Wayne,
I have been looking at BRK recently and like just about everything I see. However, I have two concerns which I would appreciate your comments on. First, the company, as you mentioned, is becoming much more of an insurance concern and much more heavily weighted towards catastrophic insurance. With the concern about global warming and changing weather patterns, I wonder whether statistical records from the past provide an adequate data base for calculating future risk. Second, most other corporations have moved away from the kind of radical diversification BRK practices. Buffet seems to make it work by concentrating on capital allocation while granting radical delegation to carefully chosen executives. As these managers retire, I wonder whether this conglomerate system can keep working. Further, if shareholder value would be best realized by spinning these companies out, would corporate dogma prevent it ?
Thanks in advance,
Roy |
