If the intensity of Mr Buffett’s interventions has risen over time, so has the seriousness with which they are taken. This partly reflects his financial clout. Berkshire Hathaway, his investment vehicle, is worth $363 billion and is the world’s sixth-most-valuable firm. He is at least 20 times richer than Mr Trump. It also reflects Mr Buffett’s popularity: 40,000 people attended Berkshire’s annual meeting in April, compared to 5,000 two decades ago. Since the death of Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple, Mr Buffett has become the lone hero of big business in America. He stands for the promise of a nostalgic, fairer kind of capitalism.
Mr Buffett is a vocal critic of Wall Street, but during the crisis of 2008 he stepped in to support Goldman Sachs. Berkshire was a core shareholder in Moody’s, a credit-rating agency at the heart of the subprime debacle. And the group has a big financial-services business of its own, mostly active in insurance, with $250 billion of assets, as well as 10% of Wells Fargo, America’s largest bank (by market value). This portfolio has escaped being classified as systemically important by national regulators.
Mr Buffett often expresses strong views on how firms are run; he joined 12 other prominent bosses last month to demand better governance. One recommendation was that corporate accounts should follow generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). But Berkshire encourages investors to use its own performance methodology, based on the concept of “intrinsic value”. Mr Buffett’s first wife was on Berkshire’s board until her death in 2004, and his son may become its next chairman.
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