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There's a math trap in there, so watch out.
Fair point. I was using book equity as the denominator, not total assets, so my wording could easily give the wrong impression.
What I meant was that for every $100 of book equity, there are ~$50 of cash and $40+ of MTM equities. I was not suggesting those represent 90%+ of Berkshire’s total assets. As Jim point out, liabilities make that interpretation incorrect.
So I agree that if the objective is to describe Berkshire’s asset composition, total assets is the cleaner denominator. Thanks for catching that.
