To The Moon

$Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.A)$ $Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.B)$ Buffett's shareholder meeting is just around the corner, and many investors have arrived in Omaha, Buffett's hometown.

The picture below is the surrounding area of the exhibition site

A Warren Buffett Squishmallow doll at Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder shopping day on Friday.

I want a chocolate of the same style haha[Tongue]

The See’s Candies display at the Berkshire Hathaway Shopping Day event, May 5, 2023.

The annual Buffett shareholder meeting has become a pilgrimage event for global investors. Every year, 40,000 to 50,000 people come to Omaha to listen to the insights of Buffett and Munger.

This year is the 59th Buffett Shareholders' Meeting, and it is my fifth time to come to Omaha. At this conference, what issues will Buffett and Munger discuss?

There are 10 "sharp questions" that Buffett may face as summarized by the media:

• 1. You will be 93 years old in August, how long do you want to be CEO?

• 2. Why not relinquish the CEO role and focus on being chairman, thus giving your successor, Greg Abel, more time to adjust to the role?

• 3. Starting from 2022, Berkshire has bought 23% of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY). Do you want to buy the entire company?

• 4. Your auto insurer Geico lags behind arch-rival Progressive (PGR) in technology like using real-time driving information to price policies, and has pretty poor underwriting results. Can Geico catch up?

• 5. Todd Combs and Ted Weissler have each managed a portion of Berkshire's $350 billion portfolio (now about 10%) since joining Berkshire more than a decade ago, How are they doing relative to the S&P 500?

• 6. Why not hold quarterly earnings calls like other large companies so investors can learn more about the company and ask you and your management team questions on a regular basis? Likewise, how about hosting an investor day?

• 7. Berkshire has sold most of its bank holdings since 2020, the only major investment in this space is Bank of America (BAC), why are you negative about banks, and given that Bank of America has already Why did you take advantage of the low price to buy more bank stocks after a sharp drop?

• 8. You object to dividends because you want to deploy Berkshire's capital. But when you're not running the company, does it make sense for Berkshire to pay a dividend, especially given its $35 billion in annual profits?

• 9. Berkshire's share repurchases have slowed down in recent quarters. Does that mean you're not too impressed with Berkshire's current valuation?

• 10. Even if you are extremely gifted, over the past 5, 10, and 20 years, Berkshire stock has roughly matched the performance of the S&P 500 index. Do you think Berkshire can beat the U.S. stock market when you leave?

Personally, I’m interested in 5 questions:

The first one is about the current global economic situation, the risk of recession in the European and US economies, how Buffett views the next development of the U.S. and European economies, and makes a judgment on the global economic situation.

The second is the interest rate hike of the Fed. In order to deal with the highest level of inflation in 40 years, the Fed has violently raised interest rates ten times in a row, raising interest rates by 500 basis points. Is the impact of violent interest rate hikes on the real economy real? It goes without saying that everyone wants to hear the views of Warren Buffett and Munger on whether the Fed will stop raising interest rates.

The third is the banking crisis in Europe and the US. The bankruptcy of several small and medium-sized banks in the United States, before Buffett held a large number of banking stocks, he has greatly reduced his holdings in the past two years. Did Buffett predict the possible crisis in the banking industry before? How do they see the performance of the banking industry in the future?

Fourth, for Chatgpt, how will Buffett and Munger think? Everyone would like to know Buffett’s views on investment in AI sectors such as Chatgpt, which is currently more popular. Like the hype of digital currency in the past few years, Buffett and Munger made it clear that they are not optimistic about digital currency.

Finally, the issue of Buffett’s successor. At last year’s shareholders’ meeting, Buffett had made it clear that Abel would succeed Buffett, but in the short term, Buffett would still be the chairman. Although some shareholders proposed that the rights be handed over to the heir as soon as possible. , but so far there is no such trend. At this conference, how does Buffett view the issue of whether Berkshire Hathaway can continue the myth of investment and when to hand over power after the successor takes over?