goes for about five hours which is almost unheard of in any AGM in Australia, made all the more remarkable by the fact that Warren is now 93 and Charlie 99!

The AGM’s questions ranged from the recent banking collapses to artificial intelligence and how it will change the world.

Warren’s ability to distill complex financial concepts into easily digestible nuggets has made him one of the world's most influential voices in investment circles. He is able to blend wit, wisdom and authenticity in a way that makes his words resonate - ensuring that his messages are both understood and remembered.

To this end and clearly expecting a question on the banking crisis he had prepared two signs which he placed on the table when asked the question – one read “available for sale" and the other read “held to maturity.” These are the accounting classifications that many banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, had been using to “appear” solvent. Of course, holding something to maturity is only possible if the depositors are also happy to leave their deposits until this same maturity - which in the case of Silicon Valley Bank - they did not. The old Buffett quote of “It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked” applies here.

Warren and Charlie were also critical of the incentive structure in banking noting that “If a CEO gets a bank in trouble, the CEO and directors should suffer. When that doesn't happen it teaches the lesson that if you run a bank and screw it up, you are still a rich guy… that is not a good lesson to teach the people who are holding the economy of the world in their hands.” 



Not surprisingly it’s often some of the non-financial aspects of their wisdom that shines through. Warren observed that if you want to know how to live a happy and fulfilled life, write your own obituary and reverse engineer it.