Hacker News Reader

Comment by khazhoux | Hacker News Reader

For all I've heard about WB the last few decades, I couldn't tell you a single thing he's done that's impacted my life, the country, or the world. AFAIK he's a guy who makes a ton of money, plays bridge with Bill Gates, gives advice, and has a fund that made money for other people. Am I missing something?

View on HN

Buffett invested in boring industries like insurance. As unexciting as it is, businesses like that basically are the invisible infrastructure that makes society work smoothly.

Don't misunderstand flashy at the only way to be important.

Which kind of investment was it though?

* An investment that makes something possible that otherwise wouldn’t happen. Like the US investing in NASA

* Investment that is not consequential in the big scheme except it makes people money.

Did his insurance investments keep some companies alive?

I think the right way to think about Berkshire Hathaway these days is that it's a highly decentralized, minimum viable civilization. They do everything from freight locomotives, to furniture-making, shoes, petroleum, chocolates and more. Then there's a layer of financialization on top of it all (insurance, re-insurance, loan issuance, market-making etc.).

If the U.S. became a failed state tomorrow, there's a genuine chance that Berkshire businesses would keep on operating and trading with each other, on Berkshire rails. It's like a hive of cockroaches -- businesses which are individually strong, that when woven together are un-killable.

Generally the latter. The very short version is that he focused on cash flow, and liked (re) insurance due to success managing float and risk. From there, he'd buy/invest stable businesses and brands. Insurance wasn't his first go, he started bookie work as a kid.

As for saving, he was the guy with a big pile of money in '08 (and other times). Someone you call when your business is dying or you want to retire; he gets the deal, not you. His Bank of America warrant play was a big one from that time.

I didn't finish snowball, but the first half goes over a lot of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowball%3A_Warren_Buffett...

I like WB as much as the next guy and while he was wildly successfully at making money, he hasn't really done anything else. His main motivation has always been to make money for himself and his shareholders, so why would we expect anything else?

Some of his biggest investments are in things like candy, soda, beer. Not exactly great for society overall and not really enabling anything other than diabetes.

He was already an massively wealthy in 2008 and just having a huge pile of cash and using it to make more deals is not some great achievement to be celebrated.

Yes he made billions off of his 2011 bofa investment, so good for him and brk but what did this do for anyone else?

If BH didn't exist would it really matter? I don't think so.

If you have ever purchased insurance, including car insurance, he has impacted your life either because he probably insured or reinsured you. There's a good chance if you've ever purchased anything shipped by railroad, or electricity in any of several states, or boots, or industrial parts, or a manufactured home, or a financial product of any kind, or an Apple product, or a Coca-Cola, or any of a bunch of other things, it was from a company he either owned or owned a huge stake in and influenced.

If you liked the fact that the Great Recession didn't turn into the Even Greater Depression, he seems to have had quite a bit of influence there behind the scenes as well.

He was intellectually interesting if you read his letters and the like.

He's impacted your life, but only in a diffuse manner of having boring businesses sell you useful products or services at a good price.

He's not a politician, he doesn't have to.

Still, he's given dozens of billions in charity, given important counsel to the government during the 80s and 2008 financial crisis.

During 2008 financial crisis he essentially saved Goldman and General Electric both preventing further escape of capital and an even worse situation for the US and potentially world economy.

In any case, he's a capitalist who likes making money for himself and his shareholders, he ain't a medical researcher or your mayor.

Lol, his important counsel was “bail out my portfolio plz.” Saving businesses that deserved to fail using free money printed by the fed isn’t a virtue. He was also a big cheerleader for the frauds at Wells Fargo.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com