Howard Graham Buffett

25% of Christian Louboutin, which is what that t-shirt Steve's wearing, is a stake in a thing called Institute Maru, which is known by its subsidiary, sorry, Biomaru, which we have mentioned on this show before, and Lingotto, which is its asset management arm.

So the other big difference to Berkshire Hathaway is that Buffett sort of mostly bought Berkshire's public holdings on the stock market or through private deals, and Exxon mostly didn't.

Ferrari and CNH and Iveco, they're all part of the kind of Fiat part of Stellantis, or All of those came out of the old empire.

The only thing they've really bought on their kind of big side projects is Philips and their kind of big public things.

We should probably check that for next week.

Yeah, I think we put it in in the end, but I can't remember.

But I'm surprised you talked about nepotism there, but you didn't mention Howard Buffett.

No, that's true.

Yeah, I might have lost you.

And then Howard Buffett taking over as chair.

It does really feel like that changing of the guard is almost complete.

Warren Buffett saying, you know, father time is undefeated.

this since the time I was 63.

Of course they have.

Speaking of that, poor Howard Buffett.

He's 71.

There's never a guarantee of success, but if you're born into a family that owns, well, I won't say a multimillion-dollar enterprise of some sort, there's a reasonable chance of becoming part of that enterprise will bring you financial success down the road.

I mean, there's a reason Howard Buffett has just become the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.

If you're born as the daughter or son of a person successful in some field, an athlete or a film star or even a police officer, that might open up some doors for you down the road.

But for people born into what we can call ordinary circumstances, hard work is often the common denominator, usually combined with ambition, a desire to be part of something that you latch onto as your destiny, something to be pursued with determination.

Yeah, so again, this is why I segued right here, because this is exactly the same conversation as we're having right now.

Warren Buffett has now officially given up the chair of Berkshire Hathaway, and he has passed it down to his son, Howard Buffett.

Yep.

So Warren is now gone from the visual.

He, you know, to use one of his quips, he kind of won the, the birth lottery, if you will, with, you know, genetics and being able to stay as sharp as he did for as long.

There's no guarantee that the, the people that he has already hired are going to be as good into their 70s and 80s as he was, and if not, where's the bench in the lieutenants after that? Because if I w- a- and I am a war- a Berkshire Hathaway investor, part of me starts to wonder, like, what happens post-Abel, post-Howard Buffett, 'cause that could really change things pretty quick.

Yeah, and I mean, to be fair, that's the best criticism.

I mean, H- Howard isn't young.

Yeah, I mean, I, I'll, I'll gladly take the other side of that argument.

I don't think B- Berkshire will pay a dividend within the next five years.

And, and when I say that, that assumes that both Greg Abel and Howard Buffett are, are gonna be in their current roles in five years, so that's a big assumption.

Um, you know, Abel has already showed that making investments, paying, or, and, and buying back shares are his priority.