Jim correctly pointed out that Berkshire Hathaway is a proxy for the US economy and therefore is likely to suffer the same fate.

It has also been pointed out that, especially with the current tax cuts outweighing the income from tariffs at the same time as the tariffs. etc. are stifling the grown oof the economy, that there is about zero chance we can significantly reduce the size of our massive (and growing) deficit.

The only solution would appear to be massive inflation of the USD - something which has to be apparent to the Secretary of the Treasury et al. Pleas/threats from the President for the Fed to lower interest rates would play into this. While the US equity prices might rise, it would be in terms of inflated dollars - which would frankly make it difficult to determine if investors were winning or losing.

At the beginning of the year, the US dollar index was about 110. It is now about 98 - or a decline of about 11%. While it’s easy to get enthusiastic about your stock portfolio going up, it's sobering to realize that that increase is muted in terms of your global purchasing ability.

I fear this is only the beginning of a multi-year policy to address the huge debt by reducing the value of the currency itself. Those in the population who own fungible assets such as real estate, equities, gold, cryptocurrency (perish the thought) and so on will see those assets rise in nominal terms, but those who depend on their savings (or non-inflation protected bonds) for their future nestegg will be holding a bag of greenbacks with an ever-diminishing value.

Jeff