Surprises From Omaha

Pat Dorsey: Hi, I'm Pat Dorsey, director of equity research at Morningstar. We finished up the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting where Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger answered questions from shareholders for about seven hours straight. We just finished up the afternoon and thought we'd report back on any doings in the afternoon session, which was a little bit less eventful than the morning session, I thought. What about you, Paul?

Paul Larson: Yes, it was definitely less eventful, less news-driven. Hearing more of the same stories that we've heard in years past. Much of the same advice that we hear year after year.

Dorsey: Yeah. One of the things I thought was most fascinating was Charlie Munger. In past years, he's seemed a little low-energy, a little down, kind of pessimistic on a lot of things. And he was a veritable fount of optimism. He had one quote, somebody faced him with a lot of challenges facing the economy in the world, and inflation was part of this question, his worries. And he said, "You know, if I'm almost dead, inflation shouldn't worry you very much."

Larson: Yeah. You're absolutely right. He was full of energy. And it's amazing to think these are two guys in their 80s and they have this kind of stamina to stand up and take very, very difficult questions for this amount of time.

Dorsey: So, just to wrap up, any questions that didn't come up that you were surprised by?

Larson: Yeah, one thing that didn't come up that I was very surprised about was healthcare reform. I thought for sure that there was going to be at least one question on the impacts of healthcare reform, both on Berkshire as well as the broader economy. And it just didn't enter the discussion at all.

Dorsey: Yeah. Especially given that at least half the questions are shareholder driven, not really chosen; that's a great point, Paul. I'm Pat Dorsey, and thanks for watching.