Subject: Re: Life Beyond Cash
Is it reasonable to question whether anyone can replicate Buffett’s record? Of course. Buffett is unique.
But there’s a difference between acknowledging that reality and assuming Berkshire suddenly loses its capital allocation discipline the day Buffett steps aside.
That's fair. Cash awaiting allocation has more than doubled in the last 2 years.
I'm all for giving Abel time to show how he can use this to shareholder advantage.
I am just acknowledging that there has been a fundamental change in Berkshire leadership with Abel taking charge and his skills are very different. I think capital allocation is an area of risk going forward. I am just conscious of the fact that this is a situation that can lead to mistakes ( new person in charge, diminishing faculties for Buffett who still seems to be involved day to day and a historically large amount of cash needing to be deployed). We will all discover together how well he manages to steer Berkshire through this transition.
Some buybacks might be a good start.