With all the chatter about Berkshire’s huge Apple investment - and the stellar returns - and the “complaint” that there are no more elephants to bag in the private equity world, “why not revert to the stock market?”

OK, OK, it’s overvalued, something which has been true for what, the last decade? The market doesn’t suffer the problem of “not big enough to move the needle”, as the Apple investment demonstrates. It can absorb endless amounts of cash. It can, if you like, pay regular dividends. You get to choose your management, at least to some degree. The financials are generally available and for a firm the size of Berkshire a little personal handholding is not out of the question.

Yes, I understand that a 5-6% risk free return on today’s cash is decent, but that’s only been true for the past two years or so. The market has green sitting there for, well, ever, and some parts of it has produced returns even better than buying down Berkshire stock.

Warren was once quite comfortable in this field. Why not so much anymore?