2019: Please update us on succession planning.

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: This question comes from a shareholder of yours for more than 20 years, who asked to remain anonymous, but wanted me to start by saying, “Warren and Charlie, I want to preface this question by saying it comes from a place of love for both of you and the beautiful painting you’ve drawn for us in the form of Berkshire.”

WARREN BUFFETT: But. (Laughter)

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: “Now, please update us on succession planning. And as you think about succession, would you ever consider having Greg (Abel) and Ajit (Jain) join you onstage at future annual meetings and allow us to ask questions of them and Ted and Todd, as well, so we can get a better sense of their thinking?”

WARREN BUFFETT: That’s probably a pretty good idea. And we’ve talked about it. (Applause)

We have Greg and Ajit here. And any questions that anybody wants to direct to them, it’s very easy to move them over.

So, we thought about having four of us up here. And this format is not set in stone at all.

Because you — I can tell you that, actually, the truth is, Charlie and I are afraid of looking bad. Those guys are better than we are. (Laughs)

You could not have two better operating managers than Greg and Ajit. I mean, they are — it is just fantastic, what they accomplished.

They know the businesses better. They work harder, by far. And you are absolutely invited to ask questions to be directed over to them at this meeting. I don’t think —

Yeah, this format will not be around forever. And if it’s better to get them up on the stage, we’ll be happy to do it.

Ted (Weschler) and Todd (Combs), they’re basically not going to answer investment questions. We regard investment decisions as proprietary, basically. They belong to Berkshire. And we are not an investment advisory organization. So, that is counter to the interests of Berkshire for them to be talking about securities they own. It’s counter to the interests of Berkshire for Charlie or me to be doing it.

We’ve done better because we don’t publish every day what we’re buying and selling. I mean, if somebody’s working on a new product at Apple, or somebody’s working on a new drug or they’re assembling property or something of the sort, they do not go out and tell everybody in the world exactly what they’re doing every day.

And we’re trying to generate ideas in investment. And we do not believe in telling the world what we’re doing every day, except to the extent that we’re legally required. But it’s a good idea. Charlie?

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, one of the reasons we have trouble with these questions is because Berkshire is so very peculiar. There’s only one thing like it.

We have a different kind of unbureaucratic way of making decisions. There aren’t any people in headquarters. We don’t have endless committees deliberating forever and making bad decisions. We just — we’re radically different. And it’s awkward being so different. But I don’t want to be like everybody else, because this has worked better. So, I think you’re just going to have to endure us. (Laughter and applause)

WARREN BUFFETT: We do think that it’s a huge corporate asset, which may only surface very occasionally and depending very much on how the world is around us. But to be the one place, I think, in the world, almost, where somebody can call on a Saturday morning and meet on Sunday morning and have a $10 billion commitment.

And nobody in the world doubts whether that commitment will be upheld. And it’s not subject to any kind of welching on the part of the company that’s doing it. It’s got nothing involved over than Berkshire’s word. And that’s an asset that, every now and then, will be worth a lot of money to Berkshire. And I don’t really think it will be subject to competition.

So — and Ted and Todd, in particular, are an additional pipeline, and have proven to be an additional pipeline, in terms of facilitating the exercise of that ability. I mean they — things come in through them that, for one reason or another, I might not hear about otherwise.

So, they have expanded our universe. In the markets we’ve had in recent years, that hasn’t been important. I can see periods where they would be enormously valuable. Just take the question that was raised by the fellow from Winnipeg about weak covenants and bonds.

I mean, we could have a situation — who knows when, who knows where, or who knows whether — but we could have a situation where there could be massive defaults in the junk-bond-type market. We’ve had those a couple times. And we made a fair amount of money off of them.

But Ted and Todd would multiply our effectiveness in a big way, if such a period comes along, or some other types of periods come along. They are very, very, very useful to Berkshire.

The call happened to come in on Friday from Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America. And he’s done an incredible job. But we have a better chance of getting more calls and having them properly filtered and everything — appropriately filtered — the next time conditions get chaotic than we did last time. And that’s important.

Charlie?

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, I do think it’s true that if the world goes to hell in a hand basket, that you people will be in the right company. We’ve got a lot of cash and we know how to behave well in a panic. And if the world doesn’t go to hell, are things so bad now?