daily journal shareholder letter 2021

Hed been a receiver for a bank. I think theyre probably right, by the way. DAILY JOURNAL CORPORATION : Company profile, business summary, shareholders, managers, financial ratings, industry, sector and market information | Gerald Salzman: Charlie refers to the courts, many times. Questions: Now that we are cash flow positiveassuming the software business is investing organically as much as it canwhat is the philosophical thinking with respect to capital allocation at the Daily Journal. Lesson 1: Choose your words wisely. And weve had marvelous people here to help us do it through very difficult times and one of them is Gerry Salzman. If you try and reduce the poverty too much, its counterproductive. Ive seen the whole bus system shift from gasoline or diesel to gas and so it obviously isnt impossible, but youd have to create a whole new system of supply for it. We hope theyll continue doing magnificently well. I dont think I can teach you how to retroactively get a new accident yourself. What can we do to increase knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the Chinese civilization? And so, the stock went way up. 02/16. You once said to study the life and work of Lee Kuan Yew. Question: Many believe that inequality accelerated by this pandemic has reached alarming levels that demand drastic solutions such as a wealth tax. And thats very interesting. WebThe U.S. economy is strong. I recommend that other people follow my practice. I think its much easier to find five than it is to find a hundred. I think the Chinese were very smart. Question: Ben Franklin said: Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition, to correct some faults of the first. Has the quality of the publication suffered as the employment levels have decreased? When the pandemic is over, I dont think were going back to just the way things were. Do you think this is a worthwhile policy objective given the effect it has on creating financial excesses and income inequality? It says that man is too soon old and too late smart. And its rather interesting. That recognized reality and worked way better than what other people were doing. They had to because the traditional business newspaper business is shrinking. I think the world is gonna be quite different. Nobody was trying to make the rich richer. Question: Youve said several times that the best way to learn about business is to study the multi-decade financial results of great companies. Charlie Munger: Well, I cant top Lee Kuan Yews example. Have you met Lee Kuan Yew in person? Many of our systems are in the cloud. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Question: What would management [of Daily Journal] do with a sudden windfall of profits? Today, the majority of contractual revenue that can be identified is from implementations and licenses. You can imagine its in a wonderful position and that excited the people in China which has its share of crazy speculators. On the other hand, as you say, I didnt get rich by buying stocks at high price-earnings multiples in the midst of crazy speculative booms. I recognized early that Gerry could run anything he wanted to run. And if you believe Jeff Bezos is one of the best businessmen you have ever known, would you consider investing early in any of the new projects he will inevitably focus his attention on now that he will not have to be as concerned about the day to day responsibilities of Amazon? Question: What is the biggest competitive threat to U.S. banks like Bank of America and US Bankboth equity holdings of the Daily Journal Corporationover the long term? And if you have a free market system thats trying to get rich in the way recommended by Adam Smith, what happens is that its a very irritating system because the poverty that causes so much misery is also causing the growth that makes everybody get out of poverty. There are factories in China that are just absolutely full of robots and are working beautifully. And would the Daily Journal consider Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as an asset on the balance sheet similar to what Tesla recently did? He absolutely took over a malarial swamp and turned it into modern Singaporein his own lifetime. Charlie Munger: Theres one thing that were quite passionate about and that is serving the customers who have trusted us. Dear shareholders: Over the past 25 years at Amazon, Ive had the If you do that all the time; if youre looking for disconfirming evidence and putting yourself on a grill, thats a good way to help remove ignorance. Would you share a few stories about him and your fondest memory? The mantra he said over and over again is very simple. But we cant. If so, how do you think society should address it, especially because poor countries require much more cheap energy to reduce poverty? Gerald Salzman: There are a number of factors that come into play here. Could you please elaborate on the subject and could you consider giving a talk on this particular subject? He was just a very old-fashioned sound thinker. I call it deworsificationwhich I copied from somebody. I think most people who are assuming tolerable success in life are about as happy as they were ordained to be. Question: Do you believe the market is going through a long-term value slump similar to 1999, or do you believe technology has caused a permanent change in how companies should be valued? 24 Feb 2021 Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, speaks at the Daily Journal Annual Meeting 22 Jan 2021 Warren Buffett's right-hand man flags a The case, filed in February, challenges a plan to convert APEs, AMCs preferred shares, into common stock. Because we have the proxies those directors are now reelected. I think management should tell it like it is at all times and not be a big promoter of its own stock. However, is there a price too high that the companys future profits simply cannot justify? Youre right. Everybodys got a different situation. But, of course, its a very difficult field. In the past few years, equity prices have increased significantly and cash has arguably become riskier due to central banking policy. Question: You and Warren have been adept at quickly sizing people up, particularly business leaders and potential business partners. But I do admire what the Chinese have done. Data are provided 'as is' for informational purposes only and are not intended for trading purposes. Rose Blumpkin had quite an effect on the Berkshire culture. We have offices in all the major cities in California and also in Logan, Utah. Question: Given all of your donations to physics, what is your