Investing Legends

Investing Legends

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Investing Legends episodes

  • Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letters 1985
    In his 1985 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren Buffett reports a 48.2% gain in net worth and immediately warns that it will never happen again — noting that the visit of Halley’s Comet and that percentage have something in common: neither will be seen again in his lifetime. It is a landmark year and a landmark letter. Buffett closes the textile business that gave Berkshire its name, and the post-mortem is one of the most quoted passages he ever wrote: that a good managerial record owes far more to what business boat you get into than to how effectively you row. He recounts the auction where looms bought for $5,000 sold for $26 as scrap, dissects why Burlington Industries’ $3 billion of rational capital spending left its shareholders poorer in real terms, and explains why the economic goodwill of a single See’s store exceeded the proceeds of an entire mill’s assets. He then delivers a blistering critique of fixed-price stock options, using a savings account and a trustee to show how managers get rewarded simply for withholding owners’ earnings. The letter also covers the Capital Cities/ABC investment, the Scott & Fetzer acquisition, the Fireman’s Fund quota-share deal, the hardening insurance market, and the Washington Post story — bought in 1973 at a quarter of business value and worth $221 million by the end of 1985. Essential listening on value investing, capital allocation, incentives and Berkshire Hathaway history.

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    1 hr 25 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 1996 Part 2 Afternoon Session
    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger take the afternoon shareholder questions at the 1996 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, covering concentration versus diversification, why they stay inside their circle of competence, and how they judge whether a manager is any good. Buffett argues that diversification is protection against ignorance and that three wonderful businesses are safer than fifty well-known ones, while Munger dismisses modern portfolio theory as a form of dementia. They also work through Disney and the value of owning a character no agent can renegotiate, the insurance float they would not trade for seven billion dollars in cash, why Wall Street firms are more like a brain surgeon than the Mayo Clinic, and why they use the government bond rate rather than a risk premium when discounting cash flows.

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    2 hr 27 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 1996 Part 1 Morning Session
    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger open the 1996 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting with the vote to create the Class B shares, explaining why the unit trusts being marketed to the public forced their hand and why they told investors plainly that the stock was not undervalued. The Q&A turns to intrinsic value, insurance float as zero-cost capital, and why buybacks only help shareholders when the price sits below a rationally calculated value. Along the way they cover the Geico buyout, Wells Fargo's move into supermarket branches, the slow erosion of the newspaper business, World Book facing the electronic encyclopedia, and what happens to Berkshire when Buffett is no longer running it.

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    2 hr 35 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 1995 Part 2 Afternoon Session

    Chapters below.

    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger take shareholder questions at the 1995 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, covering intrinsic value, capital allocation, and the circle of competence that keeps them out of businesses they can't understand. They explain why cash on the balance sheet is an admission of failure, why Graham and Fisher differ less than people assume, and what made Wells Fargo worth owning when every bank with that much real estate exposure looked doomed. Along the way they cover Salomon pay, Lloyd's of London, the national debt, the USAir mistake, and why Berkshire has never split the stock.


    0:11 - Bank stocks

    2:51 - Writing a book

    3:20 - Dividends

    6:21 - Salomon pay

    13:37 - Cash as residual

    15:02 - Newspapers

    18:36 - Hostile takeovers

    20:38 - Graham vs Fisher

    25:58 - Munger's stock sales

    27:12 - Suspect accounting

    30:23 - Lloyd's of London

    34:29 - Global investing and buybacks

    39:00 - Media attention

    41:53 - GEICO returns

    43:03 - Guinness

    45:00 - The shirt

    45:33 - Meeting date

    46:33 - Foreign securities

    48:15 - Helzberg

    51:48 - Intrinsic value

    55:50 - Stock price and Microsoft

    57:48 - Business school education

    1:03:55 - Ten years on

    1:05:30 - Manager bonuses

    1:09:00 - Foreign exchange

    1:10:18 - Small-cap opportunities

    1:14:36 - Lawyers and lawsuits

    1:18:12 - A second Borsheims

    1:21:46 - Return on equity

    1:24:51 - What Berkshire adds

    1:28:10 - Growth, size and reading

    1:33:51 - Wells Fargo vs PNC

    1:36:35 - Negative equity and buybacks

    1:40:29 - Credit cards and banking

    1:45:31 - Moats at SunTrust and PNC

    1:46:11 - The Salomon casino remark

    1:47:42 - National debt and more Coca-Cola

    1:57:32 - Berkshire vs a money manager

    2:00:27 - Insurance returns and judging management

    2:04:25 - P/E and interest rates

    2:08:33 - USAir

    2:10:12 - Book recommendations

    2:11:22 - The stock split question

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    2 hr 19 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 1995 Part 1, Morning Session

    Chapters below.

