Berkshire Hathaway 1981 Letter to Shareholders

Operating earnings of $39.7 million in 1981 amounted to 15.2% of beginning equity capital (valuing securities at cost) compared to 17.8% in 1980. Our…

In the 1980 annual report we discussed extensively the concept of non-controlled ownership earnings, i.e., Berkshire’s share of the undistributed…

However, our belief is that, in aggregate, those undistributed and, therefore, unrecorded earnings will be translated into tangible value for…

We know that this translation of non-controlled ownership earnings into corresponding realized and unrealized capital gains for Berkshire will be…