Free Republic

Warren Buffett’s famed stock portfolio has grown to a market value of $281.17 billion at the end of 2020, with a cumulative actual price for the entire portfolio of $108.62 billion. Last year, Berkshire earned $4.9 billion in realized capital gains and $26.7 billion in net unrealized gains from its stock holdings. In Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) shareholders, the renowned stock picker shared the 15 common stocks that had the largest market value at the end of 2020. Berkshire owns large stakes in companies like AbbVie (ABBV), American Express (AXP), Apple (AAPL), Bank of America (BAC),...

Warren Buffett, the 90-year-old “Oracle of Omaha,” remains a firm believer in the American dream, saying in his closely watched annual shareholder letter to “never bet against America.” “In its brief 232 years of existence ... there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America,” the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway wrote in the letter released Saturday. “Despite some severe interruptions, our country’s economic progress has been breathtaking. Our unwavering conclusion: Never bet against America.” Buffett shared a fact in the letter to illustrate Berkshire’s American credentials. He said the conglomerate owns the biggest amount of U.S....

Billionaire Warren Buffett encouraged investors to maintain their faith in America’s economy and the businesses his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns in a reassuring letter to his shareholders Saturday. Buffett hardly even addressed the coronavirus that ravaged many businesses last year, instead focusing on the long-term prospects for the railroad, utility and insurance businesses and stocks that belong to Berkshire Hathaway. But he said U.S. business will thrive over time in spite of the pandemic. “In its brief 232 years of existence, however, there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America. Despite some severe interruptions, our country’s economic...

On December 15, 2017, billionaire couple Honey and Barry Sherman were found strangled in their Toronto mansion. The murders are unsolved and there are no definite suspects, despite a $10 million reward offered by their family. The President is also a billionaire. After the Secret Service debacles during the Obama 44 administrations, in which agents were found to be intoxicated and involved with professional sex workers while on duty in various Latin American locations, who guarantees that the President's security isn't compromised by the Deep State Sedition? And how do various billionaire oligarchs who engage in risky behavior obtain protection?...

The Oligarchs who control much more of what is imposed on our lives, at a Matrix level, got sloppy by relying too much on a transparent, lying media; but sloppy makes for instability & danger. The Mega-Billionaires had got used to a century old opinion engineering industry of Madison Ave, that could deliver wholesale, the programmed beliefs of hundreds of millions, indeed billions of people. The Stinking Rich are taking the gamble that they don't have to kill him outright, that they can just marginalize him. What will they now do? The jig is up on the Secret Service, which...

This time four years ago, Warren Buffett was publicly campaigning for Hillary Clinton, even planning a trolley ride to the polls with Omaha voters. The billionaire’s schedule looks a little different ahead of the 2020 election, however. Notably, it lacks any public political engagements. Buffett has yet to raise funds or campaign for this year’s Democratic presidential nominee, former vice-president Joe Biden

Duracell, the battery unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., sued the maker of Energizer batteries on Tuesday, accusing it falsely advertising that its Energizer MAX batteries last up to 50% longer than other alkaline batteries. The lawsuit follows Energizer Holdings Inc.’s own lawsuit last Sept. 30 accusing Duracell of falsely advertising that its then-new “Optimum” batteries were more powerful and lasted longer than rival batteries. Duracell filed counterclaims alleging false advertising in that case. It is now accusing Energizer of having “doubled down” by claiming on battery packages, on printed coupons and through in-store advertising that MAX batteries are...

Buried in an otherwise mind-numbingly boring regulatory filing released recently was a seemingly innocuous line item that most people would not give a second thought. Sometime in the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway invested a comparatively tiny 0.3% of their total portfolio into just a single new company. No big deal, right? But it wasn’t just any company. After spending decades as perhaps the most respected and widely-cited critic of gold as an investment, Warren Buffett bought 21 million shares of Barrick Gold — one of the largest gold mining companies in the world. It was so out of character that...

Warren Buffett has given up his long-held conviction against buying gold — and he’s meanwhile getting out of Goldman Sachs. The totemic tycoon revealed in filings late last week that he has scooped up more than 20 million shares of mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. even as he unloaded nearly all of his nearly 2 million shares in Goldman Sachs. The 89-year-old investing icon’s sudden embrace of the precious yellow metal — which has has previously derided as “useless,” saying that “anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head” at the idea of investing in it — took many...