    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger open the 1995 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting with the vote to authorize preferred stock, then take shareholder questions on capital allocation, insurance float, and how they actually value the operating businesses. They explain the Helzberg acquisition, why technology sits outside the circle of competence, and what went wrong at USAir. Along the way they cover derivatives, stock option accounting, the culture problem at Salomon, and why reluctance to sell a wonderful business is a feature rather than a flaw.


    0:00 - Opening remarks

    3:09 - The preferred stock proposal

    9:49 - Preferred stock and dilution

    16:02 - Shareholder votes on the preferred

    19:17 - Preferred share rights

    21:41 - Hybrid preferred structure

    25:29 - The vote and adjournment

    27:41 - Helzberg Diamonds announcement

    34:19 - Family members on the board

    38:26 - Chrysler

    39:10 - Capital allocation to subsidiaries

    43:14 - Multi-year insurance policies

    49:01 - Catastrophe insurance competition

    52:46 - Technology investing

    56:22 - Writing down USAir

    1:01:30 - Economic value added

    1:06:16 - Derivatives

    1:12:46 - Salomon's outlook

    1:17:46 - American Express

    1:23:34 - Stock option accounting

    1:29:12 - Meeting videotapes

    1:31:25 - Borsheims sales

    1:31:54 - Succession planning

    1:37:01 - The discounting period

    1:40:18 - Future use of preferred stock

    1:42:40 - Insurance float

    1:45:01 - The Beardstown Ladies

    1:46:05 - Economic rules of thumb

    1:52:04 - Valuing the operating businesses

    1:56:41 - Salomon's culture

    2:01:52 - Ben Graham editions

    2:04:35 - Future returns and reluctance to sell

    2:16:45 - Screening a first investment

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    2 hr 19 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letters 1984
    In his 1984 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren Buffett admits that the company's historic 22% returns are "just that — history." He then explains why a growing capital base demands big ideas rather than small ones. The letter is one of the richest in Berkshire Hathaway history. Buffett makes his classic case for share repurchases at prices below intrinsic value, attacks greenmail, and tells the story of Mrs. B at Nebraska Furniture Mart, who received a $55 million check for her business on nothing but a handshake. He also explains why a dominant newspaper prospers whether it is good or bad, and makes a frank confession of Berkshire's insurance reserving errors, illustrated by the unforgettable "rented suit" story. Along the way, he analyzes the WPPSS bonds as if they were a business, warns about inflation and long-term bonds, and sets out one of his clearest frameworks on dividend policy and capital allocation. This is essential listening for anyone interested in value investing, long-term investing, and the thinking that built Berkshire Hathaway.

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    1 hr 20 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 1994

    Chapters see below.

    Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger take shareholder questions at the 1994 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, covering intrinsic value, capital allocation, and why they will not step outside the businesses they can actually understand. Buffett opens on derivatives, warning that combining ignorance with borrowed money has always produced interesting consequences, and points to Procter and Gamble as the early evidence. He explains how they discount future cash at a rate set by their certainty about the business, why he would pay two million dollars not to read a seller's projections, and how to judge a management team by how they played the hand they were dealt and how they treat their owners. He rejects volatility as a measure of risk, arguing that a business returning between twenty and eighty percent is treated by the academic world as riskier than one returning five percent every year, and describes pricing catastrophe reinsurance to exposure rather than to recent experience. He also talks about holding more than a billion dollars in cash as an index of management failure, why he has never sold a good business because of a guess about the market, and why he and Munger allocate every dollar themselves with no staff to help them.


    1:45 - The use of derivatives

    4:37 - Investment in Cap Cities

    6:37 - After-tax free cash flow value

    9:21 - Intrinsic value of the insurance operations

    11:30 - Splitting the shares

    13:57 - Buffett's use of The Indefensible

    14:59 - Management and life goals

    18:22 - Question on Ajit Jain

    23:36 - Question on Guinness

    26:02 - Berkshire after Buffett

    28:53 - Reverse splits, 100x returns and stamps

    33:41 - Greenspan, the Fed and interest rates

    35:26 - Opinions on Berkshire's value

    37:31 - Banks and buybacks

    42:10 - Leverage at Salomon

    47:14 - Sale of a mutual savings and loan

    48:56 - Munger on changing his mind

    49:41 - The shoe industry

    51:25 - The tobacco business

    52:40 - Business acquisition considerations

    55:13 - The LA quake and insurance

    1:00:02 - Recommended books

    1:02:35 - Uncertainties for global brand leaders, Nike and Reebok

    1:08:15 - Airlines and USAir

    1:11:35 - Munger's retirement

    1:12:38 - Sale of Cap Cities shares

    1:13:53 - Structured settlements

    1:14:53 - Wrigley

    1:15:58 - Global diversification

    1:18:43 - Explaining insurance losses

    1:21:02 - Bullish or bearish?

    1:25:23 - Private versus public markets

    1:30:32 - Berkshire's intrinsic value relative to market price

    1:33:59 - The view of risk

    1:38:37 - Tax rates

    1:42:54 - Interest rate sensitivity in certain businesses

    1:45:40 - Retroactive insurance

    1:48:34 - Berkshire's preparation for times of distress

    1:51:13 - Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

    1:53:14 - Faster information and the cost of a missed opportunity

    1:55:39 - Berkshire buybacks and intrinsic value

    1:59:40 - Peter Lynch

    2:00:47 - Reinsurance

    2:06:20 - Guinness

    2:06:53 - World Book and the Buffalo News

    2:09:18 - Breaking Berkshire into smaller entities

    2:11:08 - Sale of General Dynamics

    2:12:30 - Volatility in the Berkshire share price

    2:16:05 - Question about cash

    2:18:09 - Question about Salomon

    2:19:14 - The use of puts at Berkshire

    2:21:06 - Stories about Berkshire not in the annual report

    2:23:11 - Berkshire ending up on an index

    2:24:52 - Position sizing in a given security

    2:28:16 - Growth at Coca-Cola

    2:29:20 - Question on convertible bonds

    2:31:02 - Market impact when Berkshire sells a security

    2:32:11 - Key-man insurance for Berkshire

    2:32:48 - Currency risk in the Guinness investment

    2:38:20 - Question on Berkshire's intrinsic value

    2:39:31 - Succession at Coca-Cola

    2:39:42 - Question on Salomon

    2:41:25 - Merits of the different Berkshire holdings

    2:43:30 - Method for arriving at an intrinsic value

    2:46:49 - Growth rates in companies

    2:49:06 - Capital allocation decisions at Berkshire

    2:54:18 - Two or three investment lessons from Maynard Keynes

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    2 hr 57 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letters 1983 (Appendix) Goodwill and its Amortization: The Rules and The Realities
    A special deep-dive from Warren Buffett's 1983 Berkshire Hathaway annual report: his famous appendix on Goodwill. Using See's Candies as the real-world example, Buffett explains the crucial difference between "accounting Goodwill," which gets amortized away year after year, and "economic Goodwill," which can actually grow stronger with inflation. He shows why businesses that need little in the way of physical assets — factories, inventory, equipment — often make far better long-term investments than asset-heavy businesses, even when the accounting numbers suggest otherwise. Essential listening for anyone into Warren Buffett, value investing, and how to really judge whether a business is a good purchase.

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    19 min
  • Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letters 1983
    Warren Buffett's 1983 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter is one of the richest in the series. He lays out his famous "Owner-Related Business Principles" — the rules governing how Berkshire treats shareholders — and tells the remarkable story of Rose Blumkin, the Russian immigrant who built Nebraska Furniture Mart from $500 into America's largest furniture store. He explains the crucial difference between book value and true "intrinsic business value," and makes a sharp case against stock splits and high trading turnover, calling a hyperactive stock market "the pickpocket of enterprise." A must-listen for fans of Warren Buffett, value investing, and the history of Berkshire Hathaway.

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    59 min
  • Stan Druckenmiller: The Market as an Economic Predictor
    Stanley Druckenmiller talks with John Collison about inflation, bear markets, and why he thinks the odds of a soft landing are remote. He explains the two historical records that have never been broken once inflation passes five percent, argues the Fed's slowness through 2021 and 2022 was enormously costly, and describes a setup he has never faced in forty five years, with eight percent inflation, three percent bond yields, and a weakening economy all at once. He walks through how he reads the economy from inside the stock market rather than from macro statistics, using housing, trucking, and retail as leading indicators, and why the bond market stopped signalling anything after a decade of central bank buying. He also tells the long version of the 2000 story, from shorting ten internet stocks and losing three times his money in four weeks, through the tech position that put him down eighteen percent, to the four-month sabbatical in Africa that let him come back and make forty percent in a single quarter. Along the way he explains why sizing is most of the game, why he tracks whether he is hot or cold before deciding how big to bet, and why he buys first and does the analysis afterward.

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    1 hr 8 min

About Investing Legends

From the publisher's feed

Investing Legends is a long-form podcast dedicated to the thinking, principles, and decision-making frameworks of the world’s most respected investors.


Each episode explores the ideas of…