Thank you for posting those round table discussions. I've listened to Buffett announce the BOD firing of the CEO of Gillette. I've heard him on a cc for Aegis Realty in which he chewed out management for making decisions that are not in the interest of shareholders. I don't detect any change in his style, approach, voice, or intellect.
His comments remind me of the Einstein quote: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Seems to me that Buffett has always stressed the fact that accounting is the language of business (and derivatively investing). My take-home message is not only what he said, but what he didn't say. The cool thing about him is that he consistently lays out his investment strategy. In this instance, I invert - ie, avoid wasting time on companies that don't behave his way. In fact, if you parlay 'the bat on the shoulder', with the '20 punch ticket', and the details from his partnership days, you simply can't underperform the market.
I would enlarge on your observation that "The SEC is a bad joke on the tax payers and investors" to say that the government is a bad joke. And knowing that, I would rather ask Mr. Market to do the disciplining, rather than trying to find smart FBI agents. The job of an investor is to avoid situations that are flawed or don't make sense. This raises the cost of capital for bad enterprise. As one of the panelists said: you can't legislate morality.
Thanks again. |
