I think the main figure that matters to all of us, including people in the media, is: How does GDP per capita grow? And those figures have been very good. There is a huge flux both up and down, so it isn't like we're all static in status. What's important is that pie grows.

After nearly making a terrible mistake not buying See's, we've made this mistake many times. We are apparently slow learners. These opportunity costs don't show up on financial statements, but have cost us many billions.

Beta and modern portfolio theory and the like - none of it makes any sense to me.

In investment management today, everybody wants not only to win, but to have a yearly outcome path that never diverges very much from a standard path except on the upside. Well, that is a very artificial, crazy construct. That's the equivalent in investment management to the custom of binding the feet of Chinese women

You don't have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long, time.

Let me know what your problem is, and I will try to make it more difficult for you.

It would be nice if this [finding really cheap stocks] happened all the time. Unfortunately, it doesn't.