Berkshire makes more money doing nothing than Coca-Cola makes selling six billion drinks a day. That's the number that should end every conversation about "deploying the cash." The cash is deployed. It's in T-bills earning $20 billion a year with zero risk, zero complexity, and zero management headaches. The real question isn't what should Berkshire buy. It's what on earth is good enough to beat doing literally nothing.
OXY is the right answer because it's the only one that isn't really a new idea. It's finishing homework. Berkshire already owns the position, already did the diligence, already bought the chemical division. The argument for taking it private is pure Berkshire logic: oil is a fifty-year asset trapped inside a quarterly reporting cycle, and quarterly reporting makes the market hate it every time crude drops $8. Remove the reporting. Keep the reserves. Wait.
That's the right way to look at it, and I think it's why Berkshire is sitting on the cash. It's all about opportunity cost. $20 billion a year for doing nothing is a high bar to clear!
OXY does make a lot of sense. I think Copart fits Berkshire's typical acquisition target nicely as well.
Berkshire makes more money doing nothing than Coca-Cola makes selling six billion drinks a day. That's the number that should end every conversation about "deploying the cash." The cash is deployed. It's in T-bills earning $20 billion a year with zero risk, zero complexity, and zero management headaches. The real question isn't what should Berkshire buy. It's what on earth is good enough to beat doing literally nothing.
OXY is the right answer because it's the only one that isn't really a new idea. It's finishing homework. Berkshire already owns the position, already did the diligence, already bought the chemical division. The argument for taking it private is pure Berkshire logic: oil is a fifty-year asset trapped inside a quarterly reporting cycle, and quarterly reporting makes the market hate it every time crude drops $8. Remove the reporting. Keep the reserves. Wait.
That's the right way to look at it, and I think it's why Berkshire is sitting on the cash. It's all about opportunity cost. $20 billion a year for doing nothing is a high bar to clear!
OXY does make a lot of sense. I think Copart fits Berkshire's typical acquisition target nicely as well.