(That is the Warren Buffett Watch publication, information and evaluation on all issues Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You may join right here to obtain it each Friday night in your inbox.)
Buffett talks about virtually every little thing
Warren Buffett and Becky Fast lined too many subjects within the interviews that aired in a two-hour particular on CNBC Tuesday night for me to write down a cogent abstract.
“Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy” included discussions about his incapability to discover a large firm to buy for Berkshire Hathaway as its money pile strikes towards $400 billion, new CEO Greg Abel, his firm’s future and previous, the problem of giving freely billions of {dollars}, and the invaluable function of luck in his success. That is not a complete listing.
Right here, nonetheless, are some transient clips and quotes that caught my consideration. Â
- Buffett on what’s wanted to search out good companies: “It does not take a genius, and it certain does not take any Greek symbols or something like that to determine what a enterprise is value… If (Greg Abel) give up at highschool like a few of our managers have, he’d nonetheless be as good as he’s.”
- Buffett on the Sunday board assembly when administrators thought-about his advice they identify Greg Abel as subsequent CEO: “(Director)Â Steve Burke lastly mentioned, you already know, ‘We needn’t sit round for 3 months and peer at our navel or something on this. That is the proper determination.’ And they also voted to do it.”
Greg Abel speaks through the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Assembly in Omaha, Nebraska on Could 3, 2025.
CNBC
- Buffett on Berkshire’s future: “It will at all times be transferring considerably, nevertheless it’ll be principally increasing. Often, there will likely be issues that disappear … We could have firms that fifty or 100 years from now is not going to be viable within the economic system of that world. However we’ll have a complete lot extra that developed over time. And we are able to go wherever the nation goes, and we are able to go along with capital.”
- Why being on a company’s board of administrators is the very best job on the planet:
“Being a director. I imply, it is the very best job on the planet. You get 250, 300, even as much as 500 thousand {dollars} a yr for doing one thing that is fairly nice. Often they provide the transportation, and so they have automobiles ready to take you round every little thing. And everyone’s well mannered. And everyone’d love that job. I imply, who would not?”
- Why he gave up betting on horses when he was in highschool: “One of many first stuff you be taught in horse racing is you’ll be able to beat a race, however you’ll be able to’t beat the races…Â I had a few horses in thoughts, however I misplaced the cash on the primary race. After which I did the dumbest factor you’ll be able to think about… I simply stored betting each race. And after I went residence, I used to be $50 poorer, which was all I would taken with me…Â
I went to the Howard Johnson’s, and I had a few {dollars} left. I purchased myself a flowery meal and simply sat there and considered it and considered it on the prepare. And that was the top of horse racing.” - Buffett on operating Berkshire for many years:
“All the pieces I wished to have occur has labored out… Does not imply that every little thing we have accomplished has labored out. However I could not think about extra enjoyable than I’ve had operating Berkshire. And Charlie and I’d have extra enjoyable out of the issues that did not work plenty of instances than (in the event that they) did.”
- On being a instructor on the facet: “I beloved it. It appealed to my didactic fashion, and I preferred my very own concepts… I simply had enjoyable instructing. And I nonetheless do, besides I ran out of fuel just a few years in the past.”
- Recommendation for brand new mother and father: “The one piece of recommendation I give to newlyweds is do not ever use sarcasm together with your kids. I imply, it could be sarcasm to you, nevertheless it’s a lash throughout the again to them they’re going to always remember.”
“You ought to be wiser within the second half of your life than the primary half. And should you’ve — if issues have labored effectively for you, try to be a greater individual within the second half of your life.”
- On being variety: “I’d simply ask anyone to problem me on whether or not being variety might damage them in any approach, and whether or not the happiness of the world would not be higher if … each morning they mentioned to themselves, ‘I will have issues which can be good and unhealthy occur to me at the moment, however I might be variety to anyone.'”
Warren Buffett Watch’s unique clip
Regardless that the particular was two hours lengthy, there was extra interview than time, forcing the producer to make some troublesome choices.
Right here for Warren Buffett Watch readers is a clip that she wished to get into the ultimate minimize. Buffett explains why he hasn’t been talking out on politics lately:
BECKY QUICK:Â You have not commented as a lot publicly these days, both. You mainly reserve it for the annual assembly when all of the shareholders come into city.
WARREN BUFFETT:Â Proper.
BECKY QUICK:Â Why is that?
WARREN BUFFETT: Effectively, for one factor, I made the assertion just a few years in the past — possibly, I do not know, 5 or 6 years in the past — anyone requested about taking a political stance. And I mentioned that you do not put your citizenship in a blind belief. However —
BECKY QUICK:Â As a CEO.
WARREN BUFFETT: And — as a CEO, yeah.
You may have three or 4 hundred thousand workers, and you’ve got tens of millions of shareholders, however however you had been entitled — I took the place — to talk out.
However I believe — I’ve revisited that opinion in my thoughts, as a result of folks could have — gotten so tribal. We noticed it on our presents program at one time.
However there is not any motive why anyone that is answering a cellphone at GEICO or ready on a buyer on the Nebraska Furnishings Mart needs to be coping with individuals who have a detrimental opinion of the corporate due to one thing I’ve mentioned.
And, you already know, right here I’m — if I wish to communicate as a non-public citizen, I ought to resign from Berkshire.
However I do not really need — I’ve bought recognized a lot with Berkshire that I — so long as I am talking on the annual assembly or something like that, folks will affiliate it with the voice of Berkshire to some extent.
And the workers do not deserve that. The businesses do not deserve it. And so I backed away from that.
Buffett’s kids on philanthropy and rising up Buffett
Buffett has given his three grownup kids the extraordinarily troublesome speak of unanimously deciding find out how to give away his huge internet value after he dies.
When she was in Omaha to interview their father, Becky sat down with Howard, Susan, and Peter Buffett to speak about that project, their very own philanthropic efforts, and what it was like rising up in Buffett’s famously unassuming home.
An in depth portion aired within the particular, however that is the complete dialog:
On this excerpt, they bear in mind how their father bought “intelligent” about giving them an allowance:
HOWARD BUFFETT: You understand, we might earn this allowance for cleansing out gutters and reducing the garden and raking leaves and stuff.Â
However he — however Warren bought fairly intelligent and he began giving it to us in quarters. After which he purchased a slot —
SUSAN BUFFETT:Â Dimes!
HOWARD BUFFETT: Yeah.
SUSAN BUFFETT: It was a dime slot machine.
HOWARD BUFFETT: Yeah. After which he purchased —
SUSAN BUFFETT:Â He bought all of it again.
HOWARD BUFFETT:Â After which he purchased the slot machine, so he would get most of his allowance again. A minimum of with me, he bought plenty of it again.
In his Inside Wealth report on Wednesday’s “Squawk Field,” Robert Frank defined why Buffett’s kids could have essentially the most troublesome job in philanthropy:
When you missed it
“Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy” will likely be proven once more on CNBC this coming Sunday, January 18 at 3 PM ET and Monday, January 19 at 7 AM ET.
BUFFETT & BERKSHIRE AROUND THE INTERNET
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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
BRK.A inventory worth: $740,750
BRK.B inventory worth: $493.29
BRK.B P/E (TTM): 15.78
Berkshire market capitalization: $1,064,618,103,867
Berkshire Money as of September 30: $381.7 billion (Up 10.9% from June 30)
Excluding Rail Money and Subtracting T-Payments Payable: $354.3 billion (Up 4.3% from June 30)
No Berkshire inventory repurchases since Could 2024.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, except in any other case indicated)
BERKSHIRE’S TOP EQUITY HOLDINGS – Jan. 16, 2026
Berkshire’s prime holdings of disclosed publicly traded shares within the U.S. and Japan, by market worth, based mostly on the most recent closing costs.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F submitting on November 14, 2025, apart from:
The complete listing of holdings and present market values is obtainable from CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
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Additionally, Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders are extremely really useful studying. There are collected right here on Berkshire’s web site.
— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
