And the firm has a record amount available to allocate. Perhaps Mr Buffett had something up his sleeve all along?

As he noted, he's not magnanimous enough to hold off just to make the next guy look good : )

To be fair, I suspect they haven't been quite as inactive as it sometimes seems. For every elephant that gets bagged, there are probably several deals that got a long way into the process but never came to fruition. I can think of two specific comments from Mr Buffett on things in the works, but without later fruition. One was a comment on why they were raising cash in a particular quarter, so it must have been reasonably close.

I expect that, as the deals get bigger it's a more institutional process, so the "go shop" thing becomes the rule rather than the exception. There is sadly little advantage to being a fellow who can do a giant deal on a handshake if there aren't any corresponding handshakes possible from counterparties. Except during panics, of course.

Jim