Berkshire Hathaway Suffers Worst Loss Ever

Warren Buffett's Firm Reports $4.99B In 2008 Net Income, A 62% Drop In Profit

(AP)  Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has reported a 62 percent drop in its 2008 net income because investment and derivative losses of nearly $7.5 billion weighed on the results.

Billionaire Buffett details his worst year leading Berkshire in a shareholder letter issued Saturday.

Berkshire reported $4.99 billion net income, or $3,224 per share, in 2008. That's down from $13.21 billion, or $8,548, in 2007.

Buffett says the Omaha-based company's book value - assets minus liabilities - declined 9.6 percent to $70,530 per share in 2008.

Berkshire's book value declined only one other time under Buffett, and that was a 6.2 percent decline in 2001.

Two analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average expected Berkshire to report a 2008 profit of $5,534.50 per share.

Buffett said he made at least one major investing mistake last year by buying a large amount of ConocoPhillips stock when oil and gas prices were near their peak.

Berkshire increased its stake in ConocoPhillips from 17.5 million shares in 2007 to 84.9 million shares at the end of 2008.

Buffett said he did not anticipate last year's dramatic fall in energy prices, so his decision cost Berkshire shareholders several billion dollars.

Buffett said he also spent $244 million on stock in two Irish banks that appeared cheap. But since then, he's had to write down the value of those purchases to $27 million.

Buffett said all kinds of investors finished 2008 bloodied and confused because of the dysfunctional credit market and other financial turmoil, and that the economic environment made many people adopt a creed he used to see on restaurant walls years ago. That creed was: "In God we trust, all others pay cash."

But Buffett remains optimistic about the country's future. He said America has faced bigger economic challenges in the past, including two World Wars and the Great Depression.

Buffett says he's certain "the nation's economy will be in shambles throughout 2009," but that America's best days remain ahead.

[incog-nito]

Berkshire loss in 2008: 9.6%
The stock market in general: around 35%

Sounds like Buffet did a great job to me.

[legacyabq]

aww poor baby warren buffet lost some money awww booo hooo

[850Rick]

I love all of the negativity going around. It leaves such a positive feeling. Some are simply not happy unless they have something to complain about.

[rhs648]

POOR BABIES. ONLY $4.99 BILLION IN INCOME. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE JUST A FRACTION OF THAT. ARE WE SUPPOSE TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIM?
Posted by jeannettelj

That represents a drop in value to the investors and does not reflect Warren Buffett's personal income. Warren Buffett started off like most of us, with little or no money. He has amassed a fortune in his own lifetime. That is more than most of us can claim.

[rhs648]

Look at your wallet and checkbook. Unless you've got gold in your basement and quarters in your pocket, it's all paper.
Posted by engineer1503 at 9:26 AM : Feb 28, 2009 --

Exactly,

I've even closed my savings account,.

I just have a checking account and buy gold as soon as I get paid and spend the rest as fast as I can.
Posted by whitemale08

Have you considered that, like the stock market, the bottom could fall out for gold, too. Over the years, the price of gold has fluctuated. Is there really a safe investment? For those who still have confidence that our economy will rebound, today's stock prices are a real bargain.

[jeannettelj]

POOR BABIES. ONLY $4.99 BILLION IN INCOME. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE JUST A FRACTION OF THAT. ARE WE SUPPOSE TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIM?

[whitemale08]

Look at your wallet and checkbook. Unless you've got gold in your basement and quarters in your pocket, it's all paper.
Posted by engineer1503 at 9:26 AM : Feb 28, 2009 --

Exactly,

I've even closed my savings account,.

I just have a checking account and buy gold as soon as I get paid and spend the rest as fast as I can.

[engineer1503]

I TOLD YOU!
I TOLD YOU!
I TOLD YOU!

I told all of you guys in post dated before Republican President George W. Bush admited to the world that 'our entire economy is in danger', that paper-billionaires like Warren Buffet , George Soros and Bill Gates would start to lose everything.

Why?

Because these clowsn are worth billions in 'PAPER ONLY'!

Posted by whitemale08 at 8:23 AM : Feb 28, 2009


Look at your wallet and checkbook. Unless you've got gold in your basement and quarters in your pocket, it's all paper.

[whitemale08]

one of you and you seem to let him get away with anything he wants as long as he gets you the drugs you crave.
Posted by independenti at 8:35 AM : Feb 28, 2009 --

I agree with everything you just said with one exception.

George Soros in the beginning funded both Barrack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's camapaign, so did Warren Buffet.

Now that President Obama has stacked his cabinet with all Clintonites he has seemed to have double-crossed the Soros crowd.

And one big evidence of that is his appointment of Eric Holder as Attorney General who has just recently cracked down big time on Mexican drug cartels. Eric Holder has a long history of being 'anti-legalization'.

What I fear about President Obama is that his life maybe in danger as he continues to appear as betraying the far-left.

The Democrats have too many 'far left loonies' who make up these extreme environmental groups funded by British idiots who call themselves royalty like Phillip of England who want to use Malthus/Green Wildlife foundations to reduce the human populations.

These British clowns are using the 'environment' as an excuse for the collapse of their global financial empire of worthless derivatives so they can usher in a stone-age non-scientific era of neo-fuedalism and serfdom where a remnant of mankind will bow down in worship and reverence to these so-called royalty of Europe and pay them some stupid 'Life-Subscription' fee.

It's stupid, I know, but that's what these evil clowns envision.

[cbsblogger]

The current crisis was contrived and designed by Allen Greenspan and the Fed Reserve to benefit the elite bankers.

The objective was to first create an asset bubble with ultra low interest rates and easy money and no regulation. Then a rise in interest rates in 2006 set up the bursting to create a deflationary asset era. The wealthy banker oligarchs that are being made whole by taxpayer funded bailouts will then buy out taxpayer (Govt) owned assets on the cheap. You'll see governments at all levels begin to sell assets to these bankers for pennies on the dollar to be able to meet commitments, using dollars that we've just given them. Yellowstone Park, Bay Bridge, PA Turnpike are three strong possibilities for starters. That's how it was done in Russia my friends.