Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders, it could have been right-on had the government not stepped in. The letter, released this morning, is widely viewed annually as an inside look at Buffett's investing wisdom. In 2008, however, his Berkshire Hathaway lost billions of dollars in the economic downturn. The decrease in net worth was over $11-billion. ELEVEN-BILLION-DOLLARS!Buffett went on to say things are really, really bad, but they could be worse. He cites bigger wars and bigger recessions/depressions in the 20th Century in saying things really aren't as bad as certain people are making them out to be.
In fact, his insurance businesses (as a matter of full disclosure, I'm employed by one of these insurance businesses) did very well in 2008 by making $2.8B in underwriting gain. In layman's terms, that's REALLY good in a bad economy such as this! Buffett called his insurance businesses an "economic powerhouse."
Read the full letter here.
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