Gov. Gavin Newsom has appealed directly to investor Warren Buffett to support demolishing four hydroelectric dams on a river along the Oregon-California border ... which would be the largest dam removal in U.S. history. The dams are owned by PacificCorp, an Oregon-based utility that is part of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate. The $450 million project would reshape California’s second-largest river and empty giant reservoirs. ... Newsom supports a 2016 agreement under which PacifiCorp would transfer its federal hydroelectric licenses for the dams to a nonprofit coalition, the Klamath River Renewal Corp., that was formed to oversee the demolition. ......

Berkshire Hathaway trading at low of the day after market was up over 900 points yesterday. Wonder what the big boys know that we don't know?

Berkshire Hathaway class A stock (BRK.A) has been trading down all day today from yesterday's close while the overall market has been up, the DOW at one point over 415 points up.

After reporting loss in airlines and liquidation of airline holdings, BRK.A down as much as 2.95% today (over $8,000 per share).

Liberal billionaire Warren Buffett apparently doesn’t believe that the coronavirus will cripple the might of the U.S. economy in the long-run. A prominent liberal business figure like Buffett voicing such sentiments provides ammunition to President Donald Trump, who also predicted that the economy is “going to make a very strong comeback.” Buffett stated during a virtual shareholder meeting that “‘Nothing can basically stop America,’” according to CNBC. “‘The American miracle, the American magic has always prevailed and it will do so again.’” The implication here (intentional or not) is that the current economy is robust enough to beat back the...

Liberal billionaire Warren Buffett, who’s been fairly quiet this election cycle, took to CNBC to weigh in on the Democratic primary races. Buffett said during an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box that “I’m very much in sympathy with the fact that Senator Sanders believes that a lot of people are getting left behind and through no fault of their own.” Buffett continued: “[T]here’s all kinds of aspects of capitalism that need, in some ways, to be regulated. But I don’t believe in giving up the capitalist system.” [Emphasis added.] However, Buffett stated that he would have “no trouble” voting for...

last year Buffett donated $169 million to the NoVo Foundation, a charity run by his youngest son, Peter, and Peter’s wife, Jennifer. ... Some of the foundation’s resources are directed towards radical activism that clearly benefits Buffett’s bottom line. In fact, money Buffett donated to the NoVo Foundation has been used to attack companies that compete with Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiaries and holdings. ... In 2017, NoVo donated $3.5 million to the “Clean Clothes Campaign” managed by the liberal Tides Foundation.. ... Why would the NoVo Foundation fund a series of crusades focused on ferociously targeting Walmart and Sam’s Club? It...

We wonder what reaction Bernie Madoff is having in the cell that’s serving as home for all of his life sentences, now that DC Solar’s alleged Ponzi scheme has claimed its third financial victim, this one more severe than the last. Just under a month ago, Progressive and Hancock Whitney reported that they’d been hit by the alleged $810 million scheme, with Progressive reporting “tens of millions” in losses and Hancock Whitney, a bank with locations in Louisiana and Mississippi, had to lower its first quarter earnings by $10.1 million. The newest development is much, much larger, as multinational holding...

The stock price of Kraft Heinz plunged 20% late Thursday after the food giant disclosed it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission and reported a large net loss due to the reduction of goodwill in some of its best-known brands. Kraft Heinz also said in a conference call discussing earnings that it cut its quarterly dividend to 40 cents a share from 62.5 cents and that it was considering selling off some of its businesses to help pay down debt. The company reported $30.9 billion in long-term debt at the end of 2018, up from $28.3 billion...

Warren Buffett is still not a fan of investing in bitcoin. The Oracle of Omaha reiterated his negative view on the cryptocurrency, according to CNBC's Becky Quick. Bitcoin is "probably rat poison squared," he said. Buffett is presiding at the Berkshire Hathaway 2018 annual shareholder meeting on Saturday. Charlie Munger, Berkshire's vice chairman and long-time Buffett collaborator, said during the meeting that trading in cryptocurrencies is "just dementia." In January Buffett warned investors about the craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in interview with CNBC. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come...

WASHINGTON — Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will create an independent health care company that is “free from profit-making incentives” that will aim to reduce healthcare costs for their U.S. workers. The focus of the company will be technology solutions “that will provide U.S. employees and their families with simplified high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost,” a news release says. “The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy. Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we...