Review: University of Berkshire Hathaway: 30 Years of Lessons Learned from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger at the Annual Shareholders Meeting

University of Berkshire Hathaway: 30 Years of Lessons Learned from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger at the Annual Shareholders Meeting by Daniel Pecaut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. The authors do a great job of summarizing what Buffett and Munger say, not skipping the pithy and entertaining asides and remarks. 

Just a few of my notes:

A good investment is a company with a product that costs 10 cents, sells for a dollar, and is habit forming. 

People get into much more trouble with a sound premise than an unsound premise.

example:  If I offered you Alaska beachfront property, you could dismiss this out of hand as nonsense. If I recommended Florida beachfront property, you might have an interest since the premise is sound. Yet many people have lost their shirts buying Florida land. 

"If investors only had to study the past, the richest people would be librarians"

Just investing in whatever BH invests in wouldn't work. One example: BH bought General RE in a stock sale, meaning it lowered its stake in Coca-cola (and other companies) by 18%, with no leveraging and no capital gains tax. 

On the other hand, another year BH bought a lot of Coca-Cola stock, and 80% of Coke's sales were in currencies other than the dollar, so this allowed BH to basically short the dollar. 

"When asked how he would teach business students, Buffett said, “For the final exam, I would take an Internet company and say ‘How much is this worth?’ And anybody that gave me an answer, I would flunk.”"

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