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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: DTB   😊 😞
Number: of 21944 
Subject: Re: The Berkshire Problem
Date: 08/11/23 3:35 PM
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T-bills have averaged 5.16%/year rate in the last 6 months.
A half year of that would be pretax interest of 2.58%.
After 21% corporate tax, that's 2.04%.
Inflation has been 3.00% in the same six months (not annualized).


Are you talking about US inflation? CPI in recent 6 months (December 2022 to June 2023) is actually only 0.2%; for the most recent 12 months, it's 3.2%. Media outlets always quote the year over year increase which is still above the target, but there's actually been less inflation in the last 6 months.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U. S. city average, by expenditure category

The current (July) CPI number is 305.691, and the January number was 300.536 (seasonally adjusted); July 2022's number was 294.628. St. Louis Fed (FRED): Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average (CPIAUCSL) | FRED

305.691/300.536 = 1.0172, so 1.7% (3.5% annualized), and 305.691/294.628 = 1.03755, so 3.8% for the whole year.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U. S. city average, by expenditure category

Your point still holds, inflation eats into taxable bond returns, but maybe not as much as your numbers indicate; it would be slightly (although almost insignificantly) positive now.

DTB
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This community has written 21,448 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 57 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 54 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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