1999: Are there any flaws in Alice Schroeder's analysis of Berkshire?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Ben Knoll, and I’m from Minneapolis. Although I’d like to enhance my status by noting that I was born and raised in Lincoln. (Laughter)

WARREN BUFFETT: You just moved up. (Laughter)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Like, many others, I read Alice Schroeder’s analysis of Berkshire Hathaway with great interest this last year. And she described her analysis as a toolkit for investors.

And I’m wondering if you see any substantial flaws in any of her toolkit. And in particular, the float-based valuation model that she put together. What are your views on that?

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I don’t want to comment on valuation.

But I can tell you that Alice is a first-class and serious analyst who spent a lot of time on Berkshire, and probably produced the first comprehensive report, at least that’s been widely circulated, in the history of Berkshire.

It’s kind of interesting that we got to a hundred billion dollars of market value before anybody really published a report about the company, but —

Alice understands the insurance business very well. She’s an accountant, by background. So, she understands numbers. And she did a lot of work on the report. And I do recommend it to you as a toolkit. I make no comment at all about valuation.

Charlie?

CHARLIE MUNGER: Nothing to add.