The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 12 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Panera generated a 25% IRR over two decades, outperforming Berkshire Hathaway.
“Panera was the best performing restaurant stock over two decades. Its last two decades produced 25% IRR In fact, somebody told me we actually beat Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway.”
Teledyne's Decentralized Model Influenced Berkshire Hathaway's Playbook
“Warren Buffett was an admitted singleton admirer, and we can see how Teledyne's decentralized structure with centralized capital allocation became central to Berkshire Hathaway's playbook.”
Davis: Berkshire's charity program made its shares difficult to borrow and short
“Berkshire for many, many years had a charity program where if you owned a share of Berkshire each year, you were given a dollar amount per share that you could assign to any charity of your choice... But In order to be able to do that, you had to own the share…”
Wolfe: Bill Gates only sits on Berkshire, Microsoft, and Kymeta boards
“Which led to this company called Kymeta, which I co-founded with Bill Gates. And I'm in a board room with Bill Gates, and he's on the board of this company. It's the only board he's been on besides Berkshire and Microsoft.”
Parrish: Berkshire uses heavy debt on railroad and energy assets
“On the railroad, for instance, they'll put a decent amount of debt in the railroad, because they know what the earnings, it's very predictable.
And they're comfortable.
The same as the energy, where they're putting a lot of capital, they put a lot of debt in”
Parrish: Berkshire Hathaway Enforces Rule Requiring Prompt Delivery of Bad News
“At Berkshire Hathaway, there's a common injunction. Always tell us the bad news promptly. It is only the good news that can wait. This is a deliberate practice to combat the Persian messenger syndrome.”
Berkshire Hathaway acquired Clayton Homes for $1.7 billion in cash
“Clayton Holmes and Berkshire Hathaway entered into a merger agreement for 1.7 billion dollars in cash.”
Berkshire's massive balance sheet allowed it to hold Clayton's loans directly
“Berkshire could do something that nobody else could do. They could hold the loans on their own balance sheet rather than sell them to other people.”
Cool: Pampered Chef was in decline for 10 years under Berkshire
“Pampered Chef was a business that was in need of transformation. It had been in decline since Berkshire bought it for about 10 years”
Buffett Acquired Nebraska Furniture Mart on Handshake with One-Page Agreement
“They shook hands on the deal. No lawyers, no audit, no inventory count. They later put their agreement in writing in a one-page document.”