2020 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter [pdf]
While I&#x27;m not of these meme investors who thinks Buffett is &quot;washed up&quot;, I confess that I&#x27;ve increasingly wondered if it&#x27;s just sorta over. In some sense, it&#x27;s not his fault. Berkshire has grown so large that it has significant scale problems. I joke that Buffett found the investing equivalent of the Donkey Kong kill screen, he basically broke the game. It&#x27;s incredible.<p>But there have been self-inflicted issues. The seemingly unconditional refusal to explore technology companies. (While his Apple investment was great, even Buffett would tell you this is a consumer company and not a tech company) The allowing of the two new managers to keep breaking Berkshire&#x27;s rules, such as not investing in IPO&#x27;s, or not investing in airlines. The large write down in PCP. The double-speak about &quot;never bet against America&quot; while remaining paralyzed during the COVID panic. Maybe these things are moot compared to the scale problem.<p>But I think the more disheartening issue is Buffett&#x27;s last 5-6 letters have been forgettable, and today&#x27;s was really just a recap of Berkshire&#x27;s main assets, not offering anything particularly insightful or interesting. I think he&#x27;s still doing an admirable job but Berkshire just isn&#x27;t what it used to be. Everything has a cycle.