I think it's time for Greg to become the CEO's office at the end of the year. ” Buffett said.
Previously, the 94-year-old investor has always said he has no retirement plan.
Earlier, Buffett warned on Saturday about the terrible global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, while telling thousands of investors to gather at his annual meeting that “trade should not be a weapon” but “it’s undoubtedly possible that trade may be an act of war.”
Buffett said Trump's trade policy increases the risk of global instability by infuriating the rest of the world. “It seems to me that's a big mistake when you have 7.5 billion people who like you very much and you have 300 million people who are shocked by their performance,” Buffett said. It's better to maintain a balance of trade between countries, but he thinks Trump's broad tariffs with him aren't the right way. He said that if more countries prosper, the world would be safer.
“We should seek to trade with the rest of the world. We should do our best and they should do their best,” he said.
Buffett said that since his birth, the United States has been undergoing revolutionary changes and an equal commitment to all, until a few years later. But anything that happened today changed his long-term optimism about the country.
“If I were born today, I just kept on negotiating in the womb until they said 'You might be in the United States.'
Buffett said the market turmoil did not create huge opportunities, he just didn't see many of the up-priced investments he understands today, so Berkshire sat on $347.7 billion in cash, but he predicted that one day Berkshire will be bombed by Berkshire, “We will be happy for us that we have the opportunity to cash.”
Buffett said it has caused headline turmoil in the market recently after Trump's tariff announcement last month “really nothing”. He dismissed the recent market decline as he saw three periods in the last 60 years of managing Berkshire's stock when it halved. When the Dow Jones Industrial Average went from 240 born in 1930 to 41 days during the Great Depression, he cites the Jones Industrial Average, which is a real significant decline in the market. Currently, the Dow Jones industrial average is $41,317.43.
“It's not a dramatic bear market or anything,” he said.
Buffett said he hasn't bought back any of Berkshire's shares this year because they don't seem to be bargaining either.
Chris Bloomstran, an investor who president of Semper Augustus Investments Group, told the Gabery Investments Conference on Friday that the financial crisis may be the best thing for Berkshire as it will create opportunities to invest at attractive prices.
“I'm sure he's praying for the trade war to get worse. He won't say that publicly, but Berkshire needs a crisis. I mean Berkshire thrives in the crisis.”
The Berkshire conference attracted thousands of meetings, attracting about 40,000 people each year, who want to hear from Buffett, including some celebrities and well-known investors. This year, Hillary Rodham Clinton also attended the meeting. Clinton is Buffett's last publicly supported candidate, as he has evaded politics and any controversial topics in recent years because they fear it will hurt Berkshire's business.
Haibo Liu even spent the night outside the arena, queuing up on Saturday mornings. Liu said he was worried that this year might be Buffett's last meeting since he was 94, so he would be attending the second meeting as a priority.
“He helped me a lot,” Liu said. “I really want to thank him.”
Fearing that Buffett shareholder Linda Smith, 73, first got to know Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway when she rented a room from his sister Doris, who was a graduate student in Smith, Washington, D.C., he said Doris said Doris said Doris came home at the annual meeting and soon after Berkshire bought See See Candy's candy and told her she had to buy her stock.
Smith couldn't buy it right away because a stock priced at about $3,400, which was the same as her earnings as a graduate student. But once she graduated from college, she took advice from her friends and started saving to buy some stocks that are now sold for $809,350.
Over the years, Smith estimated that she might have attended about 20 annual meetings – often bringing friends.
“I really like listening to Warren Buffett – especially everything that happened this year,” Smith said.
Buffett has long said he has no retirement plan because he likes to figure out where to invest in Berkshire to too much money. He plans to continue working until he dies or can do nothing. But even though he did use the crutches, he was still in good health and he cut the Q&A of the conference by several hours this year.
“I think that even if he dies, these businesses will retain their value,” Smith said, next to the exhibition hall that surrounds the 200,000-square-foot. “I expect my stock to fall for a while, but good business and good people will come back,” she said.
But Smith and thousands of others will definitely miss the sound of rationality after Buffett left. Buffett has led Berkshire for 60 years.
Buffett said Greg Abel, the vice chairman who has overseen all of Berkshire's non-insurance operations, will take over as CEO when he leaves.
Shareholders such as Steven Check who operates check capital management are not particularly worried about inheritance, because Abel has proven that Berkshire's business is largely operated. Buffett said Abel might even be more hands-on than him and get more managers from Berkshire's company.
“I think we're going to get more hands-on managers, which could be a good thing,” the check said. But he said Abel also knew that those managers enjoy the freedom to run the business and Abel wouldn't do anything to shut them down.