favorite way of applying physics to societys problems and also to investing? The number of people who ever got a chance to do it again is zero. They dont work that hard at figuring out what works and what doesnt. What do you think we can do to help those who are currently falling behind as a result of this pandemic? Question: You identified the opportunity in electrification and invested in BYD. I love connecting with other curious nerds so if you have a comment to my article or want to introduce yourself, shoot me an email. Lane Hickenbottom/Reuters Warren Buffett's longtime business partner called out a But you know, most people dont do that. So, I dont mind a little inequality and what I notice is that the rich families generally lose their power and wealthand pretty fast. I said it wont matter. And if you cant do that, youre not gonna win the great chess championships of the world and youre not gonna do as well in business as Henry Singleton did. The directors are Gerry Salzman, Peter Kaufman, Mary Conlin, Gary Wilcoxwhos retiring nowand myself. A lot of people assume that since England led the Industrial Revolution and had free speech early that free speech is required to have a booming economy as prescribed by Adam Smith. How do you think about the hydrogen opportunity for transportation and how does it compare to the electric opportunity, specifically thinking about trucks versus cars. Of course, its hard to know what the future holds when in a complex system where you cant predict a lot of things. Munger Charlie Munger: Im sure some are, but, by and large, thats not what Warren is known for. And his conclusion is that mankind should just step up to it and do it. Question: Do you think value investing is still relevant in a GDP-decreasing world? Sources: FactSet, Tullett Prebon, Currencies: Currency quotes are updated in real-time. Question: In this years annual letter, you mentioned the share price increase was driven by speculative frenzy and forced index buying. He doesnt mind at all not getting credit for his charitable donations. Charlie Munger: Well, it helps to be able to leave the IQ test early with the highest score. In December 2019, we had a peak of 10 million daily meeting participants, but by April 2020, we were averaging 300 million daily meeting participants 30x growth in about three months. Ill paraphrase here. When you get into these hard questions, theres a lot of very intelligent honorable people who reach opposite conclusions. Its doing a big public service. Charlie Munger: Well, thats a very good question. Thats one you can easily arrange. Question: Has your opinion on cryptocurrencies remained the same? I think any intelligent person can get to be pretty good as an investor and avoid certain obvious traps. And thats the way we handled Gerry. Now, it sounds like anybody would know that made sense. April 15, 2021 Dear Partner: The Greenlight Capital funds (the Partnerships) returned -0.1%1 in the first quarter of 2021 compared to 6.2% for the S&P 500 index. So he married her. Question: In your past speeches, you have mentioned the term functional equivalent of embezzlement to describe situations where bubbles can form because both parties involved in a bubble believe the asset to be worth more than it truly is. International stock quotes are delayed as per exchange requirements. April 14, 2022. They do way more good than harm. He had excellent judgment. A little wisdom in spouse selection is very desirable. He was a very smart man. No, I dont have any secrets. Its just not gonna work. So, its a serious problem. Just time after time, he would choose the right system. Question: Youve spent much of your life contributing your wisdom to schools and hospitals. And, I was always aware of that and so Ive accepted these damned annual meetings. I think that would be insanity. Rick was always humorous. One of the great advantages of the way Berkshire operates is that we associate with a lot of marvelous people. And since we are on the subject of selling potentially overvalued security, could you provide your systems for selling securities? [The questioner] would like to know what Charlies method of learning is. And when the old CEO of the Daily Journal died, Gerry was managing the business affairs of the Munger Tolles law firm. What, for example, would you recommend as course materials? Charlie Munger: Its a huge field in which we have a very interesting toehold with the strongest toeholds in Australia and California. If you dont spend the money, you and your heirs get to spend it eventually. I dont think we have any great gift at making macroeconomic predictions. He was a very smart man and he had a lot of good ideas. Charlie Munger: Well, of course, the places downsized. Bookings in June 2022 totaled $217 million, up 8% (approximately 12% adjusted for the recent strengthening of the dollar against certain currencies) over You are on record as a zealous fan of the Chinese work ethic and Confucian value system. They really need the world to stay the way it is. That was not a startup, but it was so small and thinly traded that we were buying into a venture capital type investment but in the public market. It reminds me of the key phrase and Bunyans Pilgrims Progress in which he says: My sword I leave to him who can wear it. And by the way, I think its hard to teach. Some people think that value investing is you chase companies that have a lot of cash and theyre in a lousy business or something. We are very excited to look forward to enabling the courts to function as we know that they want to and will in the future. But, a very wise man said on an earlier occasion: The trouble with banking is that we have more banks than we have bankers. I find that by working at that, I can actually make some improvements even though Im old. Or, has the digital revolution caused enormous productivity improvements in those businesses? :qpt1cMt8\2&avSY9-;S6 |jw&.\ "P/cdx>5[_:Vt _;hgf1!||tx8Oz}Y=eHcu65gl-T >Tkbb,OxW]Y?W8p`? LimT;IZ}La`9tFG;hB*4bI*Kt,U7e~kEVzVTmT$k*(4>uBXrW0L-MYz g\uz:~F ],ZgKUVyaq5muCWc*uNSS1e/~;$wqNw;jJkyVG*"ns*~e15{f +%>\o-^^U]UpJW',/ Of course, its going to be difficult. Nothing contained on junto.investments constitute a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Junto or any third party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. There are these periods in capitalism. But theres no rule that life has to be easy on the mental side. Are they more stable? My guess is we have suffered some editorial quality. Also, when you get reverses, if you just suck it in cope, that helps if you dont just fretfully stew yourself into a lot of misery